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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

en

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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at the elections because some of the electors were unwilling to see in the Council a gentleman who had done things, or allowed things to be done, as manager of the Oriental Bank, which ought not to be overlooked.

27. Amongst these "things" be specified that when a clerk of the bank, named Couve, had been tried for fraud, it had come 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." The London Directors, the Governor adds, were thus deceived, and he enclosed extracts from the Judge's notes of Couve's case in support of his animadversions.

28. Having submitted these extracts from the Judge's notes to the Law Adviser to the Royal Commission, Mr. Solomon, I am advised that they do not in any way support the imputations against Mr. Ferguson contained in Sir John Pope Hennessy's despatch. A sworn copy of a shorthand writer's report of the Judge's summing-up in the case has been given in evidence, and it is equally adverse to any such contention. has contradicted on oath the statements as regards himself contained in the despatch Mr. Ferguson referred to. Mr. Wemyss, also, the official liquidator of the old Oriental Bank, appointed by the Court of Chancery in England, has stated in evidence that, having carefully examined all the books of the bank, the reflections against Mr. Ferguson embodied in the Governor's despatch of the 23rd January are without foundation. He added that a strict examination of the transactions of the old bank had disclosed nothing which in the slightest degree reflected upon Mr. Ferguson's character for uprightness and integrity. In consequence of his report to this effect, Mr. Ferguson had been appointed by the Court of Chancery one of the official liquidators of the old bank, and by the directors & joint manager with bim of the new Oriental Bank.

"

29. Another instance given by Sir John Pope Hennessy, in his despatch, as to the things" done by Mr. Ferguson which, in the opinion of some of the electors, ought not to be overlooked, is that "the manager of the bank evaded or violated the Charter "by arrangement that Mr. Duffield (a clerk of the bank) should be falsely returned to "the Government as the owner of the Chamarel Estate, when in fact, the Oriental Bank " was the real owner." In reply to this charge, Mr. Ferguson and Mr. Wemyss have both stated that the arrangement as to the nominal ownership of the Chamarel Estate was not made by Mr. Ferguson, and that it was carried out with the entire cognizance and approval of the directors.

30. The charges against Mr. Ferguson's character, embodied in the Governor's despatch, have thus, in my opinion, completely broken down; and I believe, also, from all the information I have been able to collect, that the alleged unwillingness of any number of the electors to see Mr. Ferguson in the Council in consequence of the things he had done, or allowed to be done, as manager of the bank, is altogether imaginary.

31. It is necessary to make a few remarks as to the manner in which the allegations against Mr. Ferguson appear to have been brought under Sir John Pope Hennessy's notice. Couve, a clerk in the old Oriental Bank, was tried, in March 1885, for embezzlement, and being convicted, was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. His guilt was beyond doubt, but his counsel, Mr. K/vern, thought to benefit his case by attacking the bank system of book-keeping, and by impugning the character of the bank officials, from the manager downwards. The Judge, in his summing up, said he had given the counsel for the prisoner great latitude, a latitude which, he implied, had been strained to the uttermost, but that he had nevertheless failed to establish anything against the character of the bank officials, adding that, if he had done so, it would not have affected the question of his client's guilt.

32. Couve's trial and conviction took place in March 1885, and, subsequently, Mr. K/vern had several interviews with Sir John Pope Hennessy, in which he urged a mitigation of Couve's sentence, on the ground which he had already advanced unsuccess- fully in Court, namely, that Couve's guilt was lessened by the supposed malpractices of other bank officials. Mr. K/vern appears to have supplied the Governor with the information and notes furnished to him by the prisoner Couve, for his defence, and to have contended before the Governor, as he had done before the Judge and jury, that because Mr. Ferguson refused to answer an impertinent question as to the state of his own private account on a certain day, a question which the Judge ruled he was not bound to answer, the fair inference was that there was something improper in his private banking transactions of that day. The allegations in the despatch of the 23rd January having broken down, Sir John Pope Hennessy endeavoured to advance before the Commission a new charge against Mr. Ferguson as to his own private account, and sent

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Mr. K/vern before the Commission to reiterate the argument which he had already advanced to the Governor, and in Court. The insinuation as to Mr. Ferguson's private account has been satisfactorily explained to the Commission by Mr. Ferguson, who volunteered to show to the Secretary, Mr. Round, his account, and to explain every item in it on the day referred to.

33. I feel bound to say that I think it is much to be regretted that the Governor allowed himself to act to the injury of a gentleman's political position and character upon information supplied to him from such a source.

34. It appears to me, also, doubtful whether, until after Mr. Ferguson's refusal to withdraw his candidature, Sir John Pope Hennessy was himself disposed to attach much importance to any inferences deducible from Couve's trial, as regards the character of Mr. Ferguson's private transactions with the bank. The Couve trial took place in March 1885. Mr. Beyt's interview with Mr. Ferguson took place on the 9th January 1886. The elections commenced on the 11th January 1886, and closed on the 20th January. It has been shown that, on the 9th January, the Governor would, as stated by Mr. Beyts, have been "glad" to appoint Mr. Ferguson to a nominee seat if he would withdraw his candidature for an elective seat. On the 23rd January 1886 the supposed revelations in the Couve trial were advanced to the Secretary of State as a reason for non-compliance with his instruction to appoint Mr. Ferguson to a nominee seat. It has not been shown that Sir John Pope Hennessy heard, for the first time, during the elections, of the insinuations against Mr. Ferguson, arising out of the Couve trial. The evidence points rather to his having been told of them before. If this be so, it would seem that the Governor, on the 23rd January 1886, gave reasons to the Secretary of State for not appointing Mr. Ferguson to a nominee seat, which on the 9th January were known to him, but were not then considered by him to be any bar to the appointment.

35. In the Governor's despatch to the Secretary of State on the subject, dated the 30th August 1886, he states: "I had intended appointing Mr. Ferguson, but I nomi- "nated some one else in his place for reasons which were pressed upon my attention "after the elections, and which reluctantly compelled me to pass him over." If by this the Governor meant that the reasons were pressed upon his attention for the first time after the elections, it might account for his change of opinion between the 9th and 23rd January, but the case against him would then be as bad, if not worse.

Mr. K/vern supported Messrs. Newton and Guibert at the elections. These two gentlemen were members of what was considered as the Governor's party. Their defeat was attributed by many to Mr. Ferguson's non-withrawal. If, immediately after their defeat, and ten months after the Couve trial, Mr. K/vern had gone to the Governor, and then for the first time made insinuations against Mr. Ferguson's character, the inference would have been irresistible; and, if the Governor had listened to such insinuations, made for the first time in the heat of an election contest by one of Mr. Ferguson's political opponents, and had acted on them, to Mr. Ferguson's injury, his conduct would have been deserving of the severest condemnation.

86. In short, the Governor appears to me to be on the horns of a dilemma. He either knew or did not know of Mr. K/vern's insinuations before the elections. If the former, he deceived the Secretary of Ste by giving him reasons for Mr. Ferguson's exclusion, which it has been shown he did not himself believe in. If the latter, his repre- sentation to the Secretary of State, adverse to Mr. Ferguson, would seem to have been the mere outcome of political malevolence and partizanship.

37. During the investigation into this bead of the inquiry, one of the witnessco, Mr. Wemyss, stated that Mr. Ambrose, the unsuccessful candidate for Plaines Wilhems had observed in his hearing, that he had been asked by the Governor to stand for that electoral division against Mr. C. Antelme, and that he had been promised a nominee seat if he failed. Mr. Ambrose, however, on being summoned, stated that he could not have made the statement attributed to him, as the Governor hail never asked him to stand, or promised him a nomination if defeated. He said that all he (Mr. Ambrose) could have remarked was that, if he failed in the election, he felt convinced the Governor would give him a nominee seat, as he always had been a valuable and useful Member of Council. He stated that all the Governor has ever said to him about the election was on one occasion, when, in reply to an observation of his, that if he were elected he would be debarred by the Letters Patent from taking Government contracts, the Governor remarked that, if he (Mr. Ambrose) were returned, the propriety of amending the Letters Patent might possibly be considered.

* See Mr. Beyta' note to Mr. Ferguson of January 9, 1886, page 64.

B 94514.

† Na. 23.