PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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delusion, to anticipate disappointment, and to provide for the return of those who will be themselves in fault if they do not benefit greatly by the change.
There
12. The same authorities have pointed out the means which the immigrants enjoy here of accumulating money, and the Emigration Agent has reported the low price at which a return passage can be obtained at all times of the year. is, therefore, no fear of a man being detained here against his wishes, and in spite of reasonable efforts to obtain the means of returning.
13. The experience of the crisis through which the Colony passed in 1848, the continually increasing demand for labour, and the present prospects of the sugar trade, sufficiently prove that there is no reason for apprehending a sudden failure in the means of employing the immigrants. But in the event of any extraordinary change in the circumstances of the Colony, there is a reserve of 25,0001. for the purpose of providing a passage to those who may want employment, and desire to
return to India.
14. The Committee cannot imagine any other circumstances which might impose the necessity, or suggest the expediency, of continuing the present system of return passages. Upon general grounds, therefore, as well as for those special reasons which have been urged against the limited modification admitted by the Govern- ment of India, the Committee maintain and repeat their objections against the continuance of that system, and they would move the Council to request his Excellency the Governor to renew his endeavours to obtain the consent of the Indian Government to its prospective abolition, except in cases of indigent, sick, infirm, or others entitled to special consideration.
Council Chamber, October 1852.
(No. 417.) Sir,
(Signed)
RAWSON W. RAWSON.
W. W. R. KERR.
H. KOENIG.
P. HAREL.
G. FROPIER.
C. W. WIEHE.
W. W. WEST, R.N.
Governor Higginson to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Mauritius, December 3, 1852. Having communicated to the Council of Government your despatch No. 74 of the 3rd August, transmitting a copy of a letter from the Commissioners for the Affairs of India, intimating that the Government of India had consented to a modification of the existing regulations for gratuitous hack passages to immigrants, I have now the honour to forward a Report of the Immigration Committee of Council in reply thereto, and unanimously adopted by the Board.
2. It will be seen from this Report that the Council, for reasons explained therein, entertain scrious apprehensions of the effects of the proposed limited modification, clogged with the conditions annexed to it, and that before definitely accepting an arrangement, the operation of which may possibly, in their estimation, be more detri- mental than beneficial to the Colony, they desire to appeal once more to the wisdom and justice of the Government of India in favour of the total abolition prospectively of gratuitous return passages, except in cases of destitute sickness or others meriting special consideration.
3. I am not aware that it is in my power to add strength to the arguments urged by the Committee in support of their views, the adoption of which I earnestly trust you will feel justified in recommending to the Government of India. I have on a previous occasion expressed my conviction that the system of granting return passages to immi- grants on the expiration of their industrial residence at the expense of the Colony, might be abolished without any risk of check or impediment to the free stream of coolie immigration; and I am glad to find by the inclosure of your despatch that my opinion is corroborated by the Protector of Emigrants and the Emigration Agent at Calcutta, who possess the best opportunities of ascertaining and estimating the feelings on this subject of that portion of the Indian population from whence our labourers are drawn. Some doubts might have been entertained on the point before the interchange of expital and labour between the two countries had assumed its present healthy tone, grown from an experiment into a tested and well regulated system, the benefits of
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which are thoroughly understood and mutually appreciated by both parties. But no person acquainted with the true position of the Indian labourers in Mauritius can now suppose that, in addition to all the advantages enjoyed by them, they require the lure of a free passage back to their country to tempt them hither; knowing, too, as they do, that the passage can at any time be obtained at a cost so trifling that it is now frequently voluntarily paid by them in preference to waiting a few days for a Govern- ment vessel. Besides, as stated in a previous Report of the Immigration Committee, under date the 23rd March, 1851, forwarded with my despatch No. 72 of the 25th April, 1851, the Colony will undertake to secure free passages to all at the end of five or over three years, who desire to return to India, and can satisfactorily prove their own inability to pay for it.
4. Looking to the pecuniary means usually amassed by the Indian at the termina- tion of his industrial residence, and certainly always within his reach, it can hardly be alleged that justice to him of the obligation imposed on the Government of which he is a subject requires the maintenance of the condition of a free return passage; which, whilst not demanded for the protection of the rights or interests of the emigrant, unquestionably and seriously tends to impede the permanent settlement of the Indians in the Colony, an object long and ardently desired by both the Home and Local Governments, and one to which that of India has, I believe, never opposed itself. It is on this ground especially that the Council rest their claim to be again heard, and their hope that the Government of India will not be indisposed to reconsider the ques- tion, the solution of which may exercise so momentous an influence on the future prosperity of Mauritius.
5. The contingency of such a failure in the demand for labour as would throw a large number of immigrants out of employment appears to me to be so very remote and so improbable that I conceive it may be safely excluded from any prominent part in the determination of the question. But if, unhappily, it should turn out otherwise, the Government as observed by the Committee will not be without the means of providing for the exigency.
6. The gravest objection in my mind to the modification now offered is stated in paragraph 8 of the Committee's Report, and if the Government of India should not see fit to yield to the urgent but respectful remonstrances of the Colony, and consent to the total abrogation of the condition so strongly objected to, I would suggest either that the period during which the immigrant is to be allowed the option of claiming a free return passage should be curtailed, or that he should be required to make his election some short time previously to the term of his industrial residence being actually com. pleted; the latter, I incline to think, would be the preferable arrangement, and no insuperable objection to it at present occurs to me.
7. The Local Government does not fail to recognize and to appreciate the disposi- that has been manifested by those of Her Majesty and of India to modify or to remove those restrictions and requirements which a state of trial and probation has previously demanded. Nor does it for a moment question the right of the Government of India to attach such limitations to the emigration of its subjects as it may think the Local Government does encourage the hope, now when the success of the experiment But proper. has been clearly demonstrated and the apprehensions and suspicions entertained in the carlier stage of emigration have been dissipated, that the Government of India will feel itself justified in not insisting on a condition which, however right and necessary in the first instance, is firmly and conscientiously believed to be no longer so, and the effects of which are felt to be so detrimental to the interests of Mauritius.
(No. 56.) Sir,
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. M. HIGGINSON,
The Secretary of State for the Colonies to Governor Higginson.
Downing Street, May 9, 1853.
I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 3rd December last, No. 417, transmitting a copy of the Report of the Inunigration Committee of Council of Mauritius, in reference to the modification of the existing arrangement for giving Return Passages to coolie immigrants to the extent of compelling them to olaini their passages within six months after the expiration of their industrial residence, or of forfeiting them altogether.
I transmit to you herewith a copy of a letter from the Secretary to the Commis- April 26, 1853. sioners for the Affairs of India, with copy of a despatch from the Court of Directors
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