§ 41. Dr. Haden Guestasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what is the number of German-owned and British-owned banana plantations in the British Cameroons in the district of Victoria; and whether he is aware that the labourers employed on the German-owned plantations are paid partly in money and partly in credit, redeemable at truck stores on the property, contrary to the conditions for the employment of labour laid down in the British Mandate?
Mr. M. MacDonaldAccording to my information there are 14 German-owned and two British-owned plantations in the Victoria division of the Cameroons under British Mandate. As regards the latter part of his question, I would refer the hon. Member to the full information, furnished at the request of the Permanent Mandates Commission, in paragraphs 174–178 of the report presented to the Council of the League of Nations on the Territory for 1937, of which a copy will be found in the Library of the House, from which he will see that the Government do not regard the practice as contrary to the conditions laid down in the Mandate.
Dr. GuestIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that since the report was made by the Permanent Mandates Commission, it has been ascertained that the practice by Germans of deducting money and paying the natives in kind is entirely unjustified; that it is, in fact, a subsidy to the German banana trade at the expense of British-protected subjects, and is regarded there as very undesirable?