§ 17. Major CRAWFURDasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that the Committee appointed in Kenya to consider the overcrowded state of the prisons recommended that natives convicted under the Masters and Servants Ordinance should be separated from the rest of the prisoners; that in the proposed Bill for the creation of detention camps the proposal of the prison commissioners has been extended so as to apply to convictions under 30 separate Ordinances: and that the convictions under the Masters and Servants Ordinance alone in 1922 exceeded 2,000; and if he has been able to form any estimate of the number of prisoners who will be concentrated in the camps under the Schedule of the 30 Ordinances attached to the Bill?
§ Mr. AMERYThe answer to the first three parts of the question is in the affirmative, but the Native Punishments Commission did not confine their recommendations to the case of offences under the Masters and Servants Ordinance. With regard to the last part, the Commission advised that for technical offences fines should ordinarily be imposed, and they pointed out that, even at the time of the report, imprisonment was not ordered in all these cases. As an illustration, I may mention that, whereas they quoted figures of 2,187 for punishments in 1922 under the Masters and Servants Ordinance, and 2,216 for punishments in the same year under the Native Hut and Poli 1935 Tax Ordinances, the commitments to prison under these Ordinances in 1924 were 692 and 772 respectively. The total number of commitments to prison for all technical offences in 1924 appears to have been in the neighbourhood of 4,200, and it may be taken that under the new Ordinance approximately this number of offenders will be placed under detention instead of being associated in prisons with criminals.
§ Major CRAWFURDIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that one of the members of the Government of this Colony, in May last, issued a statement that this method of imprisonment would ensure a useful labour supply to the Government, and will the right hon. Gentleman give the House an assurance that this will not be used as a method of providing cheap labour for that Government?
§ Mr. AMERYI am not aware of that statement, but will look into it and let the hon. and gallant Member know.