§ MR. ERRINGTONasked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether it is true that the Government of India has lately felt itself obliged to prohibit the exportation of Coolies from India to the French colony of Guiana; and, whether there would be any objection to lay upon the Table Copies of any representations or correspondence which may have passed on the subject?
§ LORD GEORGE HAMILTONSir, the Government of India did in September, 1876, intimate to the Secretary of State their decision to withhold their assent to the resumption of emigration from India to Cayenne, until the improvement of arrangement should have materially reduced the sickness and mortality among coolies settled in the colony, their desire being that steps should be first taken by the French Government to prevent the great amount of needless exportation of those coolies. The French Government, however, recently addressed Her Majesty's Government on the subject; and the matter being at this moment under consideration, it would not at the present moment be thought expedient to lay before Parliament the correspondence that has passed regarding it.