HC Deb 20 March 1906 vol 154 c215
DR. MACNAMARA

I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been called to the letter from the Chinese Legation, dated February 11th, 1904, pages 3 and 4, Cd. 1945, in which the Chinese Government insists that it shall not be legal to inflict corporal punishment upon Chinese coolies working under the Labour Ordinance in the Transvaal mines; whether his attention has been called to the assurance of the Colonial Office, dated February 15th, 1904, page 5, Cd. 1945, that this requirement shall be respected; whether it is now admitted that under Lord Milner's sanction this undertaking was violated; and, if so, what communication, if any, he proposes to make to the Chinese Government respecting the matter.

SIR EDWARD GREY

The Chinese asked that a special regulation should be made to prevent corporal punishment of the immigrant by the employer or his servant. This was considered to be sufficiently provided for by the fact that any labourers imported would be amen able to the law of the land, under which no corporal punishment could be inflicted except after trial and sentence by a magistrate or judge, and a special regulation was therefore held to be unnecessary. The extent to which this undertaking was infringed has now been publicly explained and admitted. The Chinese Government have made no communication on the subject; should they do so, His Majesty's Government will be prepared to give them a full statement of what has occurred and to repeat the assurance that nothing of the kind shall be repeated.