"On 15 August 1881, The Times noted Dr. Kinnear’s signature amongst those of eighty MPs appended to a memorial of 10th August sent to Gladstone, then First Lord of the Treasury, by Mr L.L. Dillwyn, MP, urging that ‘the captured Zulu chieftain Cetshwayo, be released from his prison in the Cape Colony and, unless ‘paramount considerations of policy’ precluded it, that he be returned to Zululand. Cetshwayo had been king of the Zulu nation since 1872 but was deposed by a rival chief in the wake of his victory over the British at Isandlwana in July 1879.
Mr Dillwyn reasoned that ‘retaining in captivity prisoners of war after the restoration of peace is generally held to be inconsistent with justice and the usages of civilized nations’.
In Gladstone’s reply of August 12th, he explained that he had instructed Lord Kimberley, at the Cape, and Sir Hercules Robinson, ‘to consider whether a much greater amount of personal liberty might not be given to Cetywayo, provided that he will not make use of it to return to Zululand’. As it happens, the Zulu king made his way to London where he remained until 1883."
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