J
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PLC.O.885
21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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9. I visited both Benares and Faizabad last March with a view to obtain information regarding the value of land and buildings and ascertained sufficient to convince me that this departure can be made without entailing any additional annual expenditure beyond our present outlay.
The outlay of £2,000 in the first year alluded to in paragraphs 2 and 6 could not be dispensed with, but if amalgamation is effected there will be a rental of £750 for the new Calcutta and up-country depôts, together with an initial sum of £500 for coolies lines in the up-country depôt, instead of an annual rental for the new depôt in Calcutta of £2,200 if the two agencies remain apart.
After getting into working order the cost of obtaining the emigrants ought to be considerably lighter, but whether one-half the recruiting fees would be saved or one-quarter is a matter of pure speculation, as there is no precedent of any kind to guide one. The up-country sub-agents are at present paid £4 15s. for each emigrant accepted in Calcutta and pronounced fit for embarkation.
10. This departure should be introduced with care, and a certain liberty of action allowed to whoever is entrusted with it, as its immediate effect will undoubtedly be to estrange and make hostile those sub-agents in the locality who hitherto have depended on recruiting as their livelihood.
11. In the beginning, and until more is known about the working of the up- country depôt, it would be advisable to use it for supplying the Calcutta depôts with emigrants, but later it might be advisable to use it for collecting and despatching emigrants direct to Calcutta for embarkation, by special train, which would take them alongside the steamer in dock.
12. At present the Act will not allow this to be done, on account of certain duties which can only be performed by the Protector of Emigrants and Medical Inspector, resident in Calcutta, but Mr. Fremantle, with whom I discussed this, was of opinion that the suggestion was well worthy of consideration, and had much to recommend it, and that present difficulties in regard to the Protector of Emigrants and Medical Inspector might possibly be adjusted by new by-laws, and local up-country officials invested with the requisite powers.
13. As Mr. Gibbes points out, it is not advisable for one depôt to be recruiting emigrants for more than one Colony at the same time, and in discussions which would take place amongst the coolies those under the less favourable indenture would be liable to become discontented.
This does not matter so much when they meet on joint ships, as they cannot leave the steamers, but in a depôt would result in many of them getting over the wall.
Below I give the different terms of indenture so as to illustrate my meaning.
Trinidad
Jamaica
British Guiana
Fiji
...
Wages of Men.
Wages of Women.
2222
1288.
12 as.
12
as.
9 as.
12
as.
as.
12 AH
9 28.
*
Passage after 10 years. Amount to be contributed by-
Mon.
Free passage.
Women.
14. As regards the despatch of emigrants from Madras, I have come to the conclusion, after my last three or four years' experience, that this port of embarkation should be left entirely in the hands of Fiji, as neither British Guiana nor Jamaica will take any coolies from there, as they say they do not like them; and Trinidad, who are of the same way of thinking, will only accept them for the purpose of filling up a steamer, and so avoiding a loss in passage money.
Fiji, I believe, do not think more highly of the coolies from the Central Provinces than of those from Madras, and if this is the case (which might be ascertained from Fiji), a discontinuation of shipments of emigrants from Calcutta to Fiji might be worthy of consideration.
More of the Central Provinces emigrants would thus be available for the West Indies, and Fiji would have the satisfaction of knowing that their flow of emigrants from Madras is not interfered with by any requisition from other Colonies, which in the last two years appears to have been somewhat of a grievance.
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15. This severance of Fiji from Calcutta need not, however, affect the principle on which I understand it is desired amalgamation should be carried out, as the standing expenses of Fiji could be fused with those of other Colonies and a con- tribution taken from Fiji proportionally to the number of emigrants despatched and received during a period of three years, and the directions of the Agency could be operated from Calcutta.
If Fiji, on the other hand, desire their share of emigrants from the northern districts as hitherto, arrangements for their despatch could continue as at present.
Hitherto it has been the custom to recognise the winter season and early spring as the collecting season for Fiji, and the summer and autumn as the seasons for British Guiana and Trinidad, and early winter for Jamaica, but of late years the supply of emigrants from Northern India has become so restricted that I believe it will take the Calcutta Agency all its time to meet the requisitions from the West Indies if Fiji is contented with the Madrasee alone.
16. I agree with thể remarks made by Mr. Gibbes in connection with Madras, and consider that it would be desirable to make use of the former Natal depôt there, in place of the present depôt, unless some more suitable site can he found nearer the place of embarkation. Mesrs. Parry and Company's depôt (the old Natal one) is close to the present depôt, and about three or four miles from the docks.
Although I am personally acquainted with the Madras depôt, I have had no opportunity of ascertaining its working expenses, as on the visits I have made in the interests of the Calcutta emigrants whose steamers have touched at Madras en route to Fiji or Trinidad, I have confined my attention to the people in whom I was more particularly interested.
This information would be readily supplied on application to the Madras Agent. 'I think there is room for a considerable saving being effected in recruiting fees, but nothing of importance as regards the Madras fixed expenses.
17. It would make amalgamation very much more complete and effective if Dutch Guiana could be included within its scope, and its requisitions for emigrants entrusted to the British Colonial representative.
At present it depends for its organisation on copying the British system, and in using our sub-agents and recruiters, who assume for the time being two names, hoping thereby to escape detection. This tends to increasing recruiters' fees to a point far beyond what they ought to be, which, financially, is not good for either Colony. It is perhaps too much to expect that emigration to Dutch Guiana will be discontinued, so long as that to the British Colonies is permitted, but both would benefit if placed under the same direction. Mr. Fremantle was of the same opinion, but considered that so much correspondence would be necessary by reference to the various people interested that two or three years would slip by before it could be achieved.
This may be true, but nothing could be lost by commencing the correspondence and putting forward the views advocated in the Report of the Royal Commission on Emigration in 1909. From the correspondence which has been forwarded to me, I observe that the India Office have already commenced action.
18. The fusion of the two existing offices of clerks and assistants is a matter which requires special attention, as superannuation, and others who have been a considerable number of years in one or some of them have reached the stage of other of the Agencies might be reluctant to go up country and leave Calcutta where they have special facilities for the education of their children. A statement from Mr. Gibbes, drawn up after consultation with the two staffs, would be of material assistance in bringing about the jointure with the least injury to individual interests. In a private letter recently received from Calcutta, Mr. Gibbes informs me that he has already been able to effect an annual saving of £365 by reducing the travelling medical inspectors up country from four to two, and by dispensing with the services of certain clerks, so I think we may safely assume that the clerical and outdoor establishment of the central depôt in Calcutta and the depôt up country may he maintained on a reduction of our former outlay, but to what extent I find a difficulty, so far from my office, in quoting any figure which would be reliable.
19. In writing this letter, I have refrained from commenting in any way on the manner in which the changes proposed would affect the position of the present Agents, and have confined myself to stating what appear to me the most efficient means of bringing about amalgamation and improving our present system of des- patching emigrants to the Colonies.