§ MR. LABOUCHERETO ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state what is the nature of the provision for the religious observances of the Chinese imported into the Transvaal which will be secured to them; whether the inquiry that is to be made by a British Officer in China, before he certifies that the contract between the Chinese labourer and the importer has been made voluntarily and with full knowledge of its terms by the labourer, will include an inquiry into whether he has been induced to make it, either by the pressure of some secret society or by the local authorities who wish to get rid of him as an idle or criminal person; and whether the wives and children, who may come with the Chinese labourers to the Transvaal, will be subjected to the same restrictions as to their place of residence as the labourers, and as to the obligation not to engage in any manual labour except mining, and not to trade.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttlelton.) Lord Milner will, no doubt, avail himself of the advice of Mr. Evans, the Protector of Chinese of the Straits Settlements, whose services have been placed at his disposal, in dealing with the arrangements to be made for the religious observances of the Chinese, but I am not at present in a position to state what those arrangements will be. Special care will be taken to secure the contract being made voluntarily and to prevent the engagement of undesirable labourers. The Lieutenant-Governor will make suitable regulations; precisely the same restrictions cannot, of course, be applied to the women and children as to the labourers.