PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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October 24, 1851.
104
cation before the Court, together with an Extract from a Report made to me upon it by the Land and Emigration Commissioners.
I transmit to you, for your information, a copy of the letter sent to the India November 3, 1851. Board, together with its inclosure, and also a copy of the answer.
I have requested that the proposed reference should be made to the Government of India.
Sir,
GREY.
I have, &c. (Signed)
Inclosure 1 to Earl Grey's Despatch No. 154.
Downing Street, October 24, 1851. WITH reference to your letter of the 24th July and to the previous correspon- dence which has passed between this Office and the Board of Control respecting the claims of the Indian Immigrants at Mauritius to return passages to their native No. 72, April 25. country, I am directed by Earl Grey to transmit to you the copy of a further despatch from the Governor of Mauritius, accompanied by a copy of the proceedings in the Council of Government containing suggestions for the modifications of that provision of the Law, which appear to be worthy of consideration.
Annexure to Inclosure No. 1
I also inclose an extract* from the Report of the Land and Emigration Commis- sioners on this communication, containing some striking facts bearing on this subject.
Lord Grey feels great reluctance in again calling the attention of the Directors of the East India Company to this question, but as the Mauritius Government deem it to be of great importance to the Colony, and, moreover, propose an arrangement which they conceive will be unobjectionable to the Immigrants, his Lordship does not feel himself justified in withholding these propositions from the Board of Directors, I am therefore to request that you would move the Commissioners for the affairs of India to transmit those documents to the Directors with the expression of his Lordship's wish to be informed of the views which they take of the several proposals.
I am, &c.
The Hon. J. E. Elliot,
&c.
&c.
&c.
(Signed)
B. HAWES.
165
resources, upwards of 60,0001. had accrued for wages; there was, however, no uncasi. ness felt by the labourers; they knew that they were quite secure."
"1 When the following crop came in the whole was paid with the exception of a "few hundred pounds lost to them in consequence of the utter ruin of both planter and estate." These facts appear to justify a favourable consideration of proposals like the present. To the first of these proposals our only objection is that we do not understand what rights will really be conferred by the proposed "Patent of Citizenship." The coolie, when discharged from the obligation of industrial residence, has, we apprehend, the ordinary privileges of a British subject, and we do not know what more the patent would give him. But unless it would confer a bond fide advantage, it should not be offered by Government in exchange for one. To either of the other proposals we do not ourselves see any objection. But we presume that it is for the Directors of the East India Company to decide on their propriety.
Inclosure 2 to Earl Grey's Despatch No. 154.
Sir,
India Board, November 3, 1851. YOUR letter of the 24th instant and its inclosures from the Governor of Mauritius, relative to a proposed modification of the existing arrangement for free passages for coolies on their return from Mauritius to India having been transmitted to the Court of Directors of the East India Company, I am directed by the Commissioners
for the Affairs of India to forward to you, for the information of Earl Grey, a copy of October 30, 1851. the reply which they have received from Mr. Melvill. His Lordship will perceive that although the Court adhere to their original opinion in regard to immigrants already at Mauritius, they are willing to refer the modified rule, as a prospective arrangement, for the consideration of the Government of India.
I am,
J. E. Elliot, Esq.,
&c.
&c. &c.
(Signed)
&c.
HUGH STARK.
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
Annexure to Inclosure 1.
Extract of a Report from the Emigration Commissioners to J. E. Elliot, Esq., dated September 18, 1851.
THE Committee of Council propose first-that on the expiration of his industrial residence every Immigrant shall be entitled to receive a "Patent of Citizenship," by the receipt of which, however, he shall waive his right to a return passage; or, secondly, that return passages shall be given after three years' residence, if necessary, but only to those who are unable to pay for such pasanges themselves. The Governor, continuing to think the provision for free back passages unnecessary, proposes as a modification of the first suggestion of the Committee, that if an immigrant does not claim that privilege on (ie., we presume within a specified period of time) the expira- tion of his industrial residence he shall not be entitled to claim it at all.
It appears to us, we confess, that the recent history of the Mauritius Immigration affords strong reason for doubting the necessity of free return passages. In a letter printed in the Appendix to our last Annual Report, Mr. Caird states that "more than three-fourths of the coolies who have returned to India have accumulated large sums averaging from 50 to 1,200 rupees each." and that "with the slightest regard to common prudence a labourer can easily save from 200 to 250 rupees in five years industrial residence." It appears that the average cost of a back passage during the last six years has only been 11. 7., and recently only 158. A coolie, therefore, under present circumstances can have no difficulty in paying his own passage home; and, in fact, upwards of 8,000 have done so rather than wait for the expiration of their five years' residence. Lastly, the following passages from a Report of Mr. Hugon's furnishes strong reason for hoping that the position of the immigrants in this respect, not having been affected by the tremendous commercial crisis of 1848, is very indepen- dent of any such crisis. "In 1848, when the London houses that were connected with nine-tenths of the planters here failed, and the latter were left to their own
Sir,
Annexure to Inclosure 2.
East India House, October 30, 1851.
I HAVE received and laid before the Court of Directors Mr. Stark's letter of the 27th instant, with copy of a letter from the Colonial Office on the subject of a pro- posed modification of the claim of Indian immigrants in Mauritius to a free passage back from that island to India.
The sentiments of the Court of Directors on the general question have frequently been communicated to the Board of Commissioners for the information of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies; and the Court continue to be of opinion that any restriction of the right to a free passage back to India after a period of five years of industrial residence would be a breach of engagement with the immigranto now in the Island of Mauritius, to which the Court could not assent, and would not interfere with the future supply of labourers. They would, however, propose that the modified rule on the subject suggested in the present papers should, as a prospective arrangement, be referred for consideration of the Governor-General in Council, who will have the best means of ascertaining how far it would operate fairly towards emigrants from India and be acceptable to them.
I have, &o. (Signed) JAMES C. MELVILL
The Hon. J. E. Elliot, M.P.,
&o, &c.
&c.
(No. 74.) Sir,
The Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Higginson.
WITH reference to the concluding paragraph of my predecessor's despatch of the
Downing Street, August 3, 1852. 20th November last, No. 164, I now transmit to you a copy of a letter from the Com- missioners for the Affairs of India, from which you will find that, after consultation with the Government of Bengal and the Emigration Agent and Protector, the
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