5
:
62794/19/408/
B
an employer very serious loss.
The "overhead charges" are defined
by the Western Samoa Administration as a
portion of the cost of recruitment and
repatriation.
In the case of Sarawak, the Secretary
of State decided to turn down a proposal to
insert in the terms of the agreement for
service in the case of labourers emigrating
to that territory, that each man should be
required to acknowledge a debt of $48. to the
Company, to be repaid by instalments in
respect of the cost of his passage but that
there is a material distinction in the
Western Samoa proposal which may be summed u p
one
as concerning not the terms of the contract
but the terms of a breach of the contract.
In the form recommended by the Western
Samoa Administration I cannot see that any
exception should be taken to the insertion
of the proposed clause, but on the question
of the extension of the minimum term fr om
3 to 4 years, I am more uoubtful. It would
seem that an extension of the 3 years'
period would require an amendment of clause
1 in the Schedule of the Western Sqmoa
Orainance, in order that the protection
afforded to the labourer may not be left
incomplete. There is, however, no question
of principle involved, but simply that a
limit