HC Deb 05 March 1906 vol 153 c82
MR. CATHCART WASON (Orkney and Shetland)

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India if the Indian Government refused to consider a proposal for the introduction of Indian miners into Rhodesia, giving as one of its reasons that it did not feel certain that they would be properly treated there; and if the Indian Government refused to allow Indian subjects of the King to enter into engagements to work in the Transvaal mines under the conditions of the Chinese Labour Ordinance.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. JOHN MORLEY,) Montrose Burghs

The objection of the Government of India to allowing labourers to be recruited in India for labour (not specially labour in mines) in Rhodesia turned not upon the terms of the contract for coolie labour, but more generally upon the disabilities under which other British Indian subjects laboured, and in particular upon the imposition of a literary test on immigrants, excluding those acquainted only with an Asiatic language. As regards the second paragraph of the Question, I beg to refer my hon. friend to the Answer given by me on the 28th February.†

MR. SCHWANN (Manchester, N.)

Is it not the fact that two years ago the then Secretary of State for the Colonies stated that the application of the provisions of the Ordinance with regard to Chinese labour to British Indian subjects would probably be objected to?

MR. JOHN MORLEY

asked for notice of the Question.