CO882-(6-8) — Page 296

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O. 882

8

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

201

estate, yet the other part is to be devoted to improvements which will produce re- munerative returns. I believe the question of what returns may be expected from the outlay in improved machinery of any given capital is already before the Secre- tary of State. It is admitted that it would be considerable and that it would more than cover the annuities. It may be said that the suggestion is financially unsound and that it is not the time now to advance more money to the estates. It is a desperate remedy, but the position is a desperate one, it is impossible for the money to be borrowed in the usual way, and I believe that without the slightest exaggera- tion the question now to be solved can be put in only one way: Is the Government prepared to rescue the Colony or to let it go? The alternative is shipwreck or

rescue.

March 25, 1904.

14966

No. 156.

F. T. PIGGOTT.

MR. LYTTELTON to ACTING GOVERNOR SIR G. BOWER. (Sent 5.50 p.m., April 28, 1904.)

TELEGRAM.

[Answered by No. 158.]

Telegraph at once most accurate estimates possible of amount of Treasury balances available for redemption debentures August 1, apart from any repayments by planters.

14966

SIR,

No. 157.

COLONIAL OFFICE to SIR C. BRUCE.

[Answered by No. 159.]

Downing Street, April 28, 1904.

I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton to transmit to you the papers,* as Officer Administering the Government, noted in the margin, relating to the position in Confidential, 22 February.

Mauritius caused by the probability that pay- Officer Administering the Government, ment of the instalments of the advances in aid Confidential, 22 February.

loans due next June will be refused by many of the borrowers.

Officer Administering the Government, 11 April.

Officer Administering the Government, Telegram, 11 April, letter and table

attached to.

Before coming to any decision as to the course to be adopted, Mr. Lyttelton would be glad to receive your observations on these papers, Officer Administering the Government, Telegram, 23 April.

and to learn your views on the subject. He has Officer Administering the Government, telegraphed to Sir G. Bower asking for the most Confidential, 26 March.

accurate estimate possible of the amount of the Treasury balances which would be available for the purpose of meeting the obligations of the Mauritius Government in this country on August 1st, apart from repayments by the planters.

I am to request that the enclosures to this letter may be returned with your reply.

I am, &c.,

H. BERTRAM COX.

15213

No. 158.

ACTING GOVERNOR SIR G. BOWER to MR. LYTTELTON. (Received 4.40 p.m., April 29, 1904.)

TELEGRAM.

[Answered by No. 163.]

Referring to your telegram of 28th April, financial.† Position of Government most unfavourable. Crown Agents have expended balance authorized loan(s) for

Nos. 143, 144, 149, 151, and 155 and letter and table attached to No. 149 (not printed). † No. 150.

205

I

general purposes, and I shall have to meet railway and drainage construction, as well as remittances to Crown Agents, from local treasury. Cash balance is now Rs. 1,100,000. Railway outstanding accounts are Rs. 650,000; but I have suspended legal proceedings against planters pending your decision re postponement. estimate cash balance on 30th June will be Rs. 800,000, but this may be increased if we can collect railway accounts. Draft Estimates for next year showed a deficit of Rs. 1,800,000. I have reduced this by Rs. 1,000,000, and I am trying to make further reductions, but expect a deficit of Rs. 700,000, to be met by extra taxation. Under the circumstances cannot now hope to be able to spare any portion of Treasury balance to meet planters' deficit.

15543

SIR,

No. 159.

SIR C. BRUCE to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received May 3, 1904.)

[Answered by No. 164.]

Arnot Tower, Leslie, Fife, May 1, 1904.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th April,* on the subject of the repayment of loans made to "bailleurs de fonds" and estate owners and others under the Mauritius Sugar Estates Advances in Aid Ordinance, No. 43 of 1902.

2. I return herewith the enclosures transmitted to me with your letter.

3. Immediately on receipt of your letter I communicated with the Bank of Mauritius, and on Friday afternoon I met the Directors, who had been convened for the occasion, at their office. I have no doubt that the step I took in consulting the Directors will commend itself to the Secretary of State. In fact, I had no reasonable alternative. Sir Graham Bower asks for a decision on various statements submitted in his despatches, with reference to which he is careful to say that he neither disputes nor confirms their accuracy, the information in his possession not permitting him to do either. I have very little doubt that the Directors of the Mauritius Bank are in possession of the fullest information available, and in the circumstances I am satisfied to believe that the interests of the bank are identical with the interests of the Colony. 1. When I had fully threshed out the various questions that suggested them- selves at our interview, I asked the Directors to let me have their views in writing, and I transmit herewith their Secretary's letter of the 30th April, in which they advise that in the case of all planters who state that they are unable to pay, a postponement for one year of the instalments due under the Ordinance be granted.

5. In the term planters I am sure that the Directors intend to include " bailleurs de fonds" and others to whom advances have been made under the Ordinance.

6. I concur in the opinions expressed in the letter of the Directors, to which I have little to add. I may point out, however, that I attach particular importance to the fact that over Rs. 3,000,000 has been spent by the planters in connection with the establishment of the tramway system, exclusive of the expenditure included within the scope of the Tramways Ordinance. The details of the extraordinary expenditure thus incurred are given in the letter of Messrs. Leclézio and Edwards, forming enclosure No. 3 of Sir Graham Bower's confidential despatch. The question whether this expenditure should be treated as capital expenditure and covered by the provisions of the Tramways Ordinance was discussed at the time that Ordinance was passed, but it was decided to exclude it, mainly on the ground of the difficulty of securing any efficient control over the actual expenditure on the laying of the tramways and all other items which could not be guaranteed by the manufacturers' vouchers. It is, however, an expenditure which may reasonably be taken into account in considering the question of the postponement of the payment of the instalments; all the more that it materially improves the security afforded by the estates on which it has been incurred.

7. Sir Graham Bower has in his confidential despatch of 22nd February.t referred to the appointment of a small Royal Commission to study the measures to be adopted to meet the crisis. The suggestion was made too late to be of use in the present emergency. I concur with the directors of the Mauritius Bank in their view that a local inquiry such as has been suggested by Sir Graham Bower and referred to his telegram of 11th April, § is open to serious objection, and would

§ 12880: not printed.

• No. 157.

† No. 143.

‡ No. 144.