(16852)
The Secretary
C.0.600 19252
KURADUI, 29 MAY 08
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO,
GERMAN NEW GUINEA,
23rd March, 1908.
Your Excellency:-
I take the liberty to advise you in a matter which seems to me to be of some importance.
On the 17th of this month the German Mail-steamer "Prinz Sigismund" on arriving here from Hongkong landed 106 Indians who had embarked in Hongkong and paid their passage to here.
None of these men were previously engaged by any of the local firms or planters but having been passed by the Health Officer the Government sent to the various employers here around a circular, copy of which I herewith enclose.
A few days later a number of these men came to me to seek advice. I have been living in this country for a great number of years and it has gradually become a kind of custom that any English subject being in trouble or wanting information addresses themselves to me, as it were, by default to the Officer of Foreign Affairs.