PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.882
2
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 1 of 1852.
October.
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would have to pay his own passage back from Mauritius.. It might be different in regard to emigrants to the West Indies, and for those emigrating to that part of the world, the provision of a return passage on the part of the Colony should be insisted on, as otherwise those wishing to return might not meet with ships. In this respect Mauritius is altogether different as the intercourse between that place and Calcutta is incessant, and I therefore see not the least objection to an alteration of the law as regards emigrants to the latter Colony.
I have, &c.
T. E. ROGERS, Protector of Emigrants.
(Signed) W. Seton Karr, Esq.,
Under-Secretary to the Government of Bengal.
Sir,
March 11, 1852.
I HAVE had the honour to receive your letter of the 23rd ultimo, in which I am directed to submit, for the information of the Most Noble the Governor of Bengal, my sentiments regarding a proposed modification of the existing law relating to the claim of labourers emigrating from this to Mauritius to a free passage back to India after a period of five years of industrial residence in the Colony.
2. I cannot myself see any objection whatever to the modified rule as a prospective arrangement, and it would not, in my humble opinion, in the slightest degree interfere with the future supply of labourers from this Presidency, so long as the average rates of return passages continue as moderate as they have been for the last eight years, and further I can see no reason to suppose that they ever will be much higher than what they have hitherto been.
3. No other description of freight being obtainable in the Colony for a vessel returning to India, and the surplus stores, medicines, &c., which a vessel always has on board after having disembarked her coolies at Mauritius, are in nine cases out of ten nearly sufficient to bring a full complement of return people back again at a price which will leave the owners a reasonable profit. The return passage should, therefore, never exceed, even when vessels are scarce, 15 rupees a head, a sum which can be easily saved by a labourer earning 5 rupees a month in five months, supplied as he is with food and lodging independently of his wages.
4. It will appear, therefore, that unless some very unlooked for circumstances occur, the payment of the return passage by the labourer will never average beyond his means of payment, or put out of his power to return to India at any period he may be desirous of doing so. A free passage will, of course, be provided by the Government for such emigrants as from illness, disease, or some other unforeseen cause, are unable to pay for it themselves.
W. Seton Karr, Esq.,
ว
I have, &o.
(Signed) T. CAIRD, Emigration Agent.
Under-Secretary to the Government of Bengal.
Report of the Immigration Committee on the following Papers referred to them by his Excellency the Governor.
Read: Despatch from the Secretary of State, No. 74, dated 3rd August last, Return passages inclosing a correspondence with the Government of India, in which that body consents to a modification of the existing arrangement for giving a return passage to immigrant labourers, to the extent of allowing them prospectively, at the expiration of their industrial residence, the option of claiming their return passage within six months, or of forfeiting it altogether; reserving, however, to the destitute sick the right to such passage at any time.
2. The Committee are glad to find that the Indian Government have consented even partially, to modify the present regulations with regard to return passages, against which the inhabitants and Council of Government of Mauritius entertain such strong objections. But the change is clogged with a condition, which the Committee view with great apprehension, and they desire before accepting it once more to appeal to the wisdom and justice of the Government of India, and to endeavour to engage the influence of his Excellency the Governor, and the intervention of the Secretary of State, in support of their views.
3. They apprehend that the proposition of offering to the Indian at the close of
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his industrial residence the option of returning free of charge, or of forfeiting that privilege, may lead to much mischief. It will present the idee, and provoke the desire, of returning to India when the man has just completed an engagement, is glad to obtain a cessation from labour aftaga service of five years, and has usually accumulated a certain amount of money. He will see before him the means of returning without charge to his native country, visiting his relations and friends, displaying and spending his money among them, and returning to the Colony, after a few months' holiday, at the public expense. This may be repeated every five years. not have been contemplated by the Government of India privilege not enjoyed by Such a privilege could its own civil or military servants, or by the Colonial servants of the Crown, or by any other class of emigranta in any part of the world. At present it is not an unfrequent practice; but when the claim to the return passage becomes limited, there will be a much stronger inducernent to have recourse to it.
4. The necessity for deciding on accepting the privilege at the close of the fifth year will prevent men from entering into a second triennial engagement, and thus interfere with an engagement which has been found highly beneficial.
5. But another still more serious objection is, that the immigrant, having at the expiration of his fifth year of engagement an interval of six months allowed to him, in which to decide whether he will return to India, or forfeit his return passage, will refrain from re-engaging himself during that interval, and will acquire those habits of idleness or employment in petty branches of labour, which, if not injurious to himself, will deprive the Colony of those services which it mainly seeks to acquire.
6. Upon these special grounds the Committee would earnestly urge the abrogation of the condition of suggesting the option of a return to the immigrant at the expiration of his industrial residence. They do not, as they have before stated, advocate the abolition of the return passage on pecuniary grounds. Although the cost of immi- gration is a very heavy burthen on the Colony, it would not begrudge this additional charge if it did not tend to interfere with the settlement of the immigrant in the island.
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7. The aim of the Colony is to obtain a sufficient number of labourers settled in the island, by whose constant and regular labour the cultivation of the estates may be continuously carried on without those changes and interruptions which in past years have so greatly interfered with their progress. Successive Secretaries of State have desired to promote the same object, and with this view have recommended the establishment of Indian villages, and the introduction of entire village communities from India.
8. The Committee cannot conceive that the departure of 70,000 or 80,000 labourers, or of many times that number, drawn from various parts of India during a considerable number of years, can be productive of any sensible effect in that country, still less of one which would lead the Indian Government to seek to restrain such an emigration, or to refuse an artificial encouragement to the return of the emigrants. They cannot suppose that the Indian Government desire to place an obstacle in the way of the Indian settling in this Colony. They cannot believe that the Government of India is indifferent to the prosperity of the Colony. They therefore confidently invoke its sid in encouraging the settlement of labourers in Mauritius, without which the island can- not prosper, by withdrawing that condition of emigration from India which chiefly tends to impede it.
9. They would urge upon the Indian Government the absence of any necessity for continuing the regulation of allowing a return passage, except in the case of the sick, and of those who have left their country in that condition.
10. The Protector of Immigrants and the Emigration Agent at Calcutta concur in the opinion that the entire withdrawal of the return passage would not in the least check the emigration to Mauritius,
Tho
11. In embarking for the Colony, the Indian does not proceed to an unknown country. The character of its climate, the nature of the labour expected from him, the amount of remuneration which he will receive, are all familiar to him. immigration is conducted by Government agents. No dolusive hopes are hold out. Hundreds of men are returning annually, from whom a faithful account of the island may be obtained. The testimony of successive Governors, especially of his Excellency the present Governor and Sir G. Anderson, who have been acquainted with the Indian in his native country, and of the most intelligent visitors from India to the island, concurs in reporting the condition of the immigrant in Mauri- tius to be most_comfortable, and far superior to what it would ever be in his native country. There is, therefore, no need to guard against the consequences of
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