13
The Secretary of State's memorandum,
circulated to the Cabinet as C.P.181(27), recommended, inter alia, that authority should be given for the introduction by the British administration of 400
Chinese labourers into the New Hebrides on the
conditions approximating, as far as local circum- stances would permit, to those in force in Western
Samo a. The report of the New Hebrides Commission annexed to the Cabinet memorandum, describes (in paragraph 19the principal variations from the Samoan conditions which they regarded as necessary
owing to local conditions. Of these, the most
important was the provision for the compul so ry
of labourers
repatriation/at the expiration of contract service of five years, and the stipulation as to no renewal
of contracts.
The decision of the Cabinet was
recorded as follows:-
"That, from a political point of view, it was
impossible to acquiesce in the introduction of
Chinese labour into the New Hebrides. This
"
de cision was taken in spite of the fact that it was urged in the Secretary of State's memorandum that, if Chine se labour was not authorised, the almost
total extinction of the British plantations in the New Hebrides was to be anticipated within a very short time, with the possibility, in consequence, that Great Britain would be obliged to withdraw from the group, leaving France in sole possession.
It is clear, therefore, that the Cabinet hold the
introduction
very strongest objections to the parent of
into
Chinese labour British possessions.
Sir G. Grindle's minute (shows that he
26th Jane last
is
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