§ CAPTAIN SINCLAIR (Forfar)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether he is aware that the Governments of Trinidad and British Guiana bear part of the costs of supplying cheap labour to the sugar planters in these Colonies; and whether this virtual bounty on the production of sugar will bring Trinidad and Demerara within the scope of the new Indian countervailing duties?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Lord GEORGE HAMILTON,) Middlesex, EalingThe part cost of repatriation borne by West Indian Colonies is not a bounty, and does not Cheapen the cost of labour below its natural level. The Indian Government impose, for humanitarian purposes, a liability on the Colonies to provide at the close of the contract, means for the return of the coolie to India, if he wishes to go back to his native land; and the Colonial Government bear a portion of this artificial enhancement of the cost of providing labour.