167
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TEC.O. 882
سلسل
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
SIR,
166
No. 74.
THE RIGHT HON. SIR HERCULES ROBINSON, G.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. SIR H. T. HOLLAND, BART., G.C.M.G., M.P. (Received March 16, 1887.)
Government House, Cape Town,
February 19, 1887.
General HAWLEY has forwarded to me, for any observations which I may wish to offer upon it, a copy of a memorial‡ addressed to you by ten Roman Catholics in Mauritius, protesting against the alleged wrong done to their faith by the composition of the late Royal Commission, and complaining also of certain acts of Her Majesty's Government and myself to which they call attention in their memorial.
2. They observe, with reference to myself and my staff, that "from_the_day they "landed to the day of their departure they resided in the house of a Protestant "gentleman, notorious as an enemy of the Governor, the last guest in that house having been Mr. Clifford Lloyd. Their principal entourage, and their principal visitors, acquaintances, and apparent intimates, all belonged to the same party."
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3. From this it might be inferred that, like Mr. Clifford Lloyd, I too was a guest in the house of this "Protestant gentleman and notorious enemy of the Governor." I may mention, therefore, that I have never seen the gentleman referred to, Mr. Shand Harvey, who has been for some time in England; and that I had never even heard of him before I landed in Mauritius. I did not know until I read this memorial to what religious denomination he belonged, and as I never heard during the time I was in Mauritius that he was opposed to Sir John Pope Hennessy, or took any part whatever in local politics, his alleged enmity to the Governor can scarcely have been "notorious.” 4. When the appointment of the Royal Commission was announced in the English newspapers Mr. Shand Harvey offered his house in Mauritius, was then upled, to the Secretary of State for the use of the Commission, and The Glen," which Mr. Stanhope accepted the offer, telegraphing to me to the Cape that he had done so. On my arrival in Mauritius I accordingly at once proceeded to "The Glen," where I engaged my own establishment, and set up house for myself.
"
5. Whilst residing there I received all the "visitors" that called on me without reference to their religious or political opinions, but I had no "intimates," and as long as I was in Mauritius I lived entirely apart from the community, neither accepting nor dispensing hospitality.
6. The allusion to Mr. Clifford Lloyd as the "guest" who immediately preceded me in the house of the Governor's enemy is disingenuous. When Mr. Clifford Lloyd first arrived in Mauritius he was in bad health, and took up his quarters at the Curepipe Hotel. Mr. Shand Harvey, whose house is near Curepipe, heard of this, and invited Mr. Clifford Lloyd to stay at "The Glen" until he could find a house for himself. At that time Mr. Clifford Lloyd was on cordial terms with Sir John Pope Hennessy, who visited him at "The Glen," and sat by his bedside. therefore, to establish Mr. Shand Harvey's enmity to the Governor by his hospitality to The attempt, Mr. Clifford Lloyd, appears to me a subversion of the real facts of the case.
7. The memorialists further observe: "on several occasions the Commissioner refused "to hear evidence or statements of Mauritians, because they could only speak French, "the language granted to us as our chief' national custom by the capitulation in 1810." 8. This statement also is not in accordance with fact. All persons who desired to give evidence before the Royal Commission were invited by a notification in the public prints to call on the Secretary, who would arrange with them for a hearing. A few caine who were unable to express themselves with facility in English. They were informed that the Commission had not the means of taking parole evidence in French, but that if they would put what they had to say in writing it would be carefully weighed, and if material to the inquiry would be attached to the evidence. This they did, and the same consideration was given by me to these written statements as if they had been oral utterances.
v. I feel almost ashamed of replying at all to a memorial written in such a spirit. It furnishes, I think, an additional illustration, if one were needed, of the religious intolerance, political, bitterness, and race animosity engendered in Mauritius by the unhappy policy of the last few years.
(Signed)
&c.
I have, &c.
HERCULES ROBINSON,
Royal Commissioner.
The Right Hon. Sir H. T. Holland, Bart., G.C.M.G.,
&c.
&c.
• Enclosure in No. 56.
No. 75.
THE RIGHT HON. SIR HERCULES ROBINSON, G.C.M.G., to THE RIGHT HON. SIR H. T. HOLLAND, BART., G.C.M.G., M.P. (Received March 16, 1887.) Government House, Cape Town, February 21, 1887. GENERAL HAWLEY has forwarded to me copies of the enclosures in his despatch to you of the 17th January,* consisting of—
SIB,
(1.) A petition to the Queen from certain inhabitants of the Mauritius in favour of
Sir John Pope Hennessy.
(2.) A letter from Sir Virgile Naz covering the above petition; and
(8.) A letter to the Secretary of State from the Honourables O. Beaugeard, G. de Coriolis, C. Antelme, C.M.G., and C. Planel, adverse to Sir John Pope Hennessy.
4
2. Sir Virgile Naz states in his letter that "the petition is signed by 4,267 persons out "of whom there are no less than 1,635 electors. This number forms the majority of "the electorate, when the number of Government officers who are inscribed on the “ electoral roll is deducted from the total number of electors.
The "number of Government officers whose names are on the electoral roll being 755, and "the total number of electors being 3,931, the difference is 3,176. Therefore "51 57% of the electorate, after deduction of the number of Government officers who
are electors, bave signed the petition."
3. The number of persons in Mauritius on the electoral roll was stated to me to be 4,056, and not 3,931 as given by Sir Virgile Naz. Assuming the correctness of his other figures, namely that the names of 755 Government officers are on the roll, and that 1,635 electors signed the petition, these last would not form a majority of the unofficial electorate, being only 49'53 °, and not 51.57 % as estimated by Sir Virgile Naz.
4. The difference is not very material, and the petition, for whatever it may be worth, would seem to show that practically the electors remain of the same mind as they were at the last general election in January 1886, when 55 8% of the total votes- official and unofficial-recorded at the polls were given for opposition candidates.
I have, &c. (Signed) HERCULES ROBINSON,
Royal Commissioner.
The Right Hon. Sir H. T. Holland, Bart., G.C.M.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
No. 76.
The RIGHT HON. SIR HERCULES ROBINSON, G.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. SIR H. T. HOLLAND, Bart., G.C.M.G., M.P. (Received March 16, 1887.)
Government House, Cape Town,
February 22, 1887.
SIR,
I FIND on looking over the Mauritius correspondence remaining here that the Acting Secretary to the Royal Commission, in making up the enclosures to be sent home with my report of the 7th ultimo,† included in the appendix only those papers that were connected with the parole evidence given by the various witnesses. I have accordingly now the honour to forward, as a supplementary appendix, the accompanying letters, in original, for and against Sir John Pope Hennessy, some in French and some in English, which were submitted to me by persons who, for one cause or another, chiefly in consequence of insufficient knowledge of English, were not summoned to give parole evidence before the Royal Commission.
2. As these letters were mostly expressions of personal opinion, in favour of or adverse to the Governor, I thought they might be accepted as a written record of the views of the writers, without troubling them to give sworn testimony to the same effect before the Commission.
• No. 55.
↑ No. 48,
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↑ Not printed.