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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

نيسيا

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

SIR,

146

Enclosure 3 in No. 55.

Port Louis, Mauritius, January 15, 1887. We have the honour to request that you may be kind enough to transmit by the next outgoing mail to the Secretary of State for the Colonies the petition addressed to Her Majesty by a large number of the inhabitants of this Island, praying that full justice should be done to Sir John Pope Hennessy, and that the general policy which he has followed in the Colony should not be departed from, and to send along with the petition the resolutions which were adopted at a meeting of about 1,000 of the petitioners held in the rooms of the "Union Catholique" yesterday.

We beg to point out that the petition is signed by 4,267 persons, out of whom there are no less than 1,635 electors. This number forms the majority of the electorate, when the number of Government officers, who are inscribed on the electoral roll, is deducted from the total number of electors, as should be done in this case, since the committee who took the initiative of the petition, acting in accordance with Lord Granville's despatch decided that no public officer should be permitted to sign the petition.

The number of Government officers whose names are on the electoral roll being 755, and the total number of electors being 3,931, the difference is 3,176. Therefore 51.57 per cent of the electorate, after deduction of the number of Government officers who are electors, have signed the petition. When it is borne in mind that there are many electors who died within the last year, and that there are others who are now absent, the proportion of electors who have signed the petition is in reality still larger than 51.57 per cent.

We would also venture to remark that when the initiative committee, to which reference has just been made, considered it was expedient to appoint a delegate to represent the petitioners in England, they at once convened those petitioners to a public meeting to The ratify the powers they had conferred in principle on Mr. William Newton. resolutions, which were unanimously adopted at the meeting, must therefore be held as a ratification of such powers by all the petitioners.

The resolutions were the following:-

1. This meeting ratifies Mr. Newton's appointment by the initiative committee as the delegate of the petitioners to advocate the prayers contained in the petition addressed to Her Majesty the Queen, in favour of Sir John Pope Hennessy and of his policy, the petitioners relying on Mr. Newton's zeal and devotion to bring to a successful issue the cause which is committed to his bands.

The meeting, moreover, confirms the powers given to Mr. William Newton of having himself assisted in the performance of his mission by any person or persons whom he may deem fit to select, with a view of co-operating with him in the defence of the interests of this Colony.

2. The meeting, moreover, appoints a committee whose duty will be to correspond with Mr. Newton, and who will do, in the name of the petitioners, all that may be necessary to assist him in the carrying out of his mission.

The committee consists of Honourable Sir V. Naz, Honourables Adam, H. Léclézio, V. Geffroy, Portal, Arlanda, Guibert, Dr. Edwards, and Mr. G. K-Vern, Mayor of Port Lewis.

A third motion was proposed and carried unanimously, to wit.: That an association for the defence of Mauritian interests should be formed, and that all the petitioners should be members of it unless they signify their intention to the contrary, and that the committee appointed as above should have it in its charge to take the necessary steps to organize such association on a proper and regular footing.

Lastly, we are to inform you, that the costs of Mr. Newton's journey to London, and of his stay there, will be defrayed by means of a public subscription.

We have, &c.

(Signed) V. NAZ,

President of the General Meeting of the Petitioners.

(Signed) EMN. BASSET,

·

Secretary of the General Meeting of the Petitioners.

To His Honour W. H. Hawley,

Major-General, Administering the Government,

&c.

&c.

&c.

147

No. 56.

ADMINISTRATOR Major-General W. H. HAWLEY to the RIGHT HON. EDWARD STANHOPE, M.P. (Received February 9, 1887.)

Government House, Mauritius, January 17, 1887.

SIB,

(No. 42.)

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you a letter addressed to you by certain members of the Mauritius community which has been brought to me just as the mail was closing. I propose to send one copy of this letter to Sir Hercules Robinson, in case he should wish to offer any observations on the subject, and also to make a few comments on it myself by next mail, but I forward it at once as an indication of the extreme sentiments held by what I believe to be but a small minority of the Roman Catholic community in this island, but to which expression is at present given in consequence of the excited state of public feeling.

I have, &c.

(Signed) W. H. HAWLEY,

Major-General, Administering the Government.

The Right Hon. Edward Stanhope, M.P.,"

SIB,

&c.

&c.

&c.

Enclosure in No. 56.

To the Right Hon. EDWARD STANHOPE, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.

Mauritius, January 17, 1887.

As members of the Mauritian community, and as the representatives of several of the ancient French families of this island, we feel impelled by a solemn duty to our families and to our native country, to protest against the course you adopted of sending to this Catholic Colony, to report on our affairs, and to set in judgment on a Catholic Governor (the first we have had since the conquest of Mauritius) a Commission opposed . to our religious feelings.

At the head of the Commission was a Protestant who could not or would not make use of the French language, which is the language of the Catholics of this Colony. The secretary selected for the Commission was a clerk from the metropolis, also a Protestant, as well as the law adviser of the Commission, and the other two members of his staff, who were all unable or unwilling to speak French.

From the day they landed to the day of their departure they resided in the house of a Protestant gentleman notorious as an enemy of the Governor, the last guest in that house having been Mr. Clifford Lloyd. Their principal entourage and their principal visitors, acquaintances and apparent intimates, all belong to the same party.

On several occasions the Commissioner refused to hear evidence or statements of Mauritians because they could only speak French, the language guaranteed to us as our chief national custom by the capitulation of 1810.

But he gave an open ear to the stories against us and against the Governor brought to him by a group of English officials, by men whose intolerance against our faith, and whose attitude during years in high offices have done so much to widen for many years past the breach between the Mauritians and the English here.

The open outrage upon justice and on Her Majesty's representative that Sir Hercules Robinson committed was only a fitting close to a commission which had done as much as any other Act since the conquest of this island to alienate the feelings of the community from England.

After the appointment of Mr. Clifford Lloyd, an Orangeman, as Lieutenant Governor, after the appointment of Sir Hercules Robinson as Royal Commissioner, who, instead of putting Sir John Pope Hennessy, our eminent Catholic Governor, upon a fair trial, condemned him unheard, the appointment of General Hawley as Officer Administering the Government was clearly calculated to wound deeply our religious feelings.

The Catholics, who in Mauritius number about 108,000 against hardly 8,000 Protestants, have not learnt without concern and will not easily forget that a few days before he was called upon to assume the reins of government, General Hawley presided at a meeting of the members of the Bible Association where the of the Protestant communion were extolled, and at which the attempts at proselytism by progress and development

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