§ MR. GUINNESS (Bury St. Edmunds)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will state what number of the natives now employed in the Transvaal mines are British subjects, and what number have come from Portuguese territory.
§ MR. CHURCHILLThe detailed territorial analyses are no longer supplied to the Colonial Office since the establishment of responsible Government, but the number of Portuguese natives would probably be not less than half. This appears to be borne out by the statement that of the total number of natives recruited during 1907, according to the Report of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association, 47,656 out of 117,991 were Portuguese natives from the East Coast, and the increase in native labour during the year is largely attributed to the fact that an unusual proportion of East Coast natives have renewed their contracts.
§ MR. GUINNESSI beg to ask whether, in view of the objection so freely taken by hon. Members opposite to the importation of indentured labour on the Rand on the ground that it is likely to displace or restrict the employment of British subjects, His Majesty's Government propose to take any steps to repatriate, or, at all events, to prevent further recruiting of this Portuguese labour, which, from that point of view, is objectionable.
§ * MR. SPEAKERThe Question is not supplementary, but argumentative.