CO882-(3-4) — Page 572

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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" nombre qui sont prête à y voir introduire l'élément électif, mais à la condition qu'on lui donne des contre-poids qui l'empêchent en aucun cas de devenir une cause de trouble ou de perturbation."

Il peut donc être déduit de ce passage que même les partisans du système électif n'ont point une bien grande confiance dans leurs représentants futurs, puisqu'ils demandent un contre-poids pour les empêcher en aucun cas de devenir une cause de trouble et de perturbation.

Je me demande quels sentiments doivent éprouver ceux qui ne sont point partisans du système électif lorsqu'ils pensent à la réforme proposée.

LES ÉLECTEURS ET ÉLIGIBLES SERONT-ILS TENUB DE SAVOIR LIRE ET ÉCRIRE ? Le sous-comité demande simplement que la question soit tranchée électorale.

par

la loi

Il y a un grand nombre de personnes qui ont exprimé le désir de voir inclure dans la pétition de la réforme que l'électeur sache lire et écrire le Français ou l'Anglais.

il me semble que ce serait une grande injustice de demander une pareille chose, car il y a des Indiens qui ne connaissent point ces langues et qui cependant sont des hommes instruits dans les différents dialectes de leurs pays.

que

D'autres désirent que l'electeur sache lire et écrire au moine dans une langue. En admettant de savoir lire et écrire dans une langue suffise, que feront alors les Indiens qui n'ont pas reçu les bienfaits d'une éducation même primaire, et qui, malgré leur ignorance, sont arrivés à se créer une position indépendante, et à avoir le chiffre voulu pour être électeur et éligibles (les Indiens ayant $40 par mois ou $2,500 de fortune sont le plus souvent dans ce cas)?

Le silence du Sous-Comité à cet égard ne peut qu'inspirer une grande inquiétude. A la dernière réunion du Comité des Réformes, M. W. Newton a chaleureusement pris la défense de ceux qui ne savent ni lire ni écrire, mais si le système électif tel qu'il est proposé était admis à Maurice, nous ne savons à quelle époque il fonction- nerait et peut-être à cette époque nous n'aurions pas l'avantage d'avoir M. Newton parmi nous ou peut-être ne serait-il pas parmi les élus du peuple.

LE CONSEIL ELECTIF N'ÉTANT POINT ADMIS EN PRINCIPE, QUEL MODE DE GOUVERNEMENT CONVIENDRAIT AU PAYS?

Ce dont nous avons besoin à Maurice, c'est d'avoir un Conseil composé d'hommes sages pour représenter les intérêts de la colonie et je crois que nous les avons dans les membres inofficiels.

No. 8.

LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR F. NAPIER BROOME, C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY. (Received November 28, 1882.)

(Confidential.)

MY LORD,

Government House, Mauritius, October 31, 1882,

I will add a few confidential remarks to the public Despatch* by which I transmit a numerously signed petition to Her Majesty, praying that a partly elective Council of Government may be granted to the Colony.

2. The question of representative institutions for Mauritius is not new, though I am not aware that it has heretofore assumed such a concrete form as in this petition, That it was much mooted in connection with Governor Higginson's District Councils Ordinance of 1853 will appear from a perusal of the Memorandum (dated 15th March 1853) on that measure, sent direct to the Duke of Newcastle by Mr. C. J. Bayley, the then Colonial Secretary, and also from other papers of the time. I may note that this District Councils Ordinance, after all the excitement which it created, and though it has been law for 30 years, has never once been acted upon.

3. Fifteen years after the passing of the District Councils Ordinance, on the 2nd May 1868, Sir Henry Barkly, in writing confidentially to the Duke of Buckingham alludes to "the large party who aspire to representative institutions;" and I could make similar extracts from the despatches of other Governors.

• No. 5.

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4. At no time, so far as I know, have either Her Majesty's Government, or the Governor of the Colony, countenanced for a moment the idea that it would be in any way fit or proper to endow Mauritius with anything like an elective legislature. But the strongest, the most recent, and therefore the most pertinent opinion on the matter, is that of the present Governor, Sir George Bowen, expressed in his Confidential Despatch of the 25th March 1880* (paragraph 5, sub-head K, sub-section 2). Asking the question "Is it then proposed to give an elective assembly, with the power of "the purse to Mauritius?" "Sir George Bowen writes:-

C5

"Not so: I, for one, have always held that it is equally mischievous and ridiculous to set up a parliament in a heterogeneous community, where a small minority of "whites is surrounded by an overwhelming black population. It will be recollected, further, that I am more in favour of maintaining in Mauritius the autocracy of the Secretary of State, through the Governor as his local instrument, than any of my predecessors in my present office."

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5. In my public Despatch, I have not referred to two important points, often dis- cussed in the Despatches of Governors of Mauritius, namely, the extent and danger of any disloyal or anti-English feeling which may exist among the French-speaking and French-descended population of this conquered Colony, and the imperial value and importance of the island as a naval and military post, situated in the centre of the Indian seas, and in the close neighbourhood of the French Colony of Reunion.

6. As regards the first point, I will only say that, though it is true that Mauritius was won by the sword 70 years ago, and though French is still spoken, and the society still stamped with its French descent, I feel certain that the English local government may count securely, in any event, upon the sympathies and support of all but an extremely insignificant and powerless section of the population. In considering any political change, I do not think that it is at all necessary to weigh the loyalty of the agree with the petitioners in thinking that the loyalty and fidelity of community. I the people of Mauritius may be taken for granted.

7. With regard to the second point, I think that the material importance of this possession of the British Crown can scarcely be overrated. Mauritius is a strategic post of the first class in time of war, and would become of great value as a naval and commercial port in the event of interference with the traffic now passing through the Suez Canal. The constitution of the legislature might have a close bearing upon certain Imperial questions of defence. Any difficulty connected with the military contribution, the construction of a submarine telegraph, the subsidy of an English line of ocean steamers, or the relinquishment of the present French line, &c., might turn upon a single vote, and an extreme case may be supposed in which it might be very important to carry a decision on one of these points in a certain sense, and in which any surrender of the present power of the Crown in the Council might render it impossible so to carry it. But these considerations have equally existed in Colonies to which representative institutions have partly or wholly been granted. Their bearing upon the present petition is, after all, but secondary.

8. The prime question bound up with any proposal to change the constitution of the Council of Government is, I respectfully submit, the internal administration of the Colony, or, in other words, the just and good government of all classes of its heterogeneous population. I cannot but think that, under the special circumstances of Mauritius, this would be more or less endangered by placing the Government in an undue minority in the legislature. Nevertheless, I have so much confidence in the fairness and good sense of the gentlemen who are or may be selected to fill the unofficial seats in the Council, that I think, as I have said in my public Despatch, that two unofficial members might with safety, and even with advantage, be added to the Council. This would place the official side in the minority of two (reduced to one by the Governor's vote), in which it was a short time back.

9. At the same time I know that the steady policy of Her Majesty's Government for the last ten years has been to balance the parties in the Council... During the existence of the unofficial majority, successive Governors were over and over again desired by Lord Carnarvon, by Sir Michael Hicks Beach, and by your Lordship, to make no fresh appointments on the unofficial side, until the equilibrium which, as Lord Carnarvon wrote, "had been incautiously disturbed," should be again restored. But I attach so much weight to the request of the large body of the educated class who have signed this petition, that I do not scruple to indicate a concession which I consider might safely be made. Any difficulty of Imperial importance which could not be arranged in a Council of eight official and ten unofficial members (and I believe such would rarely, if

R $115.

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