§ MR. SMEATONI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether he is aware that grave charges have been made against the Resident Commissioner in the Gilbert group of islands in the Western Pacific, notably in compelling the natives to labour without wages on public works and on the phosphate concession held by a private company, of which Lord Stanmore is chairman, in inflicting flogging for disobedience or dilatoriness, in collecting taxes from the natives in copra or cocoanut kernel, which is their staple food, notwithstanding that the phosphate company are said to be making from £80,000 to £100,000 a year clear profit from the guano which the natives collect for them; that these and other statements are sworn to by a late resident in the Gilbert Islands, and confirmed by missionaries and by three influential natives, who have presented a petition of complaint since the submission of his Report by Sir J. M. Thurm, the High Commission, in 1906; and whether, in view of these allegations, the Secretary of State for the Colonies will cause an independent inquiry to be made on the spot by some person or persons unconnected with the administration of the Western Pacific Islands.
§ COLONEL SEELYCertain charges of of the nature indicated by my honourable friend have been made by a former official of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate, but the Secretary of State has not at present received any confirmation of these charges by missionaries and natives of the Protectorate. The High Commissioner will be asked to send home any petition which he may have received from the Natives on the subject, and the Secretary of State also hopes to have the opportunity of conferring with him personally when he comes home in the autumn.