§ MR. LABOUCHERET beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of Despatch 21, of 21st February, from Viscount Milner to the Colonial Secretary, published in a Blue-book just presented to Parliament, and to the statement in paragraph 4 of said Despatch that if the consent of the Chinese labourer to a transfer of his services were insisted on this might make the Ordinance in regard to the introduction of Chinese labour into the Transvaal of little value, coupled with the fact that the draft Ordinance received 27th February and published in the same Blue-book contains no obligation to obtain this assent from the labourer, and also, in view of Despatch 23, of 23rd February, from the Colonial Secretary to Viscount Milner, in which he states that His Majesty's Government has undertaken to secure that transfer from one employer to another shall be with the consent of the labourer, any reply from Viscount Milner has been received to this intimation; and if the assent of His Majesty's Government will not be given to the Ordinance until it has been altered in this respect, or, if not, how is the pledge given by His Majesty's Government to be carried out.
§ *MR LYTTELTONThough the matter was not wholly free from doubt I do not read the Despatch of Lord Milner referred to in the sense which the hon. Member has placed on it. I understand Lord Milner to mean that the contract should be made in China between the labourer and the Labour Association of the Witwatersrand; and that the Association should apportion the labourers to the several mines on their arrival in the Transvaal. I think that subsequent allocations into which no element of pecuniary consideration was to be permitted to enter would have been adequately safeguarded by the statutory supervision of the Lieutenant-Governor, a precaution which reflects the recent precedents in Colonial Ordinances dealing with coolie immigration which have been sanctioned by both Parties of the State. But to make quite certain I gave the definite pledge referred to; Lord 300 Milner has fully responded to it, and it will be embodied in the regulations before assent is given to the Ordinance.
§ MR. LABOUCHEREWill Lord Milner's Despatch be laid on the Table.
§ *MR. LYTTELTONI think not.