§ MR. MARKHAM (Nottinghamshire, Mansfield)To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will undertake to insert a clause in the proposed Chinese Ordinance to enable any Chinese labourer to refuse, if he so wishes, being transferred to a mine where the conditions of mining are distasteful to him; whether he is aware that the temperature of the deep level mines is very high; and whether, seeing that mechanical ventilation has not been generally adopted at these mines, he will so regulate the Ordinance as to prevent a Chinese labourer working in these mines unless he consents to do so, as also in mines where the workings are wet or in any other way distasteful to the labourer.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) The answer is in the negative. The provision for the consent of the labourer to transfer can be better made by regulation than by amendment of the Ordinance, and the regulation will provide that the Lieutenant-Governor shall not sanction any transfer except on the production of a certificate signed by the Government Superintendent that the agreement as to transfer has been explained to the labourer and that he consents thereto and has signed the same. The labourer will then have the opportunity of declining to be transferred to an employer whose service; is distasteful to him.