§ 9. Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHYasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the taking of the finger prints of natives engaged in industrial and domestic work in Kenya Colony and the Gold Coast is carried out by administrative officials or by the police whether he can state the cost to the territories in 7 question of this procedure; and whether the results are such as to warrant the extension of the practice to other territories under the direct control of the Crown?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Ormsby-Gore)The recording of finger prints in the eases referred to is carried out by officials of the Native Affairs Department in Kenya and by the police in the Gold Coast, where the new rules only came into operation on the 1st January last, and where there is at present no separate finger print bureau as in Kenya. The annual cost of Kenya is about £5,000 for staff, plus a proportion of other charges general to the Native Affairs Department as a whole, which cannot be accurately estimated. The question of extending the practice to other Colonies must, of course, depend on local conditions obtaining in these Colonies, as well as on the results in Kenya and the Gold Coast.