INDENTURED LABOUR.

White Ribbon, Volume 27, Issue 313, 18 July 1921, Page 5

INDENTURED LABOUR.

(To the Editor.) Dear Madam. —If "S.P.Q.R." proposes taking one question each month, he will be with you for eight months! 1 am not going to make any contract to reply each time, but with your kind permission I may. at the conclusion of his term, have something to say upon your correspondent’s observations. I feel, however, at this juncture that a word is necessary by way of comment upon the* method adopted in the argument of your correspondent. I fear that he is entering the ranks of the Sophists. I would remind him that 1 am talking of indentured labour between which and an ordinary New Zealand working-man's contract there is no parallel. When the question of Samoan indentured laborr was being discussed in the House in September, 1920, under the Treaty of Reace Amendment Bill. Mr MeCallum remarked that the indentured labourers were “practically slave's,” to which Mr Massey retorted: "Everyone of them left China a free man." Why did he leave China a free man Mr M’Combs supplied the answer whe n the Bill was in Committee a few days later. Ho pointed out that "It was necessary for the New Zealand Government to tiring them as free* men from Chinn, and indenture them after they arrived in Samoa." He continued: “Wo were told further that it would not 1.0 possible to indenture Chinese in Hong Kong because that is under British Buie, and that were it not for the fact that they wore being taken from China as free men they could not be carried in British ships." The Member for Lyttelton pertinently remarked: "It is very pleasing indeed to realise that the British flag stands for ireodom; but it is humiliating to think That the New Zealand flag stands for slavery." "S.R.Q.R.” attempts to side-track the issue by introducing the New Zealand buildc r under contract to erect a house. \ his reminds me of a Member in the House, who declared: "I employ indent need labour myself.” Some one* interjected. "No!" And he said, "Yes, 1 do. I have a manager, and a good one* too. -who has indentured into acontrav't - a term of service,- for a number of yiars, and he binds himself down by this clause, and that, and the other.” But neither the builder nor the manager could be forced by every power of the State to fulfil his engagement if circumstances made it impossible for him to do so. The contractor for the tira Tunnel entered into an engagement to build the tunnel for the New Government, but he was impelled to ahandon it. Contracts made in New Zealand are safeguarded by laws of humanity, and both the parties to the contract are. moreover, intelligent persoas. possessing the full rights of citizenship, and have' complete access to the legally-constitut-ed courts of the country, and a breech

of contract is met by a small fine. Now, one of the chief reasons for the Ohinose Government's refusal to allow Tool’ ies to stay in Samoa is that they pos sess no citizen's rights, and the condition of their remaining is that they have the rights of free citizenship, in other words, that they may have the power of altering the system under which they are enslaved. lastly, it should be known by every New Zealander that indentured labour Is l>eing upheld in Samoa against the clearly expressed wish of the British Government. Sir James Allen, in his address to the planters of Samoa, in which, by the way, he was evidently endeavouring to ingratiate himself and his Government with the planters, said: “The Imperial Government sent us absolutely definite instructions that we w*ere not to indenture any more Chinese during the wartime —nor Solomon Island la hour either. We realised that that meant the destruction of the Samoan plantations, and we communicated over and over again with the Imperial Government, and urged htem to permit us to re-indenture the labour which was there. Finally they gave a partial consent. They consented to our re-inden-turing for three months only during the war-time \s soon as the Armistice was signed, we again approached the Imperial Government. We had l>een teleyraphing constantly about thi> labour question to the Imperial Government and to the Prime Minister w’hen he was in England. . . . When the Armistice was signed we communicated with the Imperial Government, and begged them to allow us to re-indenture for a longer period, or to get labour from outside. After considerable correspondence. they consented to a re-in-denture period of iwo yea»s, and tha* is the position to-day. We did our best to get the Imperial Government to a' low us to indenture further Chinese. W<' communicated with them and asked whether it was possible to indenture Solomon Islanders. The reply was. “You must communicate with Australia.” . . . We communicated with Australia, and we got a direct “No!" We then communicated with the Im perial Government, and said, “You have some of the Solomon Islanders under your control. Can you let us have some labour from there?" The answer was “No!' The British dovernment re alises that the sentiment of the peole Is opposed to slavery. "S.P.Q.R." “aims at truth.’’ Then he will admit the truth that no Government would dare to introduce indentured labour into New Zealand on similar conditions to that of Samoa.- Yours faithfully, C. R N MACK IE. Christchurch.