CO882-(4-5) — Page 41

9. Since my arrival I have had to fill two death vacancies in the Council of Govern- ment, I selected one Protestant and one Catholic. In dealing with the nine appointments that are now to be made, I shall endeavour (if you leave the nominations to me) to adberc as far as possible to that system.

10. I would suggest that five public officers be nominated and four unofficials. By allowing me to select four, I would probably be able to take the four first in the order of standing of the existing Council (Sir V. Naz will doubtless be an elected member), and thus to include the two representatives of English houses that are in the present Legislature. That would be two Protestants and two Catholics.

11. If you approve of this, a telegram would reach me in time, as I shall not make my nominations till after the elections, that is the 20th of January 1886.

I have, &c.

(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.

choice.

3

I am strongly of opinion that such appointments should be made without regard to the question of religious belief.

I have, &c. (Signed) FRED. STANLEY.

Sir J. Pope Hennessy.

No. 4.

any

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

The Right Hon. F. A. Stanley, M.P.,

&c.

&c.

&c.

No. 2.

Colonel the RIGHT HON. F. A. STANLEY, M.P., to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE

HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.

TELEGRAPHIC.

December 22, 1885.-The three officials mentioned in confidential despatch of 19th September and one other official should be appointed with five nominated unofficials; for the latter, giving preference to members in order of standing on old Council who are not elected, thus giving-majority to unofficials. Clause 43 cannot be altered. Despatch to follow.

SIR,

No. 3.

Colonel the RIGHT HON. F. A. STANLEY, M.P., to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.

(Confidential.)

Downing Street, January 9, 1886.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 24th November,† on the subject of the provisional appointment of nominated members of the Council of Government.

Upon the question whether the Council could be lawfully constituted with less than nine nominated members, it is unnecessary for me to say more than that I desire not to be understood as concurring in the opinion of the Procureur General, as on general grounds I have thought it expedient that the full number authorised by the Letters Patent should be appointed at once.

You recommend that five public officers and four unofficial persons should be nominated, but as I have informed you by my despatch of this date, it has been decided to appoint in the first instance a majority of unofficial members, and you were accordingly instructed by my telegraphic despatch of the 22nd of December§ to appoint five unofficials and four public officers.

As regards the selection of public officers for seats in the Council, I consider that the persons holding the important offices of Substitute Procureur General and Chief Medical Officer should not be passed over without very strong reasons, and the objections which you raise to their appointment do not appear to me to be of sufficient weight to justify their exclusion. In the case of the unofficial members, I have been glad to adopt your proposal to select in the first instance members of the late Council who are not elected members of the new Council in the order of their standing.

With reference to the 7th and 8th paragraphs of your despatch, I have only to observe that in selecting the officers referred to in my despatch of the 19th September_for appointment as nominated members, I did not know what was their religious persuasion, and that had I possessed that knowledge, it would not in any way have affected my

• No. 7 in [C.-4754] May 1886.

I No. 2.

‡ No. 13 in [C.-4754] May 1886.

† No. 1.

| No. 7 in [C.-4754] May 1886.

GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G., to COLONEL THE RIGHT HON F. A. STANLEY, M.P. (Received March 2, 1886.)

Government House, Mauritius, January 23, 1886.

SIR,

(Confidential.)

I DULY received your telegram of the 22nd of December in reply to my despatch of the 24th of November.t

2. I have urged the leading members of the community to accept without hesitation the concession which will be brought in your despatches by the next mail by which instead of altering clause 43 of the Letters Patent you grant an unofficial majority. I have every hope that this arrangement will terminate the question and give general satisfaction.

3. As regards the five unofficials that I am to nominate, you direct me to give the preference to members of the old Council of Government who may not be elected, and to appoint them in the order of standing in the old Council.

4. Of the eight unofficial members of the old Council, four were Roman Catholics, and four were Protestants. The former have all been elected. One of the latter (Mr. John Fraser) did not offer himself to the electors, and the other three were defeated.

5. It was all along my intention, as intimated in my despatch of the 24th of November, to appoint two of these gentlemen, Mr. John Fraser and Mr. Ambrose, whọ sat in the late Council, and who represent the two leading English houses in the Colony. 6. There is, however, a difficulty about recommending the Queen to appoint Mr. Ferguson, the manager of the Oriental Bank, who also sat in the late Council and failed at the elections.

7. I am informed that one reason why Mr. Ferguson was defeated by so large a majority at the elections was the unwillingness of some of the electors to see in the Council a gentleman who, it is said, did things or allowed things to be done as manager of the bank which ought not to be overlooked.

8. Amongst other things my attention has been drawn to the evidence given some months ago, when a clerk of the bank named Couve was tried for fraud and when it came out in evidence that Mr. Ferguson had allowed some of his officers to hide the overdrawing of their monthly accounts by permitting them, month after month, to transfer for a few days to their credit certain trust funds which were held by the bank for some local clubs, of which these bank officers were treasurers.

9. The rules of the bank required monthly returns to be sent to London, and no officer was to be allowed to overdraw. But by temporarily transferring trust funds to an officer's overdrawn account two days before the close of the month, and restoring it to the true account two days after the beginning of the next month, the London directors were deceived.

10. I enclose some extracts from the evidence given in the Supreme Court by Mr. Duffield and other officers of the bank on this point.

11. It is also alleged that this same Mr. Duffield, who appears in the returns of the Immigration Department as the owner of the Chamarel estate, is in reality not the owner, but that as it was against the charter and regulations of the bank that the bank should own or work sugar estates, the manager of the bank evaded or violated the charter by arranging that Mr. Duffield should be falsely returned to the Government as the owner of Chamarel, when in fact the Oriental Bank was the real owner.

}

1

12. As the first of these matters has already come before the public, and as the other, with some similar transactions, is likely to be also exposed in Court, I could not recome mend the Queen to appoint the manager of the bank to a seat in the new Council. As it is, however, my duty to act in entire accordance with your wishes, I shall await your

• No. 2.

† No. 1.

A 2