CO882-(8-9) — Page 287

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O. 882

There had also been some inquiry would be accepted if not necessarily asked for. loud talk about the unsympathetic action of the Right Honourable the Secretary of State towards the Colony, and fiery speeches were expected, if not specifically promised.

Under these circumstances, it was only natural that the population should wonder at the apparently appalling majority secured on the 23rd of April, and a feeling spread at once that every concession had been made on diverse sides with the sole object of avoiding an inquiry. It became apparent that the desire to ward off the Commission was in some minds stronger than an honest wish to rescue the sugar industry, and to save the country at large. Eight papers out of 11 reflected the sad disappointment felt by the public, and a number of citizens belonging to various classes, but mostly professional men, holding in other matters different and even opposite views, united spontaneously to protest against a policy which they considered as detrimental to the best interests of the Colony. Thus was formed the Committee in the name of which we have the honour to approach your Lordship, and which took the name of "Comité d'Action Libérale.'

5. Public meetings were convened to obtain an expression of the public opinion on the burning political question of the day. On May 10th, a first meeting number- ing about 600 citizens was held at Rose Hill under the Presidency of Dr. Guibert, Municipal Councillor, Messrs. Mérandon, barrister-at-law and planter, and Nairac, barrister-at-law, spoke in favour of the resolutions, and Mr. Hugnin, Manager of the Crédit Foncier, spoke against the resolutions. Resolutions were put and carried protesting against the decision of the Council, and stating that the Colony could only be saved by a loan, and that the people assembled were not opposed to an enquiry to obtain the said loan.

An attempt was made by a small minority, led by a journalist, to create an opposition, which proved abortive.

6. A second meeting was held on May 24th, at Pamplemousses, under the Presidency of the senior member for Port Louis, elector of the Pamplemousses District, and was attended by about 1,100 people. The same resolution was put and carried unanimously amidst great enthusiasm. The speakers were Messrs. Mérandon, Nairac, Dr. Guibert, and Dr. Laurent.

7. On June 7th, a third meeting was convened at Souillac under the Presi- dency of Mr. Duchenne, a planter and houseowner of the locality. Three thousand people attended, and, with the exception of a few dissenters, who stood aloof, forming a small minority, a resolution urging for a loan to be obtained after the suggested inquiry was warmly supported by six speakers, four of whom were professional men, and two planters. The resolution was put and carried nemine contradicente.

8. A week before the Souillac meeting, Mr. R. Mérandon and Mr. Dowson left town in a van drawn by four bullocks, and visited the remotest villages; they met everywhere with a warm reception, and noticed the great misery prevailing amongst small planters mostly Indians who said that they felt keenly the want of cheap money to cultivate their land, and joined heartily in the movement. They own one-third of the cultivated lands of the island.

9. A day or two after each of those meetings, the President thereof, or a delegation of the Committee, handed over to His Excellency the Governor the resolution passed, with a request that it be transmitted, and, if possible, cabled, to your Lordship.

10. The peaceful but persistent agitation culminated, on June 28th, in a monster meeting which attracted, on the Champ-de-Mars, about 25,000 men who had come from all parts, even the remotest of the island. The banners and flags which a number of groups had carried with them bore the names of the out-of-the- way villages such as Grand Gaube, Grand Bois, Chemin Grenier, Flacq, Rivière Noire, Pamplemousses, Chamarel, Australia, Brisée Verdière, and other places. Never in the annals of the Colony had such a crowd assembled in Mauritius, and never had the various races and classes forming the community thus united to express the same feeling and the same wish.

11. In a letter, dated June 29th, addressed to the Governor, the senior member for Port Louis gave an account of what took place, and not having been favoured in the interview which he had with His Excellency the same day with

85

any promise respecting the quick transmission of the resolution passed, he took the liberty, after submitting the text of the telegram to the Governor, to send to your Lordship a telegraphic message.

12. Your Lordship, being now in presence of all the facts and documents, we shall only beg leave to point out the origin, the main causes, and the object of the unprecedented movement that has taken place.

13. The leading Committee, which is composed mostly of professional and independent gentlemen, none of whom is a likely borrower, met with a tremendous opposition on the part of the elected and nominated members who formed the majority of the 23rd of April, also from owners of sugar estates who are under the sway of capitalists and bankers, capitalists themselves and brokers who did not fight us openly by counter meetings, but exercised pressure upon people depending upon them for a living, and even upon some members of the enlightened classes who would have joined the Committee in its movement, which they approved, had they not been prevented from doing so on account of their financial embarrassments.

14. If, in spite of all the means employed to silence it, public opinion has made itself heard, the reason is, my Lord, that the people of this Colony suffer cruelly. They suffer because funds for the working expenses of agriculture and industry being insufficient and monopolised, the rate of interest with commission varies from 18 to 20 per cent., and employment is denied to many intelligent and active men who might, with the aid of cheap money, develop the resources of the fertile soil of this country. They suffer because whilst the value of the total exports amounts to a little over of colonial produce in sugar, rum, and molasses

Rs. 28,000,000, Government raises a revenue of about Rs. 10,000,000 to maintain its administration, and the working expenses to reap the crop amount to Rs. 22,000,000. They suffer because our public finances have shown recurrent deficits, which culmi- nated in a deficit of Rs. 970,000 this year, and Rs. 425,000 forming part of the expenditure estimates were not utilised, so that our real deficit is Rs. 1,395,000. The reserve available before the end of the financial year (June 30th, 1908) amounted to about Rs. 1,300,000. It will be reduced to an alarming extent by this year's deficit, and, should any unforeseen calamity crop up during the present year, the Colony will be in a state of quasi-bankruptcy. We are not even certain that our estimates of revenue for 1908-1909 will prove correct. They suffer because the supply of clerks and other subordinate employees largely exceeding the demand, the most favoured must be contented with a salary often inadequate, whilst the un- employed live in a state of half starvation. They suffer because our countrymen are not appointed to Government posts in other Crown Colonies. They suffer because there is a lack of the organisations which might help and guide laborious and industrious men. They suffer because education has hitherto consisted in cramming into their heads a purely literary knowledge instead of teaching them to become as well skilled labourers, artisans, and agriculturists. They suffer, in spite of nearly a million being yearly spent by the Public Health Department, from the unhealthi- ness of a country formerly reputed for its salubrity. They suffer from bad adminis- tration, viz., useless expenditure and improper economy. In business circles there is much uneasiness resulting from the fact that the same men are directors of two or more companies, sugar estates, commercial or others, the interests of which may sometimes be conflicting, and there is not, owing to this and other causes, an open and fair competition between the various traders who supply the wants of the sugar industry.

Every Mauritian imbued with the slightest patriotic feeling is aggrieved when he sees his native island, so generously endowed by the Almighty, becoming more and more a land of misery and distress, which many of her sons are compelled to leave.

15. Such being the cause of the movement, its object, my Lord, is naturally to improve the material, moral, and social condition of the population.

Being anxious to expose our old-standing grievances, and to save our country from impending ruin, and knowing that we can only do so by specific allegations and proofs before a Commission of Enquiry, we have hailed with satisfaction the proposal made by your predecessor, Lord Elgin, and the refusal opposed to it by the Council has been resented as a blow aimed at the vital interests and legitimate prospects of the Colony. Hence the appeal made to His Majesty's Government by the people assembled at Rose Hill, at Pamplemousses, at Souillac, and on the

6

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON:

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