HC Deb 30 June 1959 vol 608 c227
29. Mr. G. M. Thomson

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies under what circumstances, in what places, and in what form compulsory public labour is being used in Nyasaland.

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

The emergency regulations provide for the direction of labour, where required, to remove obstructions on public roads. The power has been very sparingly used, and then only in widely separated areas for very short periods on specific road blocks.

Mr. Thomson

Is not this a degrading form of punishment in which the guilty and innocent are punished alike? Is not the damage which will be done to world opinion greater than the immediate temporary advantage to the authorities in Nyasaland?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

No, Sir.