CO882-(2-3) — Page 338

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference:

TITLLC.O.

.882

2

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO

72

No. 20.

Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimberly.—(Received

(No. 188. Miscellaneous.) My Lord,

June 4.)

Mauritius, April 26, 1872.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's despatch No. 71 of the 14th March, and at the same time to report the arrival here on the 7th instant of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the condition of the Indian immigrants in this Colony.

2. Your Lordship is, I am confident, too well aware of my desire to assist by any means in my power the labours of these gentlemen to require any assurance to that effect.

3. The Commissioners held their first sitting and operied the Commission on Wednesday the 17th instant, but have not yet commenced taking evidence.

4. The mess-room and the adjacent appartments of the now empty line barracks in Port Louis have been appropriated to the use of the Commissioners for their meetings. and the traumotion of "official business, whilst a commodious house in the com- paratively healthy district of Moka has been hired by the Government for their private residence.

I have, &o.

(Signed)

No. 27.

ARTHUR GORDON.

Governor the Hon. Sir A. H. Gordon, K.C.M.G., to the Earl of Kimbarley.—(Received June 4, 1872.) (No. 142. My Lord,

Miscellaneous.)

Mauritius, April 26, 1873.

I HAVE had the honour to receive your Lordship's despatch No. 66 of the 14th March, on the subject of the publication of the despatches addressed to your Lordship by me on the subject of Indian Immigration.

2. Of course I can have not the slightest objection to the ultimate publication of“ these despatches.

8. My deprecation of their immediate publication was due to my knowledge of the fact that (although really conceived in a spirit of impartiality, and couched, I venture to believe, in guarded and moderate language) the hints they contain that abuses might in some quarters be discovered, and reforms consequently required, would be sufficient to irritate the planters to a degree which would "interfere not a little with my future

usefulness.

4. I have already explained that the reference in your Lordship's despatch No. 16 of the 19th January to your Lordship's previous despatch No. 910 of the 10th Decem- ber, rendered the publication of the latter inevitable when the former was laid before the Council, and that the references contained in the despatch of the 16th December to my previous suggestions also necessitated the production of the substance, at least, of my despatches referred to.

5. That I was not wrong in my estimate of the effect on my own position which thair publication was likely to exeita is, I think, proved by the inclosed extracts, taken espectively from the chief organ in the press of the English planters, and from that of those of Frenah origin.

6 At the same time I must add that I believe this exeiterment, m in wruzd in this laland, will subside as rapidly as it has risen, and although the extracta inclosed reflect, I fear, mot unfaithfully the present view of a large portion of the members of the Chamber of Agriculture, I am sasured, by more than one leading plantar fhat they are not shared by many of the most repeated and influential of the agricultural body.

I have, do.

ARTHUR GORDON.

(Bigned)

73

Inclosure 1 in No. 27.

Extracts from the “ Commercial Gasetle" of April 16 and 20, 1872.

IT would not be indispensable that these facts should be known to the Commis- sioners if they intended merely to inquire into the treatment of Indians on estates. But as the reputation of the whole Colony is at stake, as the employers of immigrants generally look to the Beport of the Commission to refute, not only the calumnies of Plovits, but misstatements from a higher source, we have thought it necessary that the Commissioners should be informed of the position of parties and the causes that led to their own appointment. On one side, we have the whole of the agricultural body and the public generally; on the other, a Governor who, whilst he pretends in his speeches to be devoted to the interests of Mauritius, has not sarapled to send a denunciation of the Colony to the Secretary of State founded on information which he now publicly adraits was inexact.

An attempt is made by the "Sentinelle”—we will not my at whose instigation— to make us regret the appointment of the Royal Commission. We have no hesitation in saying that it was only by the Commission that the Colony could be relieved from the false position in which it has been placed by calumnies and misstatements which have found a ready credence among too many in England who are only disposed to look on one side of questions relating to Colonies like Mauritius. Without the Commission we should have been kept in a continual state of inquietude as long as the present Governor continued to hold the reins of the Administration. Anything like a reconciliation between the Governor and all who depend directly or indirectly on agricultural prosperity is impossible after his Memoranda; and the Chamber of Agriculture were doubly right, after he refused to take any steps to refute the calumnies advanced, to sak for a Commission to report on the real condition of the immigrant population, for they knew the home Government would be obliged to believe and uphold Sir Arthur Gordon. The Royal Commissioners are disinterested and impartial umpires, and we know quite enough of them to be satisfied beforehand that they will efficiently perform their duty. Their recommendations will have 36 much attention here as with the home Government; changes can then be made which aircumstances have rendered necessary; and, if it is found that the labouror is not surrounded with sufficient protection, there will be no reluctance shown here to accord We must then hope that the Governor will cease to annoy a peace-loving and contented people.

more.

There is one point of view from which the issue of the Royal Commission has not been regarded. We all know that it has been appointed to investigate the condition of the Indian immigrant in Mauritius, into the truth of the statements contained in Mr. Plevits's pamphlet, and, collaterally, to suggest what should be our future policy and legislation with respect to the immigration and labour systems of the Colon But it does not seem to us that it is very well understood who are, to use a legal phrase, the parties to the cause. Is it the Commission versus the Colony, or the Commission versus Plevits, or the Commission versus the Governor ? In our mind, and we have come to the conviction since the publication of his Memoranda, his Excellency is as much personally concerned as is the Colony or its now notorious calumniator. Sir Arthur Gordon has disseminated and aided the dissemination of unbanded accusations against a Colony which, until his taking over the reins of Government, had been rightly considered as perhaps the only one of Her Majesty's possessions that uprightly fulfilled its obligations towards the Indian immigrants, and which, offering about the same wages and no return passages to intending omfgrands, could, notwith- standing, always obtain a sufficient supply of Indian labourers. dwell on the circumstance that nearly 10 per cent. of the Indians who have left as of We will not here late years to regain their native country have returned to the Colony again to submit to an industrial residence of five years. Nor need we, for the moment, say more than that among the tens of thousands of new and old immigrants in our midst, a very large proportion has come to Mauritius after having been enabled to judge of the advantage of emigrating to the West Indies. But we must observe that his Excellency is a party to the great cause now to be tried, and we presume the fact will be recognised by the Royal Commissioners, and will be duly considered by them during their inquiry.

This being the cssc, we believe we have a right to demand, as his Excellency the Governor is, we declare it advisedly, as much on his trial as all of us are, that he do

[134]

U