Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am ar 29 Gorffennaf 1926.
My submission was that if a differential duty had not been put on at all, Holland would never have started to produce this stuff in Sumatra and there mould still have been a monopoly available for West Africa. As it is we have lost both the monopoly and the revenue, and I should like to have some information as to how the matter stands.
The two questions of labour and land in Africa are very closely connected. We have vast territorial spaces there which are mainly agricultural, and unless there is unrestricted access to the land on the part of the natives, who alone can produce, you have reduced production, and you do not have the elements of abiding progress. There are two ways in which, in our judgment, these territorities may be developed. The first is that the native should have the use and enjoyment of the land upon which he has been born and that the fruits of his labour should go to him alone. On the other hand, there is the plantation system, which urges that greater use can be made of the territories if the natives, by one method or another, can be induced or coerced to work for wages for the white settler. I should like to ask how far the original land system in Africa is being carried out. We on this side are no more concerned that the individual native alone should possess the land than that the individual white settler should possess it. The land belongs to the community, to the tribe or the clan, or whatever it may be called, and we would wish as far as is possible that the old system should be maintained and that the tribe or the community to which the native belongs should hold and control the land. If development is on these lines, we should be glad to hear it. If it is on the lines of economic exploitation of the natives by white syndicates, we should be sorry to hear it, though we should like to have the information.
I should like to say a word on the question of taxation. In our judgment, the hut tax in many parts of Africa is far too high, and all natives are not fully capable of work whereby they can earn money to produce the tax that is required. On the other hand we believe that Europeans as a rule are taxed far too lightly, and also that the native taxes are not spent adequately upon native requirements or for the benefit of the native people. In our judgment wherever forced labour has to be it should be very strictly limited to purposes of native public utility such as is required for the preservation of the amenities of the tribe to which he belongs. All voluntary labour, .when it is given, we feel very strongly should be paid for directly to the worker himself and not to chiefs or overlords or those who would like to teach him how to spend his money, and contracts when made should not be enforceable under the criminal law. Those are certainly matters about which we should like to have information.
I should like to say a final word in regard to education. I very much hope this fundamentally important question will receive the best attention of the Government in regard to its method and its development. We do not wish that the native should be given a purely utilitarian education, merely to teach him to become a better economic tool. We require that he shall have, as far as his capacity will enable him in this stage of his development, access to wider ranges of knowledge, which seems to be the right of every man, whether he is of one colour or race or another. I should like to ask whether the policy in regard to education is that expressed in Education Policy in British Tropical Africa, Command Paper 2374, which was issued some time ago. That contains a view of education which, on the whole, I think would commend itself to every section of the House. But in any case, the money spent on education is ridiculously, probably dangerously, inadequate. Let me give two figures in illustration of what I mean. In Nigeria in 1923–24 the revenue was £6,260,561, and the amount spent on education was only £135,866. Take the better known case of Kenya. For the same year the revenue was £1,839,447, and the amount spent on education was only £44,946. In regard to the question of education, while missionary enterprise has done something in this direction, yet, looking to the future, the Government itself should have a dominating hand in its control and development. It is of such vast importance, taking a long view, that it should not be left in the haphazard condition in which it is now.
I hope the Government will assure us that the utmost that is possible is being done in regard to the health of the native people. The conditions prevailing in certain portions of Uganda are horrible beyond expression, and I hope the Government is going to tackle the problem of the physical condition of the people as well as looking after heir mental and spiritual welfare. We are now better able to deal with the diseases which are prevalent in these countries than ever before, and all that is required is a more adequate medical staff and the training of native medical dispensers, who will be able to co-operate with the Government in promoting the health of the various tribes. These are a few matters on which I hope the Government will give us some information. The number present in the House is in no way indicative of the interest which is now taken in these Colonies. The increasing interest of Members of this House in the question of Colonial development and our responsibilties towards the Crown Colonies and Protectorates has been wonderful. Let us take care that we are developing on the right lines and then every further step we take will be a blessing to the communities in these lands.