CO882-(2-3) — Page 400

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

། ། ། ། ། །

C.O.

Reference :-

882

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

Par. 204.

652, 1493, 2139, 2140, 2149, 2150, 225.

P. C. R. Par. 295.

G. O. 21 of 8th

March, 1871.

Ans. 326, 1174.

202

was no remedy for the evil, but that they were made to go backwards and forwards through the vexatious action of this Department is, I trust, sufficiently disproved by the evidence itself to need but little comment.

31. To refute the statement in paragraph 204, relative to the police "far outstrip- ping the limits of discretion with the sole view of increasing the number of punish- ments," and “ arresting thousands of men" illegally. I would beg to refer you to the Magistrates themselves to show that they, who had the best opportunities of judging, ore and all were of a contrary opinion.

32. I now turn to paragraph 225, and feel sure that had General Order No. 81 of 8th March, 1871, one of those on the file kept back, been produced to the Commission, this paragraph would not have been inserted in the Report, as you will observe the question of change of occupation had been settled by the Procureur General a year previously.

38. The Island is, as you are aware, intersected by many chains of mountains, and rivers running in ravines, often several hundred feet deep, covered with dense tropical vegetation; these were the resorts in olden time of the Maroons, or run-away slaves, and soon served a similar purpose for the Indian absentee, who emerged but to commit P. 438, 439, par. 5, depredations. Soon small squatters established themselves, and crowding on land, 6, and 7, P. 432,

evidently insufficient to afford them means of an honest livelihood, affording homes to par. 18, 19.

the criminal deserter or idler, la "Nouvelle Découverte" being one of their principal rendezvous (Ans. 328). To send a man or men to any one locality would be simply to enable the evil-doer to escape through the wood, and walk off to another spot, his worldly goods being on his back, simultaneous action either by districts, or in connec- tion one post with another had to be resorted to, and, if occasional mistakes did take place (though they were as much as possible guarded against by having non-commis- sioned officers, who could read and write and knew the laws, in charge of parties) such as must be inseparable from the difficulty of discriminating between old immigrants, passengers, and country-born, all of pure Indian extraction, so often did escaped convicts and other criminals, find themselves in the hands of the officers of the police. Buch visits brought to light breaches of the sanitary laws and other contraventions that would easily have been got out of sight, had an inspection proceeding regularly seriatim from village to village been attempted, no unimportant consideration, and one rendered imperative by the Secretary of State's despatch previously quoted.

P. C. R. 544.

1867.

34. I may here mention that the records of my office show I have done my utmost to bring under rectification the boundaries of districts, and appeal to my general orders to prove that the rules in this department only allow men to be arrested, who could give no satisfactory reason for being out of their districts, hence the inference that the ill-defined limits served as a cover for acts of oppression by the force.connot be, I think, laid to our charge.

35. Another point on which great stress is laid by the Commission, is on the fact of a portion of the fine in contravention cases going to the police, and to the increase of late years the number, which it indirectly infers, is consequent on the police Art. 5, Ord. 31 of receiving their share under the Ordinance 81 of 1887. This though it possibly may serve to incriminate the police when such is the object, is a mistake, as reference to the law must show that the police had no pecuniary interest in arresting old resident Indians under it whatsoever, as it was only in the case of a new immigrant deserter, that any portion of the fine went into the informer's pocket, if the Magistrate so decided. I have always been a strong opponent to the police thus receiving portions of fines, though I failed to see with many of the class under me what can replace such an incentive.

Annexure P.

Annexure P.

P. C. R., Par. 289.

86. The excess of contravention of late years is, in my opinion, mainly traceable (vide annexure P.) to the carrying out of the improved sanitary legislation by this Department, and not to the (ride A. 544, P. C. R., par. 197), interested zoal of the police, as the report attempts to show.

87. That the crimes against the person have not been reduced among the Indians by Ordinance 81 of 1867, is not, I consider, to be wondered at, such offences among this class being almost entirely confined to cases proceeding from the disparity of the sexes among the Indians.

38. I certainly do not agree with the wholesale condemnation passed on the Department relative to the taking of bribos by members of the force; as to officers, I may say no case was ever reported to me, and had it existed any one who knew of it, and who must have been aware how strongly against it I have ever been, has been guilty of the grossest neglect of duty, in not bringing such instances to my knowledge; as for the men I would remark that I find by a return in my office that from May

203

1861, to May 1872, 11 years, 51 men, vis., 16 Europeans, 21 Indians, and 14 Creoles were dismissed the force for taking or attempting to take bribes, or about 1 in every Honourable C. An- 200 per annum, I am, therefore, inclined to side with the Honourable C. Antelme, talme's Report, whose knowledge of the island and his countrymen, and the many foreign races in it Par. 7, P. 94. (vide para. 7, page 84), is far greater than mine.

39. Against the assertion, as far as I am concerned, that (204) the law as worked P. C. R., Par. 204. with the sole view of increasing the number of captures, or of obtaining men to work on the estates or roads, I give the most emphatic contradiction that the usages of society will permit, and I here would appeal to my antecedents during the five-and- twenty years I have had the honour to hold Her Majesty's Commission, and would ask if a man who went through what I did in 1863 in the interest of natives of India (Sikh pioneers imported into Ceylon), is likely to sanction acts of oppression here, while refer you again to my file of General Örders, to show that a contrary spirit existed.

40. I fear the Commission (ride E.) were misled by such Orders only as ware P. C. R., Par. 161. published with the report, or by those who, though possessing but little practical knowledge or experience, doubtless desired to have it believed that by the "much better spirit now prevailing in the force," a police millennium had been arrived at, necessarily to their credit, but reckless of the support due to their absent Chief and the good fame of their Department.

1878,

41. The opinion of all competent to judge is so unanimous as to the effect of the 1171,1520, law in the suppression of vagrancy that I will not detain you in enlarging on the 1887, 9184, 3159, subject, though, I would here remark, that the date furnished to the Commission cannot 2218, &c., &c. represent fairly the state of the case in regard to gang robberies, for necessarily many 191, 1180. more occurred and fell through, owing to various causes, than obtained convictions 1075, 1944. before the Supreme Court.

1

42. Adverting to the conclusions arrived at in paragraph 205, "that no doubt thousands were punished as vagrants because they were unacquainted with the requirements of the law," I would remark that, though this is more a reflection on the whole of the Magistrates of the Colony than on the police, I must draw your attention to General Order 42, of 28th May, 1868, to show you that every effort to give publicity to the Ordinance was used; and I feel convinced such is the rapidity with which rumours travel among this class, that there was hardly an Indian" in Mauritius who was unaware of the fact, that he had to put himself en règle, a fortnight after the action on my order was taken. The above statement, moreover, seems unsupported by any evidence brought before the Commission.

48. You will perceive that the Honourable C. Antelme, one of the two inofficial members of the Commission, is far from accepting the sweeping condemnation contained in the Report, and I regret much that I have not had the advantage attendant on the publication of that of the other inofficial member, the Honourable J. Fraser, as, in a conversation I recently had with him in London, he informed me that, in the document submitted by him, he was far from accepting the censure passed on my department.

44. Having now touched on most of the principal pointa dwelt on by the Commission, I would beg you to observe the evident tendency that (I write under correction) appears to me to be evinced in the report to incriminate the police, to the publication of part of my orders, the suppression of others (vide 13, C. D. E.) in the possession of at least two members of the Commission, the mis-quotation adverted to (page 23), and to the fact that if charges are not directly, straightforwardly, and honestly brought forward, they are insinuated throughout the document.

1180, 1911.

45. In illustration of what appears to me to be the desire alluded to, let me draw your attention first to paragraph 20, where with the oath of the complainant on the P. C. R. 20. one side, and the unhesitating denial of an Indian merchant (evidently a respectable witness) and of the defendant on the other, the allegation was stated as not proved satisfactorily.

40. Again (P.C.R. page 17), 6thly, "It may have been the case formerly" is a P. C. R. statement put forward to cover an accusation of vexatious action in this Department, though it is stated that no evidence exists to support such an assertion. The same spirit pervades paragraph 48, where to make arbitrary action more glaring a probability Para. 40. is cited. Again, in paragraph 96, probabilities or doubts-paragraph 100 (which Para. 96. strange to say are never favourable), are made to tell against the Department.

47. While on this point let me draw your special attention to paragraphs 108 and 103. One Jadhaya complaining of delay in receiving his pass, and of being beaten, brings forward no evidence, yet though the statement is declared by the Inspector and

Par. 100.