MR. STANLEY WILSON (Yorkshire, E.R., Holderness)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies if he can state whether, in the event of any further importation of native labourers from Mozambique for work in the South African mines taking place, the labourers imported will be housed and fed on the higher scale of the Chinese labourers, or on the lower scale of the native labourers.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThey will not be subject to the objectionable provisions of the Chinese Ordinance, but will no doubt be treated like their fe.lows, many thousands of whom have worked on the mines. As the Chinese leave the country the new compounds which were built for them under such severe Parliamentary supervision will no doubt become available for native labourers.
§ MR. CHURCHILLsaid he did not understand that they were compulsorily repatriated now.
§ MR. GOULDING (Worcester)asked whether these natives were, in the time when they were not employed, permitted to go in and out of the compounds freely?
§ MR. CHURCHILLreplied in the affirmative. The case as regarded the natives of Portuguese Africa was that the Portuguese Government were very anxious to have them back after their indenture, because they had their wives and families still in Portuguese territory, but they were not repatriated because there was any objection to them on the part of the population of the Transvaal.
§ MR. GOULDINGrepeated his Question.—were these natives, while they were not employed, allowed to go in and out of the compounds as free men?
§ MR. CHURCHILLCertainly. They have all the freedom which ordinary natives have.
§ SIR GILBERT PARKER (Gravesend)asked whether, in view of the fact that the agreement was that the natives should be repatriated, the Government would take the same interest in their repatriation as was taken in the repatriation of the Chinese?
§ [No Answer was returned.]