§ 77. Mr. J. Hyndasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is yet in a position to make a statement on the reforms proposed in the African Labour Efficiency Survey of 1947; and whether he will consider following up this survey by a further and more comprehensive study of this problem.
Mr. GriffithsI have received the views of the East African Governments on the Survey. The Government of Kenya feels that it presents in accessible form considerable material regarding African labour conditions, which will be of value to political and social workers who have not had the advantage of practical experience in Africa. The report is useful to the Kenya Government, because it confirms to a great extent, from an independent angle of scientific research, conclusions already reached locally. It is the Government's constant aim to overcome the disability caused by the general lack of incentive among Africans to improve their output.
The Government of. Uganda states that the report has been studied with interest, but that it is not felt that it is in very large measure applicable to conditions in Uganda. Certain sections are of local interest, and it is proposed to make copies of the report available to employers in the Protectorate.
The Government of Tanganyika states that everything possible is already being done to remedy the deficiencies such as malnutrition, low educational standard, inadequate supervision and lack of training, to which the report primarily attributes the lack of efficiency in African labour. Attention is being particularly concentrated on the improvement of technical education and training facilities, and for some time past, the Tanganyika Labour Department has made a special point of drawing the attention of private employers to these causes of inefficiency, and a good deal has been accomplished in the way of improving standards of housing, feeding, medical attention and 44W recreational facilities. The Government considers that joint action within industry itself is, however, what is really required, and feels that the recommendations in the survey will have a better chance of wide application when the local industries form a federation or co-ordinating body of some kind which can consider appropriate action on these problems. As a first step, the Government is distributing copies of the survey to interested associations of employers and to individual employers of large labour forces. The Government endorses the importance attached in the survey to the study of sociological and psychological aspects of efficiency.
As regards the second part of the Question, a good deal of further work is being undertaken on the subjects dealt with in the survey. The programme of the East African Institute of Social Research at Makerere, to which a new Director has just been appointed, provides for studies of African psychology and for studies of urbanized and semi-urbanised natives in Uganda. The Government of Uganda proposes, with some assistance from the Institute, to conduct an inquiry into labour migration into Uganda from the sociological, medical, agricultural and economic aspects.
The Government of Tanganyika is proposing to undertake an urban survey of Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga which will include studies of native housing, economic status, earnings, etc. The question of organising studies of African towns is one to which the Colonial Social Science Research Council is giving consideration, and another subject is the extension of studies of aptitude testing to arrive at tests suitable for Africans in all the tropic African colonies. On the medical side, the position should be materially assisted by the establishment of the East African Medical Survey and other medical research projects.