COPY.
Minute relating to British North Borneo Migration,
On the 16th. November Mr. Young Riddell called on
the Colonial Secretary and during a general conversation mention-
-ed that he had heard emigration to Borneo was stopped and that
he was afraid the planters would connect this stoppage with his
appointment. The Colonial Secretary telegraphed to Mr. Lamperski of Messrs. Melchers and Company who is in charge of emigration.
2.
Sometime ago the work of the examination of
emigrants going to British North Borneo was transferred from Mr.
Breen of the Registrar-General's Office to Mr. Lloyd, and Mr.
Lloyd was directed to pay particular attention to it, as it was
believed that there was more fraud in connection with it than
with emigration to other parts. Mr. Lloyd's strictness brought Mr. Lamperski and Mr. Lammert two recruiting agents
to see
the Registrar-General and they made allegations against Mr. Lloyd's interpreter and produced figures which shewed that more than 50 per cent of the coolies were rejected. The Registrar- -General told them that he would direct Mr. Lloyd to arrange for them to be present at the next examination, and that in the mean- time he would ascertain the exact figures regarding rejection. These figures did not substantiate Mr. Lamperski's assertions, and Mr. Lamperski was told so, and nothing more was heard of the
matter.
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3. In the meantime Mr. Barnes had discovered the
exact terms of the labour contract in Borneo and told me to tell the coolies that they could get much better terms in the Malay Peninsula and Dutch Indies and to put notice in conspicuous type in the yard darwing attention to the different conditions.. 4. When Mr. Lamperski called on the 16th. it appear-
ed that nothing further had happened since his interview with
the Registrar-Geneal, that he had told the coolie-brokers their figures were all wrong and they had said that numbers of men who did not present themselves for examination had been deterred from doing so by the stories their fellow lodgers who
had