307
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference:
TEC.O.882/11
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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20. We submit that a Council, elected on those principles, would give satis faction to all the important communities in Mauritius and destroy all rivalry between then. Politics have in the past been the source of endless troubles in what should otherwise be a peaceful Colony.
21. Ceylon, Kenya, and Mauritius are the colonies where the Indian question exists. Communal representation is the form of Government found to be best suited to the requirements of the first two places. We therefore entertain an earnest hope that His Majesty's Government may be pleased to sanction the grant of a Council for Mauritius composed as above and elected on similar principles.
22. Such a measure would inaugurate a Now Era, an era of peace, harmony. goodwill and mutual confidence and would be the means of bringing closer together the different races that live side by side on Mauritian soil and who are in such need one of the other.
We have, &c..
REYNOLDS ROHAN, 1..R.C.P. & S., L.D.S. (Edin.) and Paris. (Here follows lists of signatures, which have not been printed.)
Enclosure 2 in No. 10.
REPORT ON THE MEMORIAL OF DR. REYNOLDS ROHAN AND OTHERS ON THE MATTER OF A PROPOSED CHANGE IN THE CONSTITUTION OF THE GOVERNMENT.
1. The Petitioners admit (paragraph 11) that communal representation found no advocate in the Council of Government. Indeed, I would think that they have obtained the maximum number of signatures of those who could possibly be held in Mauritius to agree with their views. It is significant that very few Indians have signed it.
2. The Indian community, by far the more numerous in this Colony, will have nothing to do with it, and it is difficult to imagine that they could consent to what seems to the immense majority of them calculated to humiliate them and to deprive them of electoral rights exercised in common with other inhabitants, in the form in which they have been exercising them since 1885.
3. Recent opinions and representations of the Governor-General of Ceylon reveal conditions that, to many enlightened minds at least, show that the changes brought to the Ceylon Constitution and a wide enlargement of the communal system have not (? im) proved an ideal form of representation " for that Colony.
£4
4. I submit my views that the eldorado depicted in the last paragraph of the memorial is a vain illusion, and that the result would be very different from the imagina- fions of the petitioners.
5. Here again, an unofficial majority is demanded, to which would be given powers without responsibility: a position which in the reasoned and unbiassed opinion of the majority of the thinking community is incompatible with proper Government.
26th August, 1927.
C. 32952/27 [No. 8].
SIR,
No. 11.
EDOUARD NAIRAC,
Procureur General.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT.
(No. 109.)
Downing Street, 24th March, 1928.
I HAVE the honour to inform you that I have had under my consideration verbatim reports of a debate which took place in the Council of Government on 22nd March, 1927, and subsequent days, on a motion by Mr. Pezzani to the effect that "the Council of Giovernment is of opinion that this Colony is now ripe for representative Government.” I have also had before me the debate on the motion that took place in 1925 on the proposed revision of the Constitution.
2. I am satisfied, both from perusal of the debates, and from other sources of information available to me, that there is at present no urgent publie demand in Mauritius for a serious revision of the Constitution. In any event, you will understand that 1 should not feel justified in recommending the grant of any further wide additional
25
powers to the Elected Members of the Council of Government, until I had been fully satisfied by public enquiry that the franchise is sufficiently wide in present conditions to secure the proper representation of all classes of the people, and that the present distribution of seats secures fair and equal representation of the various districts of the Island.
3. There appears, however, to be some consensus of opinion in favour of certain minor reforms, particularly in regard to the position of the Nominated Unofficial Members of the Council of Government. I should be prepared to consider the amend- ment of the Instruments of Government to provide for the appointment of a definite number of Nominated Unofficial Members, who would be understood to possess entire freedom of voting on any measure before the Council, provided that additional clauses were added to the Letters Patent on the lines of Sections 53, 54 and 55 of the Ceylon Order in Council of the 19th December, 1923, giving the Governor power to declare any vote to be of paramount importance, in which case only the votes of the Ex-officio and Nominated Official Members would be taken into consideration. It should, more- over, be a condition precedent to the grant of this freedom of voting to the Nominated Unofficial Members that the Standing Orders of the Council should be revised, so as to secure the efficient despatch of business and reasonable priority for Government I would suggest that proposals for the revision of the Standing Orders might well be examined in any event by a small Committee, to which the Colonial Secretary, the Procureur General, and two Unofficial Members should be appointed. 4. I would suggest that this despatch should be communicated to the Council of Government.
measures.
C. 32952/27 [No.9].
SIR,
No. 12.
I have. &c..
L. S. AMERY.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT.
(Confidential.)
Downing Street, 24th March, 1928.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 30th September last,* forwarding reports of a debate which took place in the Council of Government on 22nd March, 1927.
2. On the general question of the amendment of the Constitution, I adhere to the views expressed in my Confidential despatch of the 3rd March, 1926.† In order that my views may be communicated to the Council, I have addressed to you by this mail an open despatch on the subject.
C. 32952/27 [No. 10].
No. 13.
I have, &c.,
L. S. AMERY.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT.
(Confidential.)
SIR,
Downing Street, 4th April, 1928.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 30th of September, transmitting a memorial from Dr. Reynolds Rohan in which
he puts forward a scheme for the revision of the Constitution of Mauritius.
2.
I have to request that you will cause Dr. Rohan to be informed that I have received and considered his representations, but that, from the information in my possession, I have formed the opinion that there is no general popular demand in Mauritius for a revision of the Constitution in any of its more important features. In particular, I should not be prepared to approve the introduction into the Constitution of the principle of communal representation, as I am not satisfied that such a change is desired by the majority of the population, nor that the present conditions of the Colony call for it.
I have, &c.,
L. S. AMERY.
* No. 9.
† No. 8.
↑ No. 10.