PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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4. These four members sent their memorial direct to your Lordship on the 12th of April. The new Council of Government was opened on the 19th of April. In con- cluding the speech it is usual for a Governor to make on such an occasion, I addressed the elected members in a few words I borrowed from Sir Henry Norman, adding to his advice my cordial invitation to all the unofficial members, elected or non-elected, to discuss at the Council table as fully and as openly as possible the measures and policy of the Governor.
5. These four gentlemen, however, were very unwilling to accept the invitation.
6. Mr. Clifford Lloyd had prepared an answer to the address which met their views. They expressed great anxiety to have his draft adopted, "so as to avoid any discussion.” They hoped the Council "would not be troubled with matters of a controversial nature.' But the committee of members that prepared the address in answer to the speech amended Mr. Clifford Lloyd's draft by inserting the following paragraph:
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We feel confident that your Excellency will continue to take the same watchful interest in the welfare of all classes of the Colony, and continue to use your best efforts to promote the material and moral progress of its inhabitants."
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7. Sir Virgile Naz, K.C.M.G., the elected member for Savanne, who drew the paragraph, has informed me that it was according to precedent, and as near as possible to the language used by the Council in April 1881 in replying to the speech from the Throne of Lieutenant-Governor Sir F. N. Broome.
8. But the memorial to your Lordship, which was only thoroughly known to these four gentlemen and Mr. Clifford Lloyd, through whose hands as Colonial Secretary it passed in the usual course, was hardly consistent with the paragraph. The four could not, therefore, support it. It was manifest that a majority of the 15 unofficial members, including a majority of the elected members, were in favour of the paragraph and against the simple maintenance of Mr. Clifford Lloyd's draft. Hence a full debate, in which all the charges in the memorial might be considered, was inevitably and naturally brought about. One of the memorialists moved the omission of the paragraph. The policy and administration of the Governor was discussed. On the division being taken, the memorialists were alone, in a minority of four, against 10 other unofficial members.
9. I do not count the official vote, which on such an occasion goes, as a matter of course, with the Government. But if I were at liberty to allow the officials to consider the address in answer to the speech from the Throne as not being a Government matter, I do not know more than four or five out of the 13 officials who would have voted against the paragraph. Indeed, only three officials, Mr. Clifford Lloyd, Mr. Elliott, and Dr. Lovell, have distinctly told me that they were opposed to the paragraph.
10. I have the honour to enclose for your Lordship's information copies of the authorised report* of the speeches of the three memorialists, Messrs. de Coriolis, Beaugeard, and Antelme, who took part in the debate, as well as of the speeches made by the members who defended me and the Local Government, that is, Sir Virgile Naz, K.C.M.G., and Messrs. L. Rouillard, H. Adam, W. Greene, H. N. D. Beyts, C.M.G., and Lionel Cox.
11. Your Lordship will observe that three of the memorialists took part in the debate. Dr. Beaugeard, however, did not make the slightest reference to any of the numerous charges in the memorial he had signed. He simply deprecated any discussion as to the Governor's policy of proceedings. Mr. de Coriolis said he was in the Council " to speak in plain talk," and that he "would follow that course." Nevertheless, he also entirely avoided all reference to any of the charges in the memorial. He made no allusion to anything done under my Government. As one of a minority of the elected members he made a strange charge against his colleagues in the Council. He said, "I know that I "address myself to what I may call a packed majority so far as the unofficial element of "this Council is concerned."
12. Mr. Louis Rouillard replied that the vast majority of the inhabitants agreed with the majority of the unofficial members in supporting the policy and proceedings of the Governor. He said the minority that were now going to vote against the Governor had not a word to say against him when they were canvassing the electors. They had carefully avoided attacking the Governor then.
13. Mr. Antelme, senior, deprecated any discussion about the Governor's policy. He entirely supported Mr. Clifford Lloyd's draft reply. He objected to Sir Virgile Naz's amendment and the proceedings of the Committee. He thanked me for having, as President of the Council, repressed the loud applause that had greeted Mr. Louis
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Rouillard's speech in support of the Government, but he found fault with the decision of the Executive Council that the address of the committee ought to be supported by the Government. Unlike the other two memorialists he, however, entered into some of the statements in the memorial (of which he is believed to be the author), but in rather vague terms, charging maladministration of the finances, intimidation of magistrates, the non-adoption of a report of Dr. Regnaud's made and set aside many years before my arrival, escapes from prison, and the Governor's exaggerated philanthropy.
14. Sir Virgile Naz dealt with every statement in Mr. Antelme's speech. He emphatically repeated that the minority in the Council represented a still smaller pro- portional minority in the community, and that no Governor of Mauritius commanded such widespread and general sympathy amongst all classes as the present Governor.
15. Mr. Adam, as another elected member, spoke to the same effect.
16. Mr. Beyts, the Receiver General, answered Mr. Antelme's assertions respecting the finances; and Mr. Cox, the Procureur General, replied to his other statements.
17. The general opinion in the island is that the facts and arguments used by the majority contrast favourably with those put forward by their opponents.
18. Again, at the meeting of the Council of Government on the 4th of May, the four memorialists who, writing as members of Council, complain to your Lordship of my maladministration of the finances, were given the fairest opportunity of expounding their views and asking for explanations. After several days' notice, I submitted a motion and made a financial statement in the most convenient form for facilitating discussion and inquiry.
19. The four memorialists were present, but they avoided the subject and remained silent. The following is the report of the end of my speech. It shows that they were given an opportunity of discussing the maladministration of the finances that they had charged against me some weeks previously in their memorial.
"It is the duty especially of the elected members of this Council to look carefully after the finances of the Colony; it is their duty to see that the Government does not squander the public money, and in the performance of that duty I can assure them that there is no member at this Council table who will more cheerfully support them than their President.'
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"The question is that the papers be referred to the Finance Committee.
"His Excellency resumed his seat; and, after a pause, rose again and said:
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Any honourable member who may have formed an opinion as to the maladminis tration of our Government finances has now an opportunity of publicly stating the grounds of his opinion and asking explanations. I may perhaps state, gentlemen, that I had given notice of the motion in that form so as to admit of any honourable member addressing the Council now.
"After another pause, the Governor added: It is strictly in order for any honourable ⚫ gentleman to address the Council now, if he thinks fit to do so, and I shall only be too
happy to reply to any remarks that may be made.'
"SIR V. NAZ :-Will your Excellency allow me to address the Council, not on any- thing with regard to the figures, but as to the facts. Of the four estates which were recommended to be purchased, two belonged to the Oriental Bank and two belonged to other parties; the four did not belong to the Bank."
"The motion that the financial returns be referred to the [Finance Committee] waS again put and agreed to."
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20. Under those circumstances, as far as I am myself concerned, I leave my defence in the hands of the majority of the elected and unofficial members, and 1 especially to invite your Lordship's particular attention to the speech of the member for Savanne, Sir Virgile Nas, K.C.M.G. My predecessors, Sir Arthur Phayre, Sir George Bowen, and Sir F. N. Broome, have recognised Sir Virgile Nas as the chief leader of this community, owing to his sound judgment and sterling character. Doubtless for that reason he also received the highest mark of Royal favour hitherto conferred on any Mauritian.
21. But though I think it unnecessary to discuss what the four memorialists have said about myself, I venture to add a few words respecting what the memorialists call "a clique both ambitious and dangerous," to which I give my support and protection.
22. The "clique" in question is the majority of the unofficial members of the Council. It also includes nearly the whole of the planting body of the island, of the merchants, of the members of the legal and medical professions, and of the intelligent Mauritians of every class.
That is the "clique" to which I give my "support and protection." 23. venture to add to that very numerous clique the whole of the Asiatic popu- lation, immigrants from India and China-a population that also has received and will
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