PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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PEPEL C.O. 885
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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SIR,
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No. 21.
JAMAICA.
GOVERNOR SIR A. W. L. HEMMING to MR, CHAMBERLAIN
(No. 592.)
(Received October 25, 1901.)
King's House, Jamaica,
October 8, 1901.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your circular despatch of the 1st of June last, in which you request me to inform you generally whether I am entirely satisfied with the relations between the Crown Agents and this Colony and, if not, to furnish you with particulars of any instances in which, after due investigation on my part, I have reason to believe that the Commercial interests of the Colony under my Government have not been adequately protected by the Crown Agents.
2. With respect to the general relations between this Government and the Crown Agents, I have no observations to make in this despatch, but there is something to be said with regard to the manner in which requisitions of this Government are carried out by them. I shall deal with this matter positively, but in so doing I trust it may not be supposed that I overlook the much good service rendered by the Crown Agents, which must properly be taken into account in balancing any adverse criticism.
3. Representations not infrequently come before me that the Crown Agents are tardy in the execution orders and, occasionally, that orders are not well executed. Particular cases in illustration of such complaints have been referred to in the des- patches from this Government, No. 353, of the 1st of August, and No. 423, of the 29th August, 1900,* and I enclose copies of correspondence relating to a more recent instance. There have been, and will continue from time to time to be, other cases to which I might refer, and some of which have been dealt with in correspondence either with yourself or the Crown Agents, a schedule of which I enclose; but, for reasons which I shall presently indicate, I do not wish to overload this despatch by labouring such particular instances, in regard to which the Crown Agents have generally been able to show reasons why they should not be considered in fault. There is the less reason for me to do so because of the important decision taken by you in the most serious recent instance in which the Colonial Government has had to make complaint of the Crown Agents, namely, in connection with the orders for Rolling Stock for the Railway last year. In that instance with regard to the orders for freight cars, in which you considered that there had been inexcusable laxity on the part of the Crown Agents, you stated that you would require them to indemnify the Colonial Govern- ment, and in the case of the Railway Engine supplied by Messrs. Kitson and Company, in which there were scandalous faults of workmanship which had been passed by the Crown Agents Inspector, compensation has been recovered from Messrs. Kitson, and the Inspector's fee withdrawn. The Crown Agents have, in other recent cases, them- selves imposed fines upon contractors for excessive delays. Such instances in which the complaints of this Government have been established, and exemplary notice taken, cannot fail to have a beneficial effect on the service of the Crown Agents and the firms with whom they deal, in the future.
4. The complaints of tardiness, and the impression in the minds of experienced Heads of Departments in this Government that the Crown Agents are not businesslike in their methods, arise out of a long experience, and more especially out of opportuni- ties for comparison between the execution of orders by the Crown Agents in England and of orders through the Government's Agents in New York, and, in order to assist you in part to appreciate the bases of this impression, I transmit to you a return of the Requisitions sent by this Government to the Crown Agents and to its New York Agents, respectively, during the two years ended 31st March, 1901, showing, in each case, the date of the order and the date of the receipt of the letter advising shipment, and (by deduction of the number of days occupied in transit of letters) the net number of days occupied in executing the orders. It will be noticed that whereas the average number of days taken in New York is 24.5, the average taken in England is above 68.
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5. It is very probable that the difference in the character of the bulk of the orders sent to England may be sufficient to account for and to justify a normal excess of time in their execution, and I do not suggest for a moment that the difference between these two averages would be a fair measure of real difference in efficiency. But in examin- ing these lists, 1 am inpressed by the fact that, for Stock articles not requiring to be manufactured or specially ordered, the time taken in supply by the Crown Agents is distinctly higher on an average than that taken in New York, and this by more than would be accounted for by the difference in shipping facilities. The delay in regard to most of such articles is, I have no hesitation in saying, in general greater than would be experienced or tolerated by private individuals ordering goods either from Merchants or Commission Agents in London, and, in a considerable number of cases of this class, I think, it will be recognised that some complaint or comment might reasonably have been made of delay. Such complaints are, however, only made in extreme cases.
6. As regards stock articles I cannot believe that merchants, Stores, and trades- men in London are so much less prompt in attending to orders than similar estab- lishments in New York as to account satisfactorily for the difference.
7. As regards the execution of orders requiring to be manufactured, I believe it to be the case that the Crown Agents are, to a great extent, helpless, and that business methods in America are in general more convenient in such respects. When com- plaints have been made of delay in the execution of such orders through the Crown Agents, it has been explained in reply that the British Manufacturer can rarely be relied upon to send in his goods by the date by which they are promised, the best that can be expected being an assurance, at or about that date, that the order is in a for- ward state, and that the Crown Agents cannot mend matters by inflicting fines because the only result would be that the firm penalized would either not take future orders or would insure itself by tendering at a higher price.
8. So far as this is the case, it goes far to explain the delays which occur in regard to this class of orders, and the Crown Agents bear perhaps an unmerited disparagement for faults that are not really theirs. But under such circumstances it is not surprising that the Head of a Department dependent on Stores and supplies which it is not con- venient or possible to order many months in advance, should sometimes feel it to be an inconvenience to the Public Service that his orders should, except in special circum- stances, require to be sent at so early a date. I cannot refrain from observing that the anticipated results of fining peccant Contractors hardly seem to me to justify the non- infliction of deserved penalties. The range of competition among manufacturers is hardly, I imagine, so limited that the refusal of a particular Firm to take further orders would cause any very serious inconvenience.
9. The question, perhaps, hardly arises within the limits of your despatch under acknowledgment, but, in view of the circumstances of this Colony, I must make some reference to the subject of the causes which may tend to encourage the transferring of Colonial orders from England to the United States of America, or the purchase of im- ported American and foreign goods locally instead of requisitioning for goods through the Crown Agents.
10. These causes have not, as a fact, produced any marked effect in recent years on the course of the orders of this Government, but Jamaica lies so near to the United States markets that the cheapness of freight, combined with the habitual greater promptitude of execution, must operate in some measure to divert thither orders for articles which can be procured there equally as well as in England. I have noticed on more than one occasion in letters from the Crown Agents to your Department a tendency to speak of " cheap and worthless American or German goods" as being likely to be purchased by Colonial Governments if the system of buying goods through them should in any degree be departed from.
11. I think it is a mistake to assume that even if American and German goods are so purchased, they are necessarily cheap and worthless. The reason why American and German goods are supplanting British goods in a great many places is due to precisely the same causes which express themselves in the feeling that the service of the Crown Agents is not entirely satisfactory. The prompt supply of the thing that will serve the required purpose is often of greater real value than the long delayed supply of a possibly superior article.
12. The Crown Agents for the Colonies have in recent times made certain re- quests and suggestions for simplifying the business they do for Colonial Governments in ordering supplies. As it is, by long established practice all orders are sent in dupli- cate so as to save the Crown Agents copying work, and simple orders might, in most
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