§ SIR BERKELEY SHEFFIELD (Lincolnshire, Brigg)I beg to ask the Undersecretary of State for the Colonies what proportion of coloured Native labour is at present living in compounds in South Africa.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI am not able to calculate the proportion, but most of the natives employed on the Witwatersrand Mines live in compounds. Only the Chinese live in them under the special restrictions of the Chinese Labour Importation Ordinance.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend)Does the right hon. Gentleman say that the Malagasy and the natives are to be recruited under the same conditions?
§ MR. CHURCHILLsaid the views of the Government had often been put forward, and they had always been directed to the conditions under which the Chinese were employed.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKERBut will the Government establish the same conditions for the natives as for the Chinese?
§ MR. CHURCHILLI do not shrink from debate on the subject, but debate cannot be conducted by Question and Answer.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKERsaid he would take an opportunity to call attention to the subject.
§ LORD R. CECIL (Marylebone, E.)Will the labourers imported from Madagascar also live in compounds?
§ MR. CHURCHILLNo proposal has yet been made in a definite form for sanctioning the importation of labourers from Madagascar, but the proposal that has been made is that they should be recruited on exactly the same terms as the natives of the South African Colonies.
§ LORD R. CECILBut will they live in compounds?
§ MR. CHURCHILLsaid that, so far as his knowledge went, all the natives lived in residences called compounds, but the question was as to the restrictions under which they lived.
§ SIR JOHN RANDLES (Cumberland, Cockermouth)Is there any difference between compounds in which the Chinese reside and those in which the natives reside?
§ COLONEL SEELY (Liverpool, Abercromby)Is it not a fact that the Chinese live under special restrictions of a very stringent nature, whereas all the natives live under the ordinary law?
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe controversy is very familiar to the House, and, so far as the Colonial Office is concerned, we welcome debate.
§ * MR. R. DUNCAN (Lanarkshire, Govan)Is this application of the term "compound" another instance of terminological inexactitude?
§ [No Answer was returned.]
§ MR. FELL (Great Yarmouth)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if his attention has been called to the fact that the repatriation of the Chinese from the Transvaal mines is causing a large increase in the total number of the yellow and black workmen employed in the mines, and to the fact that the death rate among the blacks in the compounds is much higher than among the Chinese in the compounds; and if, under the circumstances, the Government will communicate with the Transvaal Government with a view to allowing the Chinese to remain, and so save the heavy loss of life that follows from their replacement by larger numbers of black natives.
§ MR. CHURCHILLMy attention has constantly been called to all sorts of matters connected with the mining industry upon the Witwatersrand; but I see no reason for making the communication to the Transvaal Government which the hon. Member suggests.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThat is a conundrum which I cannot answer without notice.
§ MR. CHURCHILLagain asked for notice.