§ 18. Mr. David Adamsasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether detailed consideration, with a view to prompt action, is being given to the Report of Major St. J. Orde Browne, as to the improvement of the condition of the workers in Mauritius, described by him as a poorly paid, under nourished and sickly population?
§ 16. Major Lyonsasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, arising out of the Orde Browne Report, comprehensive plans are now being prepared for improvements in regard to health, economic and sub-economic housing and nutrition in Mauritius; and whether he will make a substantial grant from the Colonial Welfare and Development Fund to assist the Colony in these directions as soon as circumstances permit the work to be commenced?
§ Colonel StanleyThe Governor of Mauritius has under consideration the recommendations in Major Orde Browne's Report, and will, I am sure, lose no time in submitting plans prepared in the light of those recommendations. An anti-malarial unit is operating at Mauritius at present, and a malarial engineer is shortly being sent to Mauritius at the Governor's request, to prepare, in conjunction with the local authorities, long-range plans for reducing the incidence of malaria. A nutrition unit is also working in the Island, and plans for further extension of its activities are awaited. I can assure my hon. and gallant Friend the Member for East Leicester (Major Lyons) that any applications for assistance under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act to, forward these, and other schemes for improvement, will be most sympathetically considered.
§ Colonel StanleyEverything will be done as quickly as possible in so far as 1606 war conditions will permit, but the hon. Gentleman must realise that both materials and labour are extremely scarce in Mauritius at the moment.