HC Deb 30 July 1883 vol 282 cc946-7
MR. ARTHUR PEASE

asked the Under Secretary of State for India, Whether Her Majesty's Government possess any means for rescuing Indian Coolies now in Réunion from the oppression and ill-treatment to which they are subjected; and, whether any British Consul is now in that Island?

MR. J. K. CROSS

Sir, the Convention of June 1, 1861, with the French Government, under which emigration from India to Réunion was conducted, is still in force as regards Indian Coolies in that Colony who have not renounced their right to a return passage to India. And the English Government has the same means now which it has always had of interfering for the protection of the Coolies if ill-treated. There is, at the present time, an acting Consul at Réunion.