Enclosure 2.
Speech by Sir F. D. Lugard.
The present state of the law in this Colony has
long seemed to me to be somewhat unsatisfactory. The present Ordinance was passed early in 1908. When I came to the Colony the Ordinance had already been drafted for some considerable time. It had been referred to the Secretary of State and approved by him. I, being unacquainted with the details of the emigration question, took no active part in the Bill, but confined myself to making one or two alterations which were manifestly necessary. The Ordinance of 1908 was in itself a very great improvement on the law as it stood up to that time, because for the first time it recognised the existence of a class whom we call "assist- -od emigrants" and legislated in order to give them a much greater degree of protection than they had enjoyed up to that time.
The number of emigrants passing through this Colony
is very large indeed, and I think the Government of China has always looked to us and relied greatly upon the efforts made in this Colony to see fair play to the emigrants and to secure for them the best conditi- -ons possible. They are as a rule an exceedingly ignorant type of vill- -agers, who fall very easily into the hands of dishonest and fraudulent people. Therefore it behoves us to do all we can to let them understand fully what they are engaging to do. The present Bill, I hope, will place the whole emigration question on a better footing. It is a very difficult matter to deal with because it involves the procedure of other countries, that is to say, the country of the destination of the emigrant, which, of course, is outside our jurisdiction. We must con- -sult those countries, and any law we pass can only be effective by co-operation with those countries, which are, chiefly, the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, the Dutch Netherlands Indies, and British North Borneo.
Communication has been opened with them, but the Colonial Office is the natural agency for co-ordinating the policy of different British Colonies, and I propose therefore that the second reading of this Bill should be delayed for some time in order that we
may make further investigations regarding the procedure in those