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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

TLC.O. 882

Reference :--

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

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

SIR,

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To the EDITOR of "LE DROIT."

Le Réduit, Mauritius, January 27, 1886. THE Governor requests me to inform you that the account Mr. de Coriolis gives in your journal of an interview he recently sought with his Excellency at Réduit is far from being correct.

I have, &c. (Signed)

SIB,

To the PRIVATE SECRETARY.

ARTHUR E. JOHNSON,

.Private Secretary.

Beau Séjour, Rose Hill, January 28, 1886.

I SEE published in the journal "Le Droit " a letter in which, on behalf of his Excellency the Governor, you inform the editor of this journal the account given by me of an interview I recently had with his Excellency at Réduit is far from being

correct.

As the statement contained in your letter is a very grave one, I hasten to request you to ask his Excellency to be so kind as to point out the inaccuracies he finds in the account in question.

SIR,

I have, &c. (Signed)

G. DE CORIOLIS.

The Hon. G. DE CORIOLIS.

Le Réduit, Mauritius, January 29, 1886. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter asking that the inaccuracies in the unauthorised report of an interview you recently published might be corrected by the Governor.

In declining to comply with your request, his Excellency desires me to point out in future you can avoid such mistakes by adhering to the practice every one else adopts, that is, either not publishing unauthorised reports of interviews or communicating by letter when a written reply is recorded.

SIR,

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have, &c.

(Signed) ARTHUR E. JOHNSON,

Private Secretary.

To the PRIVate SecretaRY

Beau Séjour, Rose Hill, February 1, 1886.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter in which you allege that I have asked that "the inaccuracies in the unauthorised report of an interview I recently published might be corrected by the Governor," and to state in reply that nothing of the kind is mentioned in the letter I addressed you last week.

only requested you to ask his Excellency to be so kind as to point out the inaccuracies he finds in the account given by me of the interview I had with him, which is by far different.

I regret to learn that his Excellency declines to comply with my request. Having gone so far as to declare in the press that my report is far from being correct, his Excellency was somewhat bound to say in what part of it is the incorrectness he com- plains of. However positive his Excellency's affirmation may be, it does not lead me to the belief that I committed mistakes in my report.

As regards your assertion that my report was unauthorised, I beg to state that I was the only one who had to decide upon the advisability of publishing it. When I claimed the favour of an interview with his Excellency, I wrote to you officially, and I pur- posely said that I desired to have with his Excellency "a conversation on a matter of the highest importance."

On the day his Excellency received me at Réduit, the first thing I did was to state to his Excellency that it was in my capacity of Member of Council for Port Louis, and with the approbation of Dr. Beaugeard, my senior colleague, who had authorised me to speak in his name, that I called on him to entertain him with my views on the subjects of the nominees. This clearly shows that I considered the interview as an official one. His Excellency, in the course of our conversation, alluded to several other questions. I

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request you to call his Excellency's attention to the fact that I made no reference to them in my report, as they were irrelevant to the subject matter of the interview.

In publishing the account that appeared in the "Droit," I was prompted by no other motive than that of doing my duty.

As the representative of a great number of electors, I have to defend their wishes, their rights, and to prevent their aspirations from being set at naught. The views expressed by his Excellency going against their will and feelings, I felt myself bound to warn them. I am sorry to see that his Excellency, who has obtained the elective system for Mauritius, is the first to find fault with an elected member of the Council of Government who, with a deep sense of his responsibility, acts in compliance with the trust committed to him by his fellow countrymen.

I have, &c. (Signed)

SIR,

Enclosure 5 in No. 8.

G. DE CORIOLIS.

Port Louis, Mauritius, February 25, 1886.

We the undersigned, the members of the Council of Government, elected by the district of Port Louis, feel it our duty to lay before his Excellency the Governor, this, our solemn protest against the way in which the Council of Education, the Royal College Committee, and the Schools Committee have been composed for this year.

In adjourning the Council of Government at the end of last year, his Excellency said that the new Council will truly represent the views, wishes, and aspirations of the com- munity. It was to be supposed, after such a declaration, that the views, wishes, and aspirations of the community, once expressed by the elections, would serve as a guide to Sir John Pope Hennessy's policy.

We are surprised to see that now that the population has made known its feelings, his Excellency seems to make it a point to set them at naught. The elections, in fact, have shown that there is in the majority of this community an earnest desire of improving the material and moral condition of the poorer classes, of spreading instruction among st them and of promoting their advancement and progress in civilisation. The largest electorates have, moreover, anticipated the hope expressed by Colonel Stanley in his Despatch, dated 9th January 1886, in returning members "animated by a sense "of loyalty, prudence, and justice to all classes of this community.' Not only does his Excellency select as members of the Council of Education and of the Royal College and Schools Committees a majority of gentlemen who strove to deprive the larger fraction of Mauritians of their electoral rights and deprecated the necessity of instruction as an electoral qualification, but also appoints persons that have been rejected at the last elections, as unworthy of the confidence of the people. And to fill up the measures, his Excellency appoints as Vice-President of the Council of Education and President of the Schools Committee, a man who never proved himself to be a great scholar, Mr. Lavoquer, whose demerits as Mayor of Port Louis have been fully discussed and publicly exposed in four newspapers which represent the opinions of the majority of the popula-

tion.

We respectfully submit that his Excellency's action in the present circumstance may be looked upon as a challenge to popular opinion and creates feelings of widespread dissatisfaction and distrust, which cannot but have injurious and far reaching con- sequences.

The Honourable,

The Lieutenant-Governor and Colonial Secretary.

We have, &c. (Signed) O. BEAUGEARD, D.M.

G. DE CORIOLIS.

To the HONOURABLE Dr. O. Beaugeard and G. DE CORIOLIS, Port Louis.

GENTLEMEN,

Colonial Secretary's Office, March 4, 1886.

In reply to your letter of the 25th ultimo, protesting against the composition of the Council of Education, the Royal College Committee, and the Schools Committee, B 4