HC Deb 20 December 1927 vol 212 cc210-1
37. Mr. AMMON

asked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the proposals now being publicly made in Kenya Colony for so fixing the education of the native children in Kenya that holiday periods will synchronise with the coffee harvests in order that the planters may obtain child labour for the purpose of coffee picking; and whether he is prepared to indicate to the Kenya Government that the labour requirements of Kenya Colony must not be allowed to interfere with the education of the native children of Kenya?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

I am confident that the Government of Kenya will take all relevant considerations into account, including those mentioned by the hon. Member, in considering any proposals which may be made to them for fixing the holiday periods for school children.

Mr. AMMON

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that, according to reports, they have already decided to fall in, with the request of the planters and traders to adopt the holidays of children for this special purpose, and is not that something like slavery?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

Certainly not. Education is voluntary in Kenya, and, if you do not fix the school holidays coincident with this one month's harvest, the parents would keep their children away from the schools, which would be very bad for the school attendance. After all, the picking of cherries from the coffee plant is, if anything, an ideal form of juvenile labour.

Lieut.-Commander KENWORTHY

Is the position that in Kenya education is voluntary and labour is compulsory?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

Certainly not. The hon. Member knows that there is no compulsory labour on private estates or property anywhere in the British Empire.

Mr. T. WILLIAMS

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the same policy was adopted in Malta over 100 years ago, and, when we finally gave Malta self-government, we left them with 90 per cent. of illiteracy?

Mr. ORMSBY-GORE

There is no coffee industry in Malta.

Colonel APPLIN

Will the right hon. Gentleman see that these children are not deprived of the holiday picking coffee, which they very much enjoy?