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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
9 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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The Governor at the same time forwarded a Replies to précis of the replies to his circular of the the previous year, of which mention is made on Circular.
Governor's 2 of Miscellaneous No. 135. the majority of those consulted
He stated that
"(i.) Were strongly in favour of increased
"resort to fogging as
" conviction
a penalty on
"(i.) Were not of opinion that confinement "in the stocks would be a suitable "penalty.
46
(iii.) Considered it improbable that Vigi- "lance Societies could be established with "successful effect.
"
(iv.) With some dissentients, including the majority of the Resident Magistrates, recommended increased stringency of "the Vagraney Laws, some advocating "forced labour for vagrants on public "farms or settlements, or under inden- "ture to private employers. This last "was recommended by the Jamaica
Agricultural Society."
❤
Law
Mr. Chamberlain ultimately decided that the Predial Prædial Larceny Law must be, disallowed, as Larceny being open to many of the objections which had disallowed. led to the disallowance of previous laws upon Produce the subject; but that the Produce Protection Protection Law might be sanctioned, and the draft Vagrancy sanctioned. Law approved. In communicating this decision. to the Governor in January 1902, he added as Bill
Vagrancy follows:-
approved.
Law
"I am as anxious as yourself to discover some Enquiry "means of dealing with the prevalent evil of suggested. "prædial larceny, and though I have been unable "to accept the measures recommended by the "Colonial Legislature, I am unwilling to believe "that no solution of the problem is possible.
"The evil exists in greater or less degree in "all the West Indian Colonies; and it has been suggested to me that a lawyer of high standing, "familar with the administration of criminal law "should be sent out to visit the West Indian Colonies, to enquire into all the circumstances "connected with prædial larceny, and to report "what measures, if any, would in his opinion be "likely to lead to its suppression.'
11
A despatch in similar terms was addressed Circular at the same time to the other West Indian despatch Colonies, and a letter was written to the Home to Wast Office enquiring whether the services of one of Indian the leading police magistrates could be placed January, Colonies, at Mr. Chamberlain's disposal for the purposes 1902. of the suggested enquiry. The reply of the Letter to Home Office to this enquiry was in the following Home
terms:-
Office. Home
"Mr. Ritchie would most willingly comply, Office "if possible, with Mr. Chamberlain's request, bat
reply. "he is afraid that in any case the requirements of 3803/02. "London business would not admit of the services " of a Metropolitan Police Magistrate being "utilized, and, moreover, he can scarcely think
1
17906'02.
Jamaica Vagrancy Law, 1902.
25600 02.
25599 02.
860.03-4.
9460,04.
273,04-5.
3
"that a Metropolitan Police Magistrate would be "possessed of the kind of experience required
for the proposed enquiry. A London Magistrate "might be thoroughly conversant with the "English criminal law, but it is probable that "his practical experience in dealing with orchard robbery and similar offences would be small, "more limited at all events than that of a Justice "of the Peace in a fruit-growing county.
"There is a further point to which I am to "draw attention. Having regard to the fact that "England and the West Indian Colonies differ "so widely in their people, history, and climate, "there must be much in English criminal law which the Colonies could not well adopt; but even in the case of those provisions which might "be adopted, the adequacy of our law would have
"to be carefully considered, as it cannot be "regarded in any way as a perfect model. Thus "in this very matter of orchard robbery, a first "offence cannot be made the subject of an "indictment, and consequently the want of a
"
power to punish juvenile delinquents by a "whipping instead of imprisonment is a matter "which has been much pressed on the Becretary "of State's attention, and is considered by many "people conversant with the question to call for "legislation."
The replies received from the Colonies to Mr. Chamberlain's proposal for an enquiry were, gene. rally speaking, unfavourable. In British Guiana, Barbados and Trinidad it was considered that the existing law was sufficient, and the Governors reported that the unofficials would oppose any. vote of money for the costs of an enquiry. Jamaica gave a qualified assent to the proposal, and St. Lucia was in favour of it, but elsewhere it met with practically no support; and in June 1902 all the Colonies were informed that the proposal would be abandoned for the time being.
In June, 1902, the Jamaica Vagrancy Law, based on the Bill which had received Mr. Chamberlain's approval, was sent home. At the same time a memorial protesting against its provisions was received from the "Jamaica "Artizans' Union." In intimating that the law would not be disallowed, Mr. Chamberlain instructed the Governor to point out to the memorialists, who urged that it was "a depri- "vation of the sacred rights of liberty of a "British people," that it merely assimilated the law of Jamaica to that of England; but at the same time he asked for a report on the working of the law, after a year's time, and asked that a circuler might be addressed to Resident Magis- trates, pointing out the need for a careful ad- ministration of its provisions. In a report written at the end of 1903, the Governor stated that the Law had proved useful, and had not been found to operate in an oppressive manner; but it apparently had no effect in dishing the prevalence of prædial larceny, as its pro- visions were more applicable to the towns than to the country districts. A year later the new Governor, Sir J. A. Swettenham, expressed the
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