HC Deb 13 December 1911 vol 32 cc2347-8
Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that the opening of the Civil Service in India to all British subjects, irrespective of race and creed, is regarded by the India Office as having had satisfactory results; and whether he can now state in what respect the peculiar racial conditions in Hong Kong, Singapore, and the Federated Malay States, which have induced him to exclude from the Civil and Police services of these Colonies all British subjects who are not of pure European descent on both sides, differ from those of India?

The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Harcourt)

I have explained to my hon. Friend, in answer to a previous question, the reasons for the restriction to which he refers, I am not prepared to admit that the experience of India has any direct bearing on the position in Hong Kong and the Malay Peninsula, since the racial conditions are quite different.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

May I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman is aware that his colleague the Member for Ilkeston (Colonel Seely), when Under-Secretary of State, in reply to a question on 25th June, 1908, said, "I believe——

Mr. SPEAKER

The hon. Member must surely give notice of that question. He cannot ask a Minister to remember all the answers given in this House.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

May I ask whether the view of the Colonial Office three years ago, as expressed by the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, was that they believed——

Mr. SPEAKER

The hon. Member is doing the very thing I asked him not to do. It is impossible for the Minister to remember answers which were given by the Under-Secretary for the Colonies three years ago when he himself was not at the Office.

Mr. MacCALLUM SCOTT

I do not propose to ask whether the Under-Secretary for the Colonies did give this answer or not, but I propose to ask whether the policy of which surely the right hon. Gentleman is aware is still in force—may I ask that question?

Mr. SPEAKER

I think the hon. Member ought to give notice of such an important question as that.