SIR MANCHERJEE BHOWNAG-GREE (Bethnal Green, N.E.)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will state how many labourers from India have been employed on the construction of the Uganda Railway; whether he is aware that a number of them are natives of Kattywar, Gujurat, and other districts seriously affected by the famines of recent years; if it is intended to offer them any encouragement to settle permanently in the territory of the East African Protectorate; and if so, will he state what special facilities and help it is proposed to give them for that purpose.
§ * LORDCRANBORNE35,700 labourers from India have been employed on the construction of the Uganda Railway of whom all have been Punjabees with the exception of 350 who came from the Kattywar and Gujurat districts. It is proposed as an experiment to select from these labourers a few not exceeding 100 in number, and as an inducement to them to settle with their families in East Africa, to offer them special facilities for obtaining cattle, provisions for the first year, seeds, etc., together with travelling expenses from India. The actual conditions are not finally fixed, but the outlay is in the first instance to be limited to £1,000.