MR. GIBSON BOWLES (Lynn Regis)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies what proportion of the charges for importing Indian coolies, their repatriation, their medical service, the Immigration Department in the colony and in Calcutta, and pensions accruing to officers of the Immigration Department and medical service is now borne by the Government of British Guiana or by the taxpayers of the colony, and what is the estimated total amount of such charges for the financial year 1902–3; and have the laws, orders, and regulations now existent in British Guiana and statistical information with reference to coolie immigration been communicated in accordance with Article 7 of the Sugar Convention to the Belgian Government to be forwarded to the Permanent Commission, in order that the Commission may pronounce as to the existence in this Crown Colony of a direct or indirect bounty on the production or exportation of sugar; if so, have the Commission yet pronounced whether the system pursued amounts to the granting of a direct or indirect bounty.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Chamberlain.) Under a new arrangement recently adopted, and which was not in force in 1902–3, the sources of the expense or liability incurred in respect of coolie immigration in British Guiana are the following:—1. The expenditure on recruiters in India, paid by fees and recovered in full from the employers. 2. The cost of supervision of the Department in India by a colonial officer, salary paid by the Government of British Guiana and not recovered from the employers of labour. The Colonial Government conceives it to be necessary to secure the complete independence of this important officer by 56 making him an officer of its permanent establishment, and paying him from its own funds. 3. Medical inspection of immigrants charged to employers of labour in full. 4. Supervising Department of the Government of India, salaries paid by the Government of India and recouped by fees charged on the embarkation of immigrants. These fees are paid by the employers of labour. 5. Cost of transporting immigrants by sea to British Guiana, and medical supervision on the voyage. Paid by employers of labour. 6. Cost of repatriation, the same, except where a portion is paid by the labourers themselves. 7. Cost of supervision of immigrants (by Immigration Department) to secure that the law enacted for their protection is fully carried out, and the terms of their agreement fulfilled. Borne by the Colonial Revenue and not recovered from the employers of labour. The Government assumes this charge for the following reasons. It feels that it is the duty of Government to secure the due fulfiment of the law at its own cost. It considers that the independence of the supervising Department is better secured if the charge falls on the general revenue than if it falls, even ultimately and remotely, on the party of whose action it is to be the judge. It is aware that, as already indicated, no small portion of the Department's duties is concerned with persons who, though of Asiatic extraction, are not immigrants under indenture, and frequently not immigrants at all (the indentured are to the free as 15,000 to 115,000, of whom a large percentage is native born). An addition to the number of its in habitants is necessary to the progress and prosperity of the colony, which had within an area of 90,000 square miles a population of not more than 300,000 persons. Its aboriginal population is slowly dwindling, its Creole negro population is constitute the only class which shows signs of naturally increasing its numbers, and is able to develop the agricultural wealth of the country. In these circumstances the Government considers that the maintenance at its own cost of a Department which safeguards by its supervision and direction the interests of the immigrants on their first arrival, and enables them to establish themselves 57 as healthy and successful colonists is a fair charge on the general revenue of the State. 8. Gratuitous medical aid by Government medical officers to the indentured immigrant. The Medical Department of the Government being for the benefit of all inhabitants, a charge is ordinarily made for the services of Government medical officers to persons who can afford to pay, but their services are rendered free to paupers and those unable to pay, and it is felt may on like terms be rendered to the indentured immigrants. It must be remembered that special charges, such as estate hospitals and their maintenance, are provided by the employers. The maintenance in health during the period of acclimatisation of the immigrant population is likewise an important aid to colonisation. The total estimated charges on account of the Immigration Department and of the Colonial Medical Service amount approximately to $106,000 for the current year 1903–4, excluding pension charges which are not provided for separately but are in any case inconsiderable. It will be seen from the above that no question of a bounty can possibly arise in connection with coolie immigration into British Guiana, and there has accordingly been no occasion to communicate the laws and regulations on the subject to the Brussels Commission.