§ SIR BRAMPTON GURDON (Norfolk, N.)To ask the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether a labour agent from the Rand is now engaged in recruiting five thousand natives in British Central Africa for employment in the mines of the Transvaal; and whether he has any official information showing that labour is much needed in British Central Africa for 489 railway works and for the new industry of cotton cultivation.
(Answered by Earl Perry.) Mr. Knipe, a member of the British Central Africa Administration, now acting on behalf of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, was due in the Protectorate about the middle of February, with authority to recruit up to 5,000 labourers. The arrival in the Transvaal of these recruits will be postponed till August. Our information in regard to the supply of labour for local requirements is contained in my reply to the hon. Member for Liverpool on the 25th ultimo.†