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of the Colonies in regard to the position and treatment of immigrants, and second, the popularising of the system of emigration in India.
4. The majority of the recommendations which have been made under the first of these heads are naturally for the consideration in the first instance of the Colonies concerned. From the point of view of India, they appear to be eminently desirable, and we desire to give them our support. to are as follows:-
The recommendations referred
(a) The Straits Settlements.─[Paragraphs 165, 166 and 407.]
(1) The indentured system should be discontinued in view of the high death-
rate.
(2) The emigration of women of good character should be encouraged. (3) Greater facilities should be given for the education of children. (b) Mauritius. Paragraphs 199, 200, 202, and 214.]
(1) Stipendiary Magistrates should be acquainted with the habits and dis- positions of Indians, and should, if possible, possess some knowledge of their languages.
(2) The Protector should assist labourers in securing evidence when they
prosecute their employers.
(3) The Protector should make greater use of his power of disallowing emi-
grants to estates not well managed.
(4) Emigration to Mauritius should be discontinued, as the need for it has
ceased, owing to the existence of a large Indian population.
(c) British Guiana and Trinidad. Paragraphs 231 and 293.] It should be considered whether the law in regard to arrest without warrants should not be altered so as to correspond with the actual practice, and whether it should not be limited to cases where there are reasons to believe that the immigrant is a deserter or contemplates desertion. It should be obligatory in all cases that persons so arrested should, in the first instance, be brought before an officer of the Immigration Department or a Magistrate.
(d.) Trinidad.-[Paragraph 294.] Indians should be allowed some representa- tive on the Legislative Council.
(e) Jamaica-Paragraph 413.] The question should be considered of cancel- ling the provision of the Immigration Law (section 13 of Law 20 of 1891), which requires the payment by the estates to the Immigration Fund of a tax of one shilling a week for each labourer during the five years succeeding the expiration of his first five years of indenture.
(f) Windward and Leeward Islands (viz., St. Lucia, Grenada, and St. Vincent. Paragraph 414.] There is no practical opportunity for renewing emigration to these Colonies.
(g) [Paragraphs 232, 292, 362, 409 and 416.] An enquiry should be made in British Guiana, Trinidad and Fiji as to the large number of prosecutions of labourers by employers.
(h) [Paragraph 426.] Re-indentures should be limited to one year at the most where the system still prevails. The system should be abolished within a reasonable time.
(i) [Paragraph 427.] Some general regulations should be made restricting the number of hours of work for children, enacting that a certain amount of time should be given to instruction, and laying down rules for the provision to be made by employers or by the State for this purpose.
5. With regard to recommendation b (4) above mentioned, we consider that the circumstances disclosed by the Report of the Committee afford sufficient grounds for the prohibition of indentured emigration to Mauritius. It appears from paragraphs 211 to 213 of the Report that there is in the Colony a sufficient Indian population to supply the labour required, and that with a further increase in its numbers the free labour market would he overstocked and the growing poverty of the island would be enhanced. We observe from the papers forwarded with your Lordship's despatch of the 7th April that orders have already been issued by His Majesty's Government for the discontinuance of emigration to Mauritius. At the same time the Secretary of State for the Colonies in his despatch to the Governor of Mauritius, dated the 7th November last, has alluded to the possibility of occasion arising for importing further indentured labourers. In order, however, that legal effect may be given to the existing discontinuance of emigration, we consider that it will be best to issue a Noti- fication under section 5 of the Indian Emigration Act, XVII. of 1908, prohibiting indentured emigration to that Colony. We consider it advisable that the present
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position should be regularised by removing the Colony of Mauritius from Schedule I. of the Emigration Act, as a country to which emigration is lawful. Should emigra- tion at any time be re-opened, the notification could be withdrawn. But whilst emigration stands prohibited, the prohibition should, we consider, be made definite in the manner we have proposed.
6. The Committee have stated (in paragraph 415 of their Report) that there is a very promising field for the employment of imported agricultural labourers in British Honduras. As to this, we are not in a position to consider the question whether emigration should be opened to British Honduras until we are informed of the terms which the Colonial Government is prepared to offer for the purpose.
7. The Committee have further recommended (in paragraph 416 of their Report) that the concession allowed to the West Indian Colonies in regard to return passages should be extended to Fiji, if the relations between labourers and employers in the latter Colony are improved. We are prepared to agree to this recommendation if the Colonial Government can satisfy us that the labourers are in a position to con- tribute towards their return passages, and also that there has been the improvement desired by the Committee in the relations between the employers and their labourers. 8. We agree with the suggestion of the Committee, contained in paragraph 439 of the Report, that the Immigration Reports of the Colonies should be prepared on a uniform system. The form in which the Immigration Report should be prepared was settled in the correspondence ending with the Secretary of State's despatch No. 82, Public, dated the 14th May, 1874. The heads of information suggested by the Committee in the annexure to their report appear to us to be suitable. sider, however, that it is desirable that the annual reports should, in addition to the We con- information required in the Committee's form, show under the head "Return Pas- sages the number entitled to return passages and the number of those who have re-indentured or have commuted the right for money or land grants. We are also
of opinion that the heads under "Vital Statistics" should be amplified so as to show the mortality during the first and second years of residence of new immigrants, and that a comparison should be made of the death-rate of immigrants with that of the general population. Information should also be given in all reports on the subject of marriage and divorce. These heads of information were prescribed in 1874.
9. The Committee have also recommended (in paragraph 440 of their report) that it should be the duty of some officer either in India, at the India Office, or at the Colonial Office, to compare the annual reports, to watch any changes made in the legislation of the various Colonies, and to suggest the adoption, either generally or in particular Colonies, of measures which have been found beneficial elsewhere. We do not consider that the Government of India could very well undertake this duty, as they are not sufficiently acquainted with local conditions. A similar plan, and one that we think should prove sufficient, would be for each Colony to be supplied with the Labour Acts and reports of other Colonies. position to judge whether a particular measure adopted in any other Colony was Each Colony would then be in a suited to its requirements.
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10. Before turning to those recommendations of the Committee which have been made with the object of popularising the system of emigration in India, there is one matter to which we think it necessary that attention should be called, viz., the change that is coming over public opinion in this country in connection with indentured emigration in general. There is no doubt that this feeling has gathered much strength in recent years, and expression has been forcibly given to it both in the press and at public meetings. It is probable that the unfortunate conditions that have arisen in Natal are mainly responsible for the adverse view that is taken regarding indentured over-sea emigration. But the fact remains that a not inconsiderable por- tion of Indian opinion is more and more coming to believe that the system is objection- able and should be discontinued. The point from which indentured emigration is regarded is generally that the Indian labourer sacrifices his liberty by going to a distant country and binding himself down to work under rigid conditions for a master who regards him as a mere chattel. No account is taken of the fact that the labourer is as a rule well treated, that he is able to save money, and eventually in many cases to settle down comfortably in the land of his adoption. It is possible that the pub- lication of the report of the Committee may do something towards preventing the agitation from coming to a head. But we wish in this place prominently to mention its existence, and we think it would be well if the Colonies which draw indentured lahour from India were apprised of the fact. grievances which remain unredressed, capital is certain to be made out of the fact, the If their Indian labourers have