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on this subject in the Imperial Legislative Council and of the answers given to them. In connection with the marriage law, we would invite your Lordship's attention to the correspondence ending with Lord George Hamilton's despatch, No. 82, Public, dated the 22nd July, 1897, relating to the report by Mr. Muir-Mackenzie on the condition of Indian immigrants in Mauritius. We have not been informed of the result of the communication then made on this subject to the Mauritius Government. We now observe that the Mauritius Royal Commission of 1909 have considered the question both of the marriage and the succession law. In paragraphs 298 (8) and (9) of their Report, the Commission have recommended (1) that the limitation imposed by the existing law of succession on the power of disposing of property should not apply to any person domiciled in Mauritius who, on his marriage, and with the written concurrence of his wife, notifies to the Civil Status Officer his desire that those limitations should not apply to any estate of which they, or either of them, may die possessed, and (2) that steps should be taken to recognise as legal marriages contracted by Indians in accordance with the rites of their own religion. We hope that it will be possible for the Mauritius Government to give effect to both of these suggestions.
We have, &c.,
HARDINGE OF Penshurst. O'M. CREAGH.
GUY FLEETWOOD WILSON.
J. L. JENKINS.
R. W. CARLYLE,
S. H. BUTLER.
SAIYID ALI IMAN. W. H. CLARK.
Questions asked by the Honourable Mr. GOKHALE at a Meeting of the Imperial Legislative Council held on the 16th March, 1911.
1.—(a) Will the Government be pleased to lay on the table a return, showing, year by year, the number of indentured emigrants from India to Mauritius during the last five years?
square
(6) Has the attention of the Government been drawn to the following opinion, expressed by the " Committee on Emigration from India to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates in paragraph 408 of their report, issued in 1910:-
The population (of Mauritius) has risen to a density of 559 to the mile-poverty is increasing-the demand for fresh immigrants has ceased for the last two years, and it does not appear likely that further artificial addition to the population could be to the real advantage of the Colony or of the immigrants."
(c) Will the Government be pleased to state what steps, if any, they propose to take in view of this opinion?
2. (a) Are the Government aware that marriage according to Hindu or Muhammadan rites is not recognised as valid in law in Mauritius, and that Indian settlers in that Colony are placed under the French law of marriage and succession and that this is regarded by the Hindu and Muhammadan settlers as a grievance?
(b) If so, will the Government be pleased to state if they will urge on the Colonial authoritics the necessity of removing this grievance of the Hindu and Muhammadan settlers in Mauritius by recognising in their case the validity of Hindu and Muhammadan laws of marriage and succession?
Reply by the Honourable Mr. CLARK to the Honourable Mr. GOKHALE's question re emigration to, and Hindu and Muhammadan marriage law in, Mauritius. The number of indentured emigrants who proceeded from India to Mauritius during the five years 1905 to 1909 is as follows:-
Year.
1905
1906
1907
1908
1909
Number of emigrants.
691
585
572
Nil.
Nil.
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The Government of India have received a copy of the Report of the Committee on Emigration from India to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates referred to by the Honourable Member, and it is at present under their consideration. No decision has yet been come to on the recommendation of the Committee in regard to emigra- tion to Mauritius.
The reply to the first part of the second question is in the affirmative. The marriage law formed the subject of correspondence between the Government of India, Her Majesty's Government, and the Colonial Government in 1897, but the law has remained unaltered for reasons of which the Government of India are not aware. The question of the application to Indians of the Colonial law as regards marriage and succession has now been raised in the Report of the Mauritius Royal Commission, 1909. The Government of India will take the matter into considera- tion in connection with the Emigration Committee's Report.
Enclosure 2 in No. 39.
SIR,
IN continuation of Sir R. Ritchie's letter of the 8th December last on questions
India Office, S.W., 28th October, 1911. arising out of the Report of Lord Sanderson's Committee, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to inform you that he has now received and considered the observations of the Government of India on the recommendations made by your Society.
With regard to the proposal that the recruitment of unmarried women as emi- grants should be prohibited, I am to point out that under Section 35 of the Indian Emigration Act no person under the age of 16, an age at which few Indian girls are unmarried, can emigrate unless under guardianship. The effect of the total pro- hibition of the emigration of unmarried women would be to break up family ties by preventing unmarried girls from accompanying their parents or guardians. The case of women unaccompanied by their husbands is especially provided for in Section 28 of the Act, under which the Registering Officer is empowered to defer registration for a week or ten days in doubtful cases, so as to give time for the husband to appear, and to refuse registration if the husband on his appearance does not consent. It is thought probable that the course proposed by the Society would not be effectual in preventing the emigration of undesirable characters, since such women could arrange with male emigrants to pass as their wives.
As regards the suggestion that Indian officials paid by the Indian Government should be appointed Protectors of Immigrants in the Colonies, his Lordship, after consultation with the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Government of India, adheres to his opinion that this proposal is unsatisfactory, as leading to administrative difficulties and as tending to decrease the direct responsibility of Colonial administrations, and that the results desired can be obtained by the deputation from time to time of Indian officers to the Colonies.
The recommendations as to recruitment made in paragraphs 76-80 of the Sanderson Committee's Report are at present under discussion with the Colonial Office.
It is hoped that such measures as the limitation of the area of recruitment and the establishment of an Agency at Benares, in which measures his Lordship is inviting the concurrence of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, will do much to secure recruiters of a better type and to enable more thorough supervision to be exercised over recruiting operations. If casual recruitment in the neighbourhood of towns and markets is stopped, while recruitment is carried on in villages with a view to the emigration of whole families from congested districts, a marked amelioration may be expected.
His Lordship is alive to the dangers of the system of paying recruiting agents by commission, and is in correspondence with the Colonial Office on the question.
I am, &c.,
The Secretary,
Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society,
51. Denison House,
Vauxhall Bridge Road,
S.W.
ED. S. MONTAGU.