An explanation of the reported German proclamation allowing the sale
of slaves in East Africa has at length been published in Berlin. It appears to have been drawn up by Arabs under German authority, and transmitted by an influential Arab to the Imperial Commissary as a draft which they wished to be accepted. He laid it aside in his office, but a copy was transmitted to the English Consul-General in Zanzibar, and was in some way communicated to the corre- spondent of the Times as having been signed and issued. It had never been issued officially, but had been, we should imagine, shown to Arabs as a document the Commissary was discussing. Dr. Schmidt, in relating the facts, asked the English Consul-General to reveal the names of his informants, in order that they might be prosecuted; but this Colonel Euan- Smith declined to do. The story does not hang together very well, and something is evidently kept back ; but it is sufficient that the Germans on the spot repudiate any intention of re- viving the slave-trade, and are confirmed in their final resolve by the Imperial Government.
