PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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(No. 213.) SIR,
64
No. 40.
FIJI.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 30 October, 1911.)
[Answered by No. 18.]
Fiji, Government House, Suva, 28th September, 1911. I HAVE the honour to confirm my telegram of to-day's date,* dealing with the arrangements for recruiting immigrants in India, and stating my opinion in regard to the manner of dealing with requisitions. A copy of my telegram is enclosed.
2. I consider that the proposed amalgamation would tend to economy and facilitate recruiting; but I venture to suggest that some definite decision be taken as to the order of priority to be given to requisitions of the various Colonies, and I trust that in arriving at that decision due attention will be given to the fact that Fiji has during the past two years requisitioned a larger number of immigrants than any other Colony using the Agency.
I have, &c.,
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No. 41.
BRITISH GUIANA.
F. H. MAY,
THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 12 December, 1911.)
[Ordinance sanctioned, 23 January, 1912. No. 23. L.F.]
(No. 380.) SIR,
Government House, Georgetown, Demerara, 22nd November, 1911. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith, for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure, authenticated copies of British Guiana Ordinance No. 25 of 1911,† entitled: An Ordinance to amend the Immigration Ordinance, 1891, with respect to deserters," together with the report of the Attorney-General thereon.
I have, &c.,
CHARLES T. COX,
Acting Governor.
Enclosure 2 in No. 41.
Attorney-General's Chambers, Georgetown, Demerara,
22nd November, 1911.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to report as follows on Ordinance No. 25 of 1911, entitled : An Ordinance to amend the Immigration Ordinance, 1891, with respect to deserters."
2. This Ordinance has been passed to amend section one hundred and twenty- seven of the Immigration Ordinance, 1891 (No. 18 of 1891), as recommended by the Committee on Emigration from India to British Colonies. An explanatory memo- randum attached to the Bill when it was before the Legislature, a copy of which is attached hereto, sets out the object of the measure.
3. I am of opinion that this Ordinance may properly receive the Royal Assent.
I have, &c.,
T. C. RAYNER.
His Excellency
the Governor.
• No. 35.
Not reprinted.
65
THE IMMIGRATION (Desertion) BILL, 1911.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM.
Following on the recommendations contained in the Report of the Committee on Emigration from India to the British Colonies certain modifications of the existing system of East Indian indentured labour have been regarded as advisable.
Amongst other matters an amendment of Section 127 of the Immigration Ordinance has been recommended, to provide (a) that the power to arrest without warrant shall be limited to cases where there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the immigrant is a deserter or contemplates desertion, and (b) that the immi- grant when arrested shall be taken to the nearest immigration agent or to the estate to which he belongs, instead of to the nearest police station as at present. Immigrants arrested without warrant will under the law as amended be brought to a police station only in case of arrest at night.
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No. 42.
INDIAN EMIGRATION MEMORANDUM.
I.
QUESTIONS AFFECTING ALL THE COLONIES.
The most important of these are--
(1) Maintenance of present system of paying recruiters by commission.
(2) Amalgamation of the Calcutta Agents and establishment of Responsible
Agent in the United Provinces.
(3) Restriction of area of recruiting.
(1.)
The present system of recruiting as follows:-
In our recruiting districts there is stationed a sub-agent to whom the Emigra- tion Agents at Calcutta pay a fee in respect of every emigrant recruited from the sub-agency. The fee, which is only payable when the emigrant has been actually shipped from Calcutta, averaged until recently Rs. 25 for each male and Rs. 35 for each female. It has lately been found necessary to raise the fee, owing to scarcity of emigration resulting from good harvests and plentiful employment.
Our sub-agent employs a number of recruiters and pays them on the average from Rs. 4 to Rs. 9 for each male and from Rs. 8 to Rs. 12 for each woman recruited. The sub-agent has to pay the railway fare of each emigrant down to Calcutta (say Rs. 7 per head) and he has also to pay the rent of his depôt. Roughly speaking his profit on each emigrant actually embarked from Calcutta is about Rs. 10, and as he is only paid when the emigrant has actually embarked it is to his interest to see that he sends no one to Calcutta who is not bona fide anxious to emigrate and therefore unlikely to desert, and also physically fit for emigration.
+3
offers
very and they,
The India Office in their present letter argue that such a system great temptations to misrepresentation on the part of the recruiters therefore, trust that it will be found possible to bring this system to an end.
The objections to the system are stated in paragraph 70 of the Committee's report, where they suggest certain improvements, viz. the establishment of an Agent in Central India and the restriction of the recruiting area, to both of which it is submitted that assent should be given. The Committee did not, however, pro- pose to abolish commissions, and this proposal, now made for the first time by the India Office, comes as a bombshell which would be sufficient to crush emigration altogether.
It is to be noticed that the Indian Government are not in agreement with the India Office on this point, and definitely commit themselves (paragraph 18 of their despatch) to the opinion" that the system of payment by commission must be adhered to if emigration is to be continued."
The view of the Indian Government is shared by Mr. Gibbes (the Emigration Agent for British Guiana) and it is also the conclusion to which we were all driven after threshing the matter out with him and discussing the possibility of paying fixed salaries, or some such compromise as fixed salaries, with a bonus for any emigrants additional to a stipulated number.
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[Cd. 5192] June, 1910.
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