HC Deb 14 October 1908 vol 194 cc301-2
MR. STAVELEY-HILL

I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the French Government have prohibited the recruiting of women and children for service in New Caledonia.

THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY TO THE TREASURY (Mr. J. A. PEASE,) Essex, Saffron Walden

The instructions issued by the French Government in 1907 to the French High Commissioner in the New Hebrides with regard to the question of native labour, contained the provision that in all recruiting licences issued, a clause should be inserted forbidding women and children to be taken out of the group, with the exception of those who might accompany the head of their family. My right hon. friend would call the attention of the hon. Member to the above mentioned instructions, as quoted in the New Hebrides Blue-book, containing the notes exchanged between the United Kingdom and France on the 29th August, 1907, (Cd. 3876, Treaty Series No. 3, 1908.)