drawal under protest of the counsel for the relatives at the end of the first day's proceedings, and that the scope of the inquiry was unnecessarily narrowed and important evidence tendered by the aggrieved parties was excluded by the Attorney-General, who presented the case both for the relatives and the accused who were not present in person; and whether he will reconsider the desirability of causing an inquiry to be made under conditions which will enable the full facts to be elicited?

Mr. LONG: This memorial has not yet been received. When I receive it, together with the Governor's observations on it, I will give it careful consideration.

April 3.

Mr. LEIF JONES asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Ceylon Government has yet brought to trial Mr. P. H. A. Silva; and, if not, whether he is prepared to suggest to Sir John Anderson that Mr. Silva should be brought to trial without delay or that some steps should be taken to compensate this man for the personal injury and financial loss he has suffered and is still suffering.

Mr. LONG: The Governor of Ceylon has furnished a full report in this case. Silva was removed to Trincomalee under the provisions of an Order of the Queen in Council of 1896. In view of the information furnished by the Governor I see no reason to intervene on his behalf.

April 3.

Mr. LEIF JONES asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has yet received the promised Report upon the case of Mr. W. P. Singho, of Ceylon; whether this man met his death after the riots had ceased; whether the death was certified as homicide; and whether he is satisfied that Singho was properly tried and condemned by a regularly constituted

court.

Mr. LONG I have not yet received the Report of the inquiry into this case which the Governor ordered.

May 3.

Mr. E. HARVEY asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will issue as a White Paper the Report by Sir John Anderson on the inquiry made by him into the recent disturbances in Ceylon and the allegations arising in connection therewith?

Mr. STEEL-MAITLAND: Sir John Anderson undertook to investigate any cases brought to his notice in which it was alleged that persons had suffered injustice in connection with the riots, but he has not furnished a comprehensive report on all his investigations, nor do I propose to ask him to do so. He has sent me reports on a number of individual cases, but I do not propose to publish them.

INDENTURED LABOUR (INDIA).

April 4.

Sir J. D. REES asked the Secretary of State for India whether he can make any statement regarding the present position of and the attitude of the Government of India towards the question of the abolition of indentured emigration?

The SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. Chamberlain): The position was explained by the Viceroy in his speech in the Legislative Council on February 7, in the course of which he said:

"Our decision that the present form of emigration must cease has been whole-heartedly accepted by the Colonial Office, and they are busily engaged not merely in improving the conditions of labour in the interval, but in making ready for the great change which has to take place.”

An Interdepartmental Conference, on which the Government of India will be represented, is to be held in London next month. Meanwhile, it has become necessary to stop indentured emigration so as not to interfere with military recruitment, and the Viceroy informs me that it is the wish of himself and his Government that Colonial recruitment should not be resumed under the indentured system.

May 23.

Mr. CHARLES ROBERTS asked the Secretary of State for India what modifications in the position of India in relation to the Empire have been effected as a result of the recent Imperial Conference?

The SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA (Mr. Chamberlain), in the course of his answer to this question, gave the following important information on the subject of indentured labour :

"Though the question of indentured emigration was not considered in the Conference, we took advantage of the presence of the representatives of India in London to discuss this question informally with the Secretary of State for the Colonies and his advisers. My hon. Friend is aware that it was agreed some time ago that the system of indentured emigration should be brought to an end within a limited time. Owing to the exigencies of the War, the recruitment of indentured labour has already been stopped and it will not be revived. I am glad to say that the informal Conference already held makes it probable that a satisfactory solution of this difficult question will be reached by the Interdepartmental Conference, over which Lord Islington is going to preside.

The question of the supply of labour to, and the settlement of Indians in, the tropical Colonies which specially require such labour is, of course, wholly distinct from the problems of Indian emigration as affecting the selfgoverning Dominions of which I have already spoken. In relation to these

Dominions the representatives of India recognized the right of each Dominion. to settle its own immigration laws, whether as regards emigrants from Asia or from Europe, and we do not claim an unrestricted right of settlement for Indians. What we asked was that, in the first place, such questions should be treated on a footing of reciprocity; in the second place, that British Asiatics should be at least as favourably treated as alien Asiatics; thirdly, that facilities for travel and study, as apart from settlement, should be freely given; and, lastly, that sympathetic attention should be given to the condition of those Indians who had already been permitted to settle in the Dominions."

EMPIRE RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE,

May 2.

Mr. EDMUND HARVEY asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the programme and propaganda of the Empire Resources Development Committee; whether, in view of the fact that this Committee includes five Ministers of the Crown and that part of its programme is that of exploiting the vegetable oil palms of the Dependencies in the interests of the Home Exchequer, he will immediately inform the Governors of the Dependencies that no official action will be taken without the fullest inquiry in each Dependency.

The UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. STEELMAITLAND): A statement of the aims and proposals of the Committee has been brought to my notice. I do not consider it necessary to make any communication to the Governors of the Dependencies in question in the sense suggested by the hon. member, as it is clear that no action could be taken without full consultation with the local authorities.

Mr. R. MACDONALD asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he has noticed that a body called the Empire Resources Development Committee is in existence, one of whose objects is the exploitation of our Colonial supply of oil and cocoanut palms in the financial interests of this country, the war debt being specifically mentioned, whether he is aware that the official controller of these products in this country is a member of the Committee; and whether, on grounds of public policy, steps will be taken to prevent the controller from retaining connections which might lead to doubt being cast upon his impartiality by the natives or others interested.

Mr. STEEL-MAITLAND: The answer to the first part of the hon. member's question is in the affirmative. With regard to the last part, I see no sufficient ground for his apprehensions.

May 8.

LORD H. CAVENDISH-BENTINCK asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether his attention has been drawn to the programme and propaganda of the Empire Resources Development Committee, advocating

monopoly control of vegetable oil products in the interests of war debt; and whether, in view of the attachment of the natives to their immemorial rights over oil palms and cocoanut palms, and the misapprehension which the propaganda of the Empire Resources Development Committee must create in the Dependencies, he is prepared to state that the presence of five Ministers of the Crown upon this Committee in no way implies that His Majesty's Government views the proposed exploitation with favour?

The SECRETARY of State for THE COLONIES (Mr. Long): The answer is in the affirmative.

Mr. WILSON-Fox: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Noble Lord who puts this question is the chairman of the committee of the Aborigines Protection Society, a society which, so far as I can discover

Mr. SPEAKER: Order, order!

LORD H. CAVENDISH-BENTINCK: May I ask why I should not be a member of the Aborigines Protection Society?

The Disturbances in Ceylon.

Further correspondence has been addressed by the Society to the Colonial Office and in accordance with Mr. Long's offer to inquire into special cases, particulars were given of several of these upon which information was asked. The Committee informed Mr. Long that the Society felt it must again appeal to the Government for a full and impartial inquiry, not so much with the object of securing punishment as to render justice and reparation wherever possible to victims of irregular proceedings. It was understood that the Governor had already, on the evidence before him, released a large number of persons from prison. A Commission of investigation had been appointed into the cases of untried persons who were shot after the riots, but the composition and the procedure of this Commission was so unusual that it had intensified rather than satisfied the feeling of dissatisfaction in the island. The letter urged that a considerable number of allegations were now admitted to be well founded which had been characterized as "incredible" by Mr. Bonar Law. In reply the Secretary of State maintains the view that no good purpose will be served by holding an inquiry by Commission from this country into the circumstances of the riots." The Governor of Ceylon had full authority to investigate any cases of alleged wrong, and if he considered any reparation to be desirable he would give it and in certain cases had already given relief.

The only reply to the complaint of the composition and procedure of the Commission of Inquiry is that it was not a Court in the strict sense. Mr. Long promised to make inquiry as to some of the special cases submitted; in one of them he regards the shooting as having been justified by the

circumstances and in another he says the shooting was accidental and compensation has been paid.

In view of the attitude of the Government, which appears still far from satisfactory, the Committee will not fail to press its request for an inquiry.

Empire Resources Development.

OUR Organizing Secretary, Mr. Harris, has written, and the Society has published, a pamphlet on this subject, entitled Paying Britain's War Debt by Easy Methods, which has attracted considerable attention to the scheme put forward by the Empire Resources Development Committee and its Secretary, Mr. Wilson Fox, M.P. These proposals formed the subject of some of the speeches at our Annual Meeting. They include some objects. of a useful kind, and are nearly all of a sup rficially plausible nature. At the same time it will be clear to those who read Mr. Harris' pamphlet that the principles which underlie the scheme for exploiting the native vary little from those which led to the Léopoldian régime on the Congo.

The Society has addressed a letter to the Committee asking for information on certain important points in which their proposals appear to controvert principles essential to native rights and the welfare and freedom of native peoples in our tropical and sub-tropical Dependencies.

Australian Aboriginals.

We have as usual received the annual report of the Chief Protector of Aboriginals in Queensland for the year 1915. The condition of the natives as a whole is good, no difficulty is found in securing employment for all willing to work, and the Schools and Settlements generally show satisfactory progress, though the crops and live stock suffered from the drought. The rates of pay are uniform and part of the wages paid to the natives is banked, a system which works admirably and avoids their squandering their earnings as they are too apt to do. It is proposed that workers should contribute 10 per cent. of the compulsory banking deduction for the relief of the old and helpless, which would yield about £2,500 a year.

'The policy of the Department is not to pauperize and spoonfeed the aboriginals, but to educate them and raise them to higher planes in the social scale. To yield to the demands of some people with little knowledge of the aboriginal character and allow these workers the free control of all their wages, would not result in any material improvement in the conditions of their dependents, for in most cases the balance would be extravagantly spent, and very little, if any, be saved to assist the old people."

Prosecutions for native dealings in opium and liquor, as well as for drunkenness, show a gratifying decrease, and the natives on reserves gener