HC Deb 30 June 1937 vol 325 cc1943-5
18. Mr. Creech Jones

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies the conditions governing the licences issued in respect to recruitment for the mines in the Union of South Africa so far as such licences relate to Africans recruited from territories north of latitude 22× S.?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

No licence has yet been issued for recruitment in Northern Rhodesia, but about 1,300 Barotse natives have been allowed as an experiment to proceed to a recruiting station established just outside the Northern Rhodesia border, and to be engaged for work on the Rand under the usual twelve months contract of the Witwatersrand Native Labour Association. In Nyasaland, as I have stated in reply to previous questions, the London and Blantyre Company were granted a licence in September, 1935, under Section 25 of the Nyasaland Employment of Natives Ordinance to recruit up to 2,000 Nyasaland natives (later raised to 4,000) for work on the Rand. They undertook to enter into contracts with such natives whereby the interests of the natives are fully safeguarded in such matters as food, clothing and transport on the journey, payment of hut tax, deferred pay (if the natives agreed) and return to Nyasaland at the end of the term of engagement. A full report on the results of this experiment up to February, 1937, will be published shortly.

Mr. Jones

Will the Minister be good enough to let me have particulars of the conditions governing this employment and will he also make representations to the Government of South Africa that future supplies of labour should be conditioned by the application of the Native Recruitment Convention?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

I replied the other day to a question on that very point, that I had made representations to the High Commissioner for the Union of South Africa here and to the Government of South Africa that the question of payment for the transport to and from Nyasaland is a very important one.

Mr. Paling

In view of the fact that some years ago when natives from tropical areas were engaged at these mines the death rate was very high, has the Colonial Secretary any reason to think that the situation has now changed and that the natives will not be subject to such a high death rate?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

Yes, Sir, there is every reason for that. We have a great deal of new data, and the conditions obtaining now do not warrant that assumption. I dealt with that matter in the Debate the other day.

Mr. Paling

Has the right hon. Gentleman received any report on this matter up to the present, and, if so, can it be made public?

Mr. Ormsby-Gore

I have just said that it is about to be made public.