CO882-(4-5) — Page 62

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

44

Messrs. Antelme, Beaugeard, Coriolis, and Plane!, (4 of 10 elected members), obtained together_2,335 votes, which form very nearly the four-tenths of the whole number of votes. They therefore only represent their proportion of the total number of electors.

Besides, it is well known in Mauritius, that, in Port Louis and in Pamplemousses the majority of those by whom the members for those districts were elected consisted of the less educated and the less independent amongst the electors of those two districts. I have, &c.

To His Excellency the Governor,

&c.

&c.

MON CHER MONSIEUR,

&c.

. (Signed)

V. NAŻ.

Port Louis, 28 Avril 1886.

Vous avez dû lire dans les journaux de ce matin, un projet d'adresse à Sir John Pope Hennessy.

Cette adresse a déjà été signée par plus de mille personnes en ville aujourd'hui. Si vous l'approuvez, je vous prie de vouloir bien signer l'une des listes ci-incluses et de les faire signer par les personnes de votre District qui l'approuvent aussi,

Vous pouvez recevoir la signature de tous les propriétaires et de tous les employés grands ou petits appartenant à toutes les classes de la Communauté sans distinction; et aussie de tous les employés du Gouvernement pourvu qu'ils signent volontairement.

Je vous serais obligé si vous vouliez bien me retourner les listes signées d'ici Vendredi de la semaine prochaine, afin qu'une députation puisse remettre l'Adresse au Gouverneur à temps pour qu'il puisse l'expédier par la prochaine malle pour l'Europe.

No. 11.

Veuillez me croire,

Cher Monsieur,

Votre bien dévoué,

(Signé)

V. NAZ.

GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL GRANVILLE, K.G. (Received June 2, 1886.)

(No. 168.) MY LORD,

Government House, Mauritius,

May 10, 1886.

I HAVE the honour to transmit a letter Mr. de Coriolis has addressed to your Lordship referring to two questions he desired to put about Mr. Ferguson in the Council of Government.

2. One question addressed to the Colonial Secretary assumed that your Lordship had instructed me in a Despatch to appoint Mr. Ferguson, and that I had disobeyed the instruction.

3. The answer given to that question was that no such Despatch was filed in the Colonial Secretary's office.

4. Tuis does not seem to satisfy Mr. de Coriolis, who in his memorial of the 12th of April to your Lordship has accused me of disobeying instructions.

5. However, your Lordship knows very well that I have not disobeyed any instruction

on that or any other subject given by the Secretary of State at any time.

6. The second question was addressed to the Receiver General, but did not concern his department. You will see from the enclosed report of my observations why I ruled

it out of order, whilst adding that it might be addressed to the Executive or to me out of Council, when it would be answered."

The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G.,

800.

&c.

&c.

I have, &c.

(Signed)

J. POPE HENNESSY

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[Enclosure 1 in No. 11.

To the Right Hon. the EARL GRANVILLE, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies. MY LORD,

Port Louis, Mauritius, May 6, 1886. I HAVE the honour to submit the following to your Lordship: A rumour being afloat to the effect that during the electoral campaign his Excellency the Governor, fearing lest two prominent members of his clique who were candidates for election be not returned, promised through Mr. Beyts, the then Acting Colonial Secretary, to Mr. J. A. Ferguson, a third candidate, a seat as a nominated member of the new Council, in case he would consent to withdraw his candidature and induce his voters to vote for Messrs. Newton and Guibert, I felt it my duty as one of the elected members for Fort Louis to inquire whether the aforesaid rumour was grounded. I con- sequently gave notice of my intention to ask in Council of the Receiver General (Mr. Beyts) the following question:

"Whether there is any foundation in the rumour now current that during the electoral campaign he, on behalf of his Excellency the Governor, promised to

one of the candidates for election in the electoral district of Port Louis a seat as a nominated · member of the Council, in case he would consent to withdraw his candidature.”

2. At a meeting of the Council of Government held on the 4th instant, on the question being put, the Honourable the Receiver General, rising to a point of order asked to be authorised not to answer; the question bearing, according to him, on a subject which does not come within the province of his department. His Excellency, who is, according to Art. XX. of the standing orders and rules of the Council, sole judge of order, ruled as prayed for by the Honourable the Receiver General. I need not dwell on the state of excitement in which his Excellency was when the question was asked, nor on the tone in which he spoke, his Excellency's temperament being, I believe, well known to your Lordship.

3. I venture to say, my Lord, that if his Excellency the Governor's conscience was clear with regard to the charge publicly brought against him, he should not have resorted to such an expediency. My question afforded him an opportunity to exonerate himself. His behaviour naturally leads to the conclusion that the rumour, re-echoed by me in the Council, has some foundation.

4. Your Lordship cannot fail to be impressed with the gravity of the implied charge against his Excellency the Governor. Under Art. 27, para. 3, of the Letters Patent, altering the constitution of the Council of Government on Mauritius, every person who, directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other person, on his behalf, makes any promise to any person in order to induce such person to procure or endeavour to procure the return of any person as an elected member of the Council, or the vote of any voter at any election shall be deemed guilty of bribery, and shall (Art. 31) on " conviction thereof, be liable to be imprisoned with or without hard labour, for a term "not exceeding one year, or to be fined any sum not exceeding Rs. 2,000." I leave it to your Lordship to consider whether the alleged promise, made on behalf of his Excellency the Governor by Mr. Beyts, is or is not a breach of the article of the Letters Patent just quoted. The matter being now placed before your Lordship, it rests with you to take with regard to it such steps as your Lordship may deem advisable; but if I ain permitted to give my view of the case, I would not hesitate in saying that were it only for the purpose of knowing whether the representative of Her most Gracious Majesty the Queen has gone so far as to commit such an infringement of the law, the Royal Commission of Inquiry, which some of my colleagues and myself have already suggested to your Lordship to appoint, ought to be sent out at once.

The rumour on

that head is so precise that it is not impossible that crushing proofs of his Excellency's culpability might be laid before the Commissioners.

5. In order that your Lordship may be in a position to judge of the possible exactness of the rumour in question, I think it indispensable to sketch the part played by His Excellency in our local politics.

The educated fraction of the community is divided into two political parties that have sprung from the controversies which took place in the Electoral Commission appointed, towards the close of 1884, to report upon the franchise and other matters relative to the introduction of the elective system into the Legislature of Mauritius. The duty incumbent upon his Excellency the Governor was, under those circumstances, to stand

* Vide Debates of Council, No. 2, of 4th May 1886.

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