264. 



EAST AFRICA. 



Totes of Censnre mored. On March 6, 

 Mr. Laurier, leader of the Opposition, on motion 

 to go into Committee of Supply, moved in amend- 

 ment to substitute the following : 



That the measure introduced last session by the 

 Government for the construction of a railway between 

 Harvey and Salisbury was rejected by Parliament; 

 and after the said measure had been so rejected the 

 Hon. Mr. Abbott stated in the Senate, speaking in 

 behalf of the Government, that no expenditure of any 

 kind would be made on the road until it was sanctioned 

 by Parliament ; that since last session the Government 

 have expended for surveys on the said projected rail- 

 way a total sum of $22,322.28, in connection with which 

 special warrants have been issued to the amount of 

 $13,782.28; that the expenditure of the said sums of 



money unaer the above circumstances is a willful 

 breach of the pledge given by the Administration to 

 Parliament, as above set forth, and constitutes a de- 

 signed violation, by the said Administration, of the 

 undoubted powers of Parliament, and deserves the 

 severe censure of this House. 



The motion was rejected by a vote of 98 to 61. 



On March 14, Mr. Laurier moved another 

 amendment as follows : 



The failure of the Government to bring down the 

 budget, several departmental reports, all the important 

 measures announced in the speech of His Excellency 

 at the opening of the session, and to discharge the 

 duties which they owe to Parliament, is highly preju- 

 dicial to public interests. 



This motion was rejected by a vote of 95 to 57. 



E 



EAST AFRICA. By treaty arrangements 

 concluded in 1890 the entire coast of Africa not 

 already occupied was divided among European 

 powers, and the Hinterland principle was defined 

 and applied, in accordance with which the in- 

 terior of the continent is apportioned among the 

 colonizing countries possessing the coast line. 

 On the eastern side the British endeavored to se- 

 cure a large belt of territory extending through 

 the length of the continent from Cape Colony to 

 Egypt, traversing both the Portuguese and the 

 German Hinterland, and embracing the most 

 elevated and salubrious parts of Africa and the 

 best mineral, forest, and agricultural regions. 

 This scheme, in so far as it interferes with the 

 German sphere, has been abandoned, but the 

 region claimed by Portugal the British Govern- 

 ment insists on absorbing. 



Portuguese Possessions. The Portuguese 

 claim, not only to the east and west shores of 

 Africa, but to the intervening country, by right 

 of discovery, was incontestable until the new 

 principle of effective occupation was laid down 

 in the general act of the Berlin Conference. In 

 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the in- 

 fluence of the Portuguese was extended to the 

 center of the continent by explorers, mission- 

 aries, and traders. While they still possessed 

 India their establishments on the coast of Mozam- 

 bique were important. In their desire to develop 

 Brazil they retired gradually from the settle- 

 ments they had founded in the interior ; yet so 

 long as the slave trade with Brazil lasted they 

 maintained military posts on the upper Zam- 

 besi and trading-stations throughout the whole 

 region. By the treaty of Jan. 22, 1815, and the 

 Anglo-Portuguese convention of 1817, traffic in 

 slimes was permitted in the Portuguese posses- 

 >i<ns, those on the east coast being denned as 

 tiding from Cape Delgado to the Bay of 

 Lourenco Marques. The immediate jurisdiction 

 of the Portuguese authorities in recent times has 

 been confined to the coast settlements, which are 

 protected by a force of Landins or Caffre troops. 

 On the Zambesi and in other parts of the interior 

 there has been a loose official organization, the 

 sovereign power being represented by native 

 chiefs and half-breeds, who receive their titles 

 from the Government, and maintain their au- 

 thority by their own strength. 



Nyassaland. In 1874 Scottish missionaries, 

 by permission of the Portuguese Government, 

 established themselves on the shores of Lake 

 Nyassa, which was discovered by David Living- 

 stone. In the course of time the African Lakes 

 Company was organized in connection with the 

 missions, which competed for the trade of the 

 country with the Arabs. The British Govern- 

 ment interested itself to secure favorable com- 

 mercial conditions for the settlement, which can 

 only be reached by the Zambesi and Shire route. 

 In 1877 the Portuguese Government agreed to 

 charge only a transit duty of 3 per cent, ad 

 valorem, and arranged limits within which the 

 British settlers were allowed to exercise autono- 

 mous jurisdiction. At the Berlin Conference in 

 1885 the British representatives endeavored to 

 have the free-trade zone extended to the Portu- 

 guese possessions and the Zambesi declared an 

 international river like the Congo. As late as 

 May, 1889, the British ministry declared, in an- 

 swer to inquiries in Parliament, that the country 

 was not British territory or under the protection 

 of the British Government. A proclamation of 

 a British protectorate was made on Sept. 21, 

 1889, by the acting consul at Lake Nyassa over 

 the region comprised within the boundaries be- 

 ginning on the left bank of the lower Shire 

 river at its confluence with the liuo river, and 

 following the Ruo to its source in the Milanje 

 mountains, thence by this range to the southern- 

 most point of Lake Shirwa, and northward along 

 its eastern shores, including the northern slopes 

 of the Zomba and Malosa mountains, to the up- 

 per Shire river, beginning at the lowermost point 

 of the Makololo country , and following the Shire 

 at a distance of 50 miles inland from the river 

 till it meets the Lisungwie river. 



Controversy between Portugal and Eng- 

 land. France and Germany made treaties with 

 Portugal acknowledging its rights to the Zam- 

 besi and the zone across Africa, which the Portu- 

 guese had sought to keep alive as soon as Kuro- 

 pean nations began striving for territori;il ac- 

 quisitions in Africa by sending out expeditions, 

 like those of Capello and Ivens and Serpa Pinto. 

 When an official map was published in which 

 the Zambesi basin was marked as Portuguese 

 territory, the English Cabinet protested that it 

 would recognize no rights based on historical 



