§ SIR BERKELEY SHEFFIELD (Lincolnshire, Brigg)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any Return of the numbers of women and girls under age who are to be employed under the New Hebrides Convention will be issued.
§ MR. CHURCHILLIt is impossible to give any estimate of the number of females, if any, who will be employed under the labour clauses of the New Hebrides Convention, and I may add that it would be impossible in many cases to ascertain whether or not they are under the age of twenty-one. It is to be presumed, however, that the number of females employed will at least be considerably smaller when the Convention comes into operation than at present. There are now, and have hitherto been, no restrictions whatever on the employment of women and children by British subjects in the New Hebrides.