Isitt and Chinese Slavery

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 41, 10 October 1923, Page 8

Isitt and Chinese Slavery

rTyiR. E. J. HOWARD, Christchuroh V,, South, on the Samoa Amendment ' ';• Bill:—

-™? .Be (Mr. L. M. Isitt) also played -llßrit&i the truth in, connection with SαfisSda. , If you will search the ihonDumble senitlemain's speeches—all the lspeeeh.es toe has matte in this House, €lio exception of his speeches on filf' toe , liquor question —you will find that ■'' ppie carefully avoids details —that he s in generalities, so that you pin-ithe ihonourable gentleman I f r to any particular statement. He deals I -'in.* generalities, always abusing men yrhio are his superiors, always abusing 1 tnen who make cold, calm statements

of facts lifted from 'Government reports. To-night the honourable lead-

er .of the Labour Party placed before f!us a number of facts lifted from official publications, but the honourable

member for Christchureh North careTfully avoided any .reference to facts. 'He said, in a sweeping kind of way, that the honourable member for Buller was doing this as a political trick ; iWeIL if it is a political trick, it is a , (political trick that we used before we ' came into this House —when indentured labour was imported into South 'Africa. The men who are now sitting ■on these benches were just as bitterly Jopposed to it then as they were later '.'to indentured labour in Samoa. When / It was introduced into Fiji we fought I It —long before we became politicians; I and now we are going to fight this ! thing to the bitter end until we get

- rid of the indentured labour in Samoa. jf Call it a political trick if you like, as

I the honourable gentleman called it;

> Jrat the only man in this House who is I not ashamed of this indentured system Is the member for Christchureh North.

ETEX Ml*. MASSEY WAS ASHAMED.

Listen to what the Prime Minister said —he is quite alive to the position —in a speech printed in Hansard, Vol. 186, poge 1026:—

"They .saw what had happened in Fiji—although Fiji was perhaps not a particularly good instance—and hs did not know that many would care to follow the example of what had taken place there; but he was* peifectly satisfied, from what he had heard and read, that within a very few years they could do away with indentured labour and get back to some system of free labour."

The Prime Minister recognised the evils of it, and said he was only adopting it for the time being to get over a difficulty. The Prime Minister was ashamed of it in other words, and wanted to get rid of this evil thing as soon as possible. I challenge the Prime Minister to say that feat was> not what he meant when ho made the statement I have just read. Does the honourable member foi> Christchurch North show mc any signs of being

Rshamed of a dirty system? Not the

Slightest. Compared with the liquor ey&tem—l speak as one who has fought the liquor traffic —this is a thousand times worse.

JNKOLO SLAVERY STSTE3I

Speaking of same pictures of Samoan life: The pictures are most path&tic to any one of human feeling". The picture shows a man an-d a woman. They • were a decent family-—a Chinaman ■' and his Samoan wife —and they are 1 depicted as standing on the beach j there. The man is kissing the baby I be Is the father of and leaving behind, i etu? th« Tvomaa is esying because she ! never expects to see him again. An- ; olher picture is that of a group of I children —I do not know how many ■ there are in the group—and I would ! like every honourable member in this j House to see that group of little childi ren whose fathers were departed. I .When the Chinese Consul was leaving

: the island these children came down !> to the beach to send messages to their I fathers, whom they may never see ! Sagain. The fathers had gone back to ■ China. The honourable member in his ; statement to-night indulged in halftruths for the purpose of throwing

'-. mud at a group of men on the Lab- ; our side of ithe House. I say that ! future generations "will be sorry over ! what we are doing in Samoa, because I It is the people of New Zealand who bear the responsibility of what {Is taking place in Samoa now. The ; honourable gentleman cannot get

■ away from the official figures that Were coolly and calmly put on record, figures supplied to the League of Nations —not our figures, not manufactured figures, as my honourable v friend-.-"honourable" friend — .suggest;ed Us opponent did during the late election. That is not fair.

A fair cliang , © is no robbery, but there are iip fair etanges under Mis •yatera of. rent,, toterost,, aawl tfr&fit.