HC Deb 08 March 1866 vol 181 cc1707-8
MR. BAILLIE COCHRANE

said, he would beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade, Whether any inquiry has been instituted into the terrible loss of life in the Coolie emigration ships in those voyages which are called by seamen the voyages of death; whether he is aware that during the last year 10 per cent of the Coolies who were embarked in those ships were drowned; and, whether, more particularly, any inquiry has been instituted into the loss of the Eagle Speed off Haliday Island in August last under most disastrous circumstances?

MR. MILNER GIBSON

Sir, the health of Coolie emigrants on the voyage from India to the Mauritius and the West Indies has been a constant subject of anxiety to the Indian and the Home Governments. From 1856 to 1859 the mortality was very large, and greater precautions were taken by the Indian Government, and the mortality decreased till within the last two years. In those two years the mortality has again increased; the cause of the deaths was a typhoid fever, but what the cause of this fever was has not, in spite of repeated inquiries, been distinctly ascertained. The Indian Government are, however, making further inquiries with the view of taking every precaution. In the wreck of the Eagle Speed, near Calcutta, 262 lives were lost. In the Fusileer, wrecked off Natal, twenty-six lives were lost. In the Sandringham, wrecked at Mauritius, nineteen were drowned. Nothing like 10 per cent of the Coolies embarked have been drowned. An inquiry has been held under the authority of the Indian Government into the loss of the Eagle Speed. The papers have just been received at the Board of Trade and shall be laid upon the table.

MR. BAILLIE COCHRANE

Is the President of the Board of Trade aware that six or seven coolie emigration ships have been lost, and that 1,200 lives were thus sacrificed?

MR. MILNER GIBSON

I cannot state the exact number of vessels that were lost, but it is an over-statement to say that 10 per cent of the coolies embarked in the emigrant ships were drowned.

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