§ SIR J. JARDINE (Roxburghshire)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make inquiry as to the approximate number of Chinese coolies in the gold mines of the Transvaal who have been illegally flogged, under the sanction given by Lord Milner when High Commissioner; whether that sanction conferred a licence to flog on certain specified mine managers only, or on mine managers generally; and whether he can state the manner in which the terms of the sanction were communicated to the mine managers.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI am making inquiry as to the numbers involved. Lord Selborne informed Mr. Lyttelton in November last that he found it extremely difficult to ascertain when and to whom sanction for slight corporal punishment was given by Mr. Evans; that it appeared that sanction was verbally given to Major Bagot of the Labour Importation Agency and certain other individuals, but that there were no written records in the Chamber of Mines Labour Importation Agency or Foreign Labour Department; that the first authority seems to have been given in respect to a quarrel by coolies at Geduld Mine in August or September, 1904, and from time to time to certain individuals but always verbally.