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labour" to leave the port for foreign possessions without
the previous sanction of the Secretary of State is one that can only be enforced under the Hongkong Ordinance by the refusal of a licence to the ship concerned or by deel- ing with the breach of some particular regulation made under that Ordinance; if therefore the necessary condi- tions are observed, the drastic method of refusing 9 licence is necessary to prevent assisted labour being taken away from the Colony. The position is made easy for the recruiters by the difficulty of proving that labour which is obviously assisted is not free labour, and should be subject to the more exact regulations, se there are no
means of countering a statement (for which little coach-
ing is necessary) such as that passage expenses are being paid out of the proceeds of the sale of private property in the interior. It is possible to disbelieve the state- ment: but such disbelief affords no very strong grounds
for action.
6.
It would appear probable that recruiters
for the Cuban emigration are so far financially committed that they will spare no effort to get their men away: and the result is likely to be the curious position that labour can go freely under almost any promised conditione, with no guarantees, to foreign possessions; but to British possessions only under severe restrictions.
7.
To deal with this unsatisfactory position, I
propose to refuse emigration licences to direct through
emigrent ships, such as it is now proposed for the first
time to put on the run; but, pending Your Lordship's
instructions, I do not propose to interfere with the exist -
ing emigration on the reguler liners vie. Canadian and
American ports. In these cases, it is safe to assume that
the conditions of the journey will be satisfactory: the