§ MR. NANNETTI (Dublin, College Green)I beg to ask the Postmaster General, as representing the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether his attention has been directed to the fact that His Majesty's Governments negotiating contracts for the conveyance of stores to South Africa by vessels owned by companies that are. paying wages below the standard rate for sailors and firemen; and whether, in view of the Fair Wages Resolution of this House, and of the fact that numbers of British seamen who rendered service during the recent war in South Africa are unable to obtain employment on British ships, he can take any steps to secure that such men should receive employment in preference to foreigners.
§ MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAINIf the hon. Member refers to shipments by His Majesty's Government this Question should be addressed to the Parliamentary Secretary of the Admiralty; but if he alludes, as I presume be does, to the shipment of stores for the Governments of the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony and for the Central South African Railways, I would point out that any contracts which the Crown agents for the colonies might take for these purposes would not come within the scope of the Resolution of this House to which he refers, and I regret that it is not possible, in the arrangements to which the hon. Member refers, to secure the objects which he has in view.