§ MR. LOUGHTo ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, seeing that the burden cast upon the importers of returning the Chinese immigrants to their country at the termination of their contracts will diminish as the rate of mortality increases among the Chinese, and that in other Colonial Immigration Ordinances there are provisions prohibiting the further employment of imported labourers by those employers in whose service the rate of mortality amongst their labourers is high, a similar provision can be made in the Transvaal Ordinance.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) The hon. Member's suggestion shall be considered.
§ MR. HERBERT SAMUEL (Yorkshire, Cleveland)To ask the Secretary of 828 State for the Colonies whether Lord Milner has advised that the provisions of the Transvaal Labour Importation Ordinance should be extended so as to apply to Asiatics now resident in the Transvaal; if so, whether Lord Milner has advised that the whole or that certain portions of the Ordinance should be so extended; and whether he will present to the House at an early date any correspondence that has passed on this subject.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) No, Sir, my statement in the House on Thursday was due to a misapprehension of the terms of a telegram which, as I said, was somewhat obscure in its terms. I only had the opportunity of examining it cursorily just before I spoke.