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Indian Community to representation in the Council of Government, on Boards and on Committees is now to be denied, the declarations of the Imperial and Local Govern- ments at the time of the reform of the Constitution, and the professions of the Sovereign's representatives in this Colony have been a cruel deception.

3. I have no doubt that of those who gave the banquet to Sir Hubert Jeming- ham not more than one or two at the most could have expressed themselves in English or French.

4. On several occasions members of the Asiatic Community, who could speak neither English nor French, have sat as members of Committees. I need instance only the Committee of Reception appointed on the occasion of the visit of Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of York. I am not aware that on any previous occasion it has been considered an indignity for a Mauritian of European or African descent to sit on a Committee with a Mauritian of Indian descent.

5. I can add, with confidence, that the Mussulman Community has been consist- ently loyal to the Empire; it has never dissociated itself from the Imperial sentiment that has, during the last few years, animated India and the Colonies; and it has kept wholly aloof from the pro-Boer propaganda of that section of the local press that has been most blatant in its opposition to the recent appointments of Doctor Nalletamby and Mr. Atchia.

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(No. 385.) SIR,

No. 12.

I have, &c.,

CHAS. BRUCE;

Governor.

GOVERNOR SIR C. BRUCE to MR. CHAMBERLAIN. (Received November 15, 1901.) [Answered by No. 14.]

Government House, Mauritius, October 14, 1901. I HAVE the honour to inform you that several vacancies having recently occurred among the members of the Board of Commissioners for the Town of Beau Bassin and Rose Hill, established under Ordinance, No. 31, of 1895, I thought it a suitable opportunity to nominate to the Board a member of the Indian Community, such an appointment being, as I shall endeavour to show, in accordance with the policy of the Imperial Government and the professions of the local Government antecedent to and at the time of the establishment of the existing Constitution of the Colony.

2. I therefore consulted the Protector of Immigrants as to the selection of a suitable person to fill one of the vacancies on the Beau Bassin and Rose Hill Board, and he recommended Mr. Mamode Atchia, of the firm of Messrs. I. S. Atchia and Sons, who have shown great enterprise and intelligence in supplying the electric light to the Governor's residence, Le Réduit, as well as to Rose Hill and Beau Bassin. In carrying out this scheme undertaken on their own initiative, the firm of Atchia Brothers have, in my opinion, given proof of an intelligence and spirit of enterprise which has been of real benefit to the community. For years the Municipality of Port Louis has been unsuccessfully negotiating with a Company promoter in London for the supply of electric light to the Town. Messrs. Atchia's undertaking has already led to the pre- paration of plans for utilizing the water-power of the Colony as, for instance, the Tam- arind Falls, for the supply of electric energy. I am at a loss to conceive how it can be considered, as I shall show that it has been considered, an insult to the Colony to nominate a member of the firm--otherwise highly recommended, and, I believe, re- spected to a seat on the Town Board of Beau Bassin and Rose Hill, really a village Board disposing of a revenue of about £1,500 per annum.

3. On it becoming known that I proposed to appoint Mr. Atchia I learnt that the nomination would be strongly opposed, and would be followed by the refusal of some of the present members of the Board to retain their seats, and of other gentlemen to whom I had offered seats to accept them.

4. I accordingly requested Mr. Trotter to communicate with the members of the Board and others and let me know the real position of affairs.

1*

5. I enclose a copy of a Memorandum by Mr. Trotter, from which you will see that the ostensible ground of objection is that Mr. Atchia speaks neither English nor French. From my conversation with Mr. Trotter, who informed me of the views of other gentlemen of the community apart from those he mentions by name, as well as from the language of the press, I am satisfied that the real ground of objection is that Mr. Atchia is of Asiatic parentage.

6. I have in many despatches called your attention to the rapid accumulation of wealth, and especially of immovable property in the hands of the Indian Community. They own at least a third of the whole productive area of the Colony. practically the whole of the grain trade, and nearly the whole of the export of sugar They command to India. So far as the great majority of the inhabitants is concerned the retail trade in dry goods is practically in their hands while nearly the whole of the retail pro- vision trade, and practically the whole of the retail liquor trade, is in the hands of the Chinese. The Chinese population of Mauritius consists chiefly of " and they stand, therefore, in a class apart; but as regards the Indian Community it carpet baggers," cannot be denied that they are a main and permanent stay of the fortunes of the Colony. It seems to be a most short-sighted policy to endeavour to exclude them from all right of expressing their views on representative Boards or Committees.

I regret to have to inform you that immediately on the appointment of Mr. Atchia being gazetted, three members of the Board, Messrs. Cowin, Duoray, and Koenig, resigned their appointments, and I understand that another member intends also to tender his resignation. Two influential residents of the Town whom I wished to nominate having declined to serve I had practically no alternative but to nominate members in the service of the Government.

8. The Board, therefore, will, for the present, probably consist of the following

members:-

The Honourable J. F. Trotter, Protector of Immigrants.

Dr. Barbeau, Acting Sanitary Warden.

Mr. Singery, Head Accountant, Receiver General's Department.

Dr. Paddle, Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum and Government Analyst. Mr. C. Laurent.

Mr. M. Atchia.

Mr. Laurent was appointed at the same time as Mr. Atchia, and my thanks are

due to him for the service he is rendering in accepting a seat.

9. None of the gentlemen who have resigned or declined a seat in writing have given any reason for their action, but I have no reason to doubt that the reasons are that Mr. Atchia is of Asiatic descent, and speaks the creole patois of the Colony.

10. The appointment of Mr. Atchia has been strongly resented by the local on these grounds, as you will see by reference to the extracts from the local press press annexed as an enclosure to this despatch.

11. I may point out that the opposition to the nomination of Mr. Atohia on the ground of his Indian descent, though himself a Mauritian by birth, is closely connected with the recent appointment of Dr. Nalletamby as a nominee member of the Council of Government. I annex an extract from the newspaper " Le Cernéen," of the 3rd of September on the subject of that nomination. While putting forward some ostensible objections to that appointment, it is frankly urged that "the right of the Asiatic Com- munity to have a representative in the Council is inadmissible in principle."

12. I can find nothing in the Constitution of the Colony or in the views of Her Majesty's Government, at the time the present Constitution was granted, or in the action of the Governor who is mainly responsible for it, to justify such a contention.

13. In the year 1884 Sir John Pope Hennessy appointed a Commission "for the purpose of enquiring and reporting what electoral divisions should be formed in this Island for the election of six members of the Council of Government; and what quali- fications should be held necessary to entitle persons to vote at such elections."

14. This Commission was appointed by Proclamation in the Government Gazette of September 10th, 1884. It consisted of 32 members, of whom no less than four were of Indian origin. It will hardly, I presume, be urged that, it was intended to exclude from the privileges of the contemplated constitution, the representatives of a Com- munity, whose right to a voice in its design and details was so fully recognised. Of the two members of the Commission of Indian origin, two, Affan-Tank-Wen, and Goolam Mamode Ajam, spoke the creole patois.

15. The Report of the Commission was transmitted to the Secretary of State,

• See Enclosure in No. 9.

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the Earl of Derby, who, in his despatch in reply, No. 143, of the 4th May, 1885,* para- graph 5, said: "In order to give a fair share in the representation to the middle class, and especially to the large class of Indians who, as the purchasers or mortgagees of land, have acquired a permanent interest in the well-being of the Colony, it appears to me that a more liberal franchise is required than that which has been advocated by the Commission," and in the 8th paragraph of his despatch Lord Derby said: regards an educational test, I consider that the circumstances of Mauritius make it desirable that persons unable to read or write should not be admitted to the franchise; but it would not, in my opinion, be just to the Indian population to require them to be able to read or write in any other than their own language as a condition of being registered as voters."

16. These observations refer to the qualification of electors, but in the 13th para- graph of his despatch Lord Derby expressed his concurrence with the recommendations made by the Commission that qualified electors should be eligible as members of the Council; adding, as regards an educational test, an important declaration which I will deal with, as soon as I have given conclusive proof that the exclusion of members of the Indian Community from representation in the Council was not contemplated by Governor Sir John Pope Hennessy.

17. In his Speech opening the first Session of the Council of Government under the New Constitution, on the 19th of April, 1886, Sir John Pope Hennessy said:

"I should certainly have been glad to have seen a larger proportion of Indians on our Electoral Roll. Looking to their many good qualities, we must encourage the large numbers of those who possess the required qualifications to vote, and who are permanently associated with the Colony, to enter into our political life. As far as I can constitutionally act in that direction I have done so by appointing a leading mem- ber of the Indian Community to one of the nominee seats in the Council."

18. I can find no record of any objection to this nomination in the declaration that accompanied it, as being a defiance of the Mauritian Community; and yet it is certain that the number of Indians who now hold large and permanent interests in the Colony has enormously increased during the last fifteen years.

19. On the general question then of the right of Indians to representation in the Council of Government, and a fortiori on Town Boards and Committees, I shall add nothing to what I have said.

20. I return to the question of the use of languages, with reference to which Lord Derby made these observations: "But though it is obviously desirable that a Member of the Legislative Council should possess a competent knowledge of the English or French language, it appears to me that there would be a great practical difficulty in applying any test of such knowledge, and I am disposed to think that it may be safe not to impose any such condition, but to trust that the good sense of the Electors will prevent them from returning a member who would be incapable of taking an intelligent part in the work of the Legislature and thereby virtually depriving themselves of a re- presentative."

21. No doubt a member of the Indian Community speaking and understanding only an Indian language, although eligible would be practically useless as a repre- sentative in the Council of Government; and in that assembly a competent knowledge of English or French is certainly highly desirable. On this ground the appointment of Dr. Nalletamby was open to no possible objection, as he has a perfectly competent knowledge of both languages. The declaration of Le Cernéen that his nomination was" un défi à la population Mauricienne," a phrase reiterated by other organs of the press, is only explicable by the contention that the right of the Asiatic Community to a representation in Council is inadmissible in principle, a contention of which I have, I hope, satisfactorily disposed.

22. It is true that Mr. Atchia has not the knowledge of English and French possessed by Dr. Nalletamby, who can speak both languages, but Mr. Trotter assures me that in addition to an educated knowledge of at least one Indian language he can read with perfect comprehension both English and French. So far as the purposes of the Board of Commissioners of the Town of Beau Bassin and Rose Hill are concerned, the Creole patois of the Colony is sufficient to enable him to represent on the Board the wishes and interests of those he represents. This patois, though not a literary language, is the almost universally recognised means of communication between the different nationalities of the Colony. I am confident that there is not a single one of the members who have retired from the Board who does not understand it, and Mr. Trotter has assured me that the Indian Community of the Town are satisfied to be re-

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presented by Mr. Atchia. This assurance is confirmed by a letter signed by over a hundred members of the Indian proprietors and residents in the Town, of which I annex a copy, and this is really the first consideration to be taken into account. For it is important to bear in mind that the object of giving to the Indian Community a fair representation on the Council or on Town Boards or Committees is two-fold: to enable the Council or Board or Committee to learn the real wishes of the Community through their representative; and secondly, to enlist on behalf of the measures adopted the in- fluence of their representative over the Indian Community. There are circumstances connected with the Town of Beau Bassin and Rose Hill, which illustrate the advantage likely to be derived from the exercise of such influence. Measures taken against plague in this district have caused considerable trouble, more, indeed, than in most other districts, and my experience in this Colony convinces me of the wisdom of the decision adopted last year by the Government of India, who have laid it down, in accordance with the recommendations of the Plague Commission, that the first principle of all plague measures should be that:-

--

Except in extraordinary circumstances compulsion should be eschewed, and that the efforts of Government should be directed to convince the people of the utility of particular methods, and to inducing them to carry them out, not by force, but by the exercise of their own free will."

23. It would have been easy enough for me to nominate to the Board a member of the Indian Community with a competent knowledge of English and French, but Mr. Trotter was unable to suggest to me any one possessing such a knowledge resident in and having large interests in the Town, whom the general Indian Community would be willing to recognise as their representative. To have nominated a member of the Indian Community merely because he possessed a knowledge of English and French would have been as absurd, if I may compare small things to great, as to select a Bengali Baboo as the representative of the native community of a Rajput state.

24. Two things are certain; first, that it is only through the agency of members of their community in whom they have confidence that the Indian community can be effectively influenced; and secondly, that the general Indian Community can be in- fluenced only by communications in one or more languages of India or in the patois of the Colony.

25. Having thus submitted to you the reasons which have guided me in the nomination of Mr. Atchia to be a member of the Board of Commissioners of Beau- Bassin and Rose Hill, I may sum up my views in the following propositions:-

1. That it is, and has beep, the policy of His Majesty's Government from the establishment of the present constitution of the Colony to recognise the claim of His Majesty's Indian subjects in Mauritius, possessed of the necessary qualifications and permanently associated with the Colony to enjoy equal rights of representation, in the Council of Government or on Boards or Committees, with the rest of the Community.

2. That, however, desirable it may be that representatives of the Indian Com- munity should be able to speak English or French, more or less correctly or elegantly, no such educational test is required, as a sine quâ non, to justify the election or nomi- nation of an Indian member, provided that he has the qualifications necessary to enable him to speak on behalf of and to influence the Community he is chosen to represent.

I have, &c.,

CHAS. BRUCE,

Enclosure 1 in No. 12.

Memorandum by Mr. Trotter, dated September 24, 1901. [Printed as Enclosure in No. 9.]

Enclosure 2 in No. 12.

"LE CHENEEN," Septeinber 3, 1901.

M. DE CHAZAL-LB DR. NALLÉTAMBY,

Governor.

Un extraordinaire de la Gazette Officielle publié ce jour, annonce que le Dr. Nallétamby a été nommé au siège de nomines qu'occupait Sir Virgile Naz, et M. Pierre Edmond de Chazal à celui de l'hon. Ambrose, Nous surions compris la nomination de M. Pierre Edmond de Chazal, si le Gouverneur avait choisi un autre que le Dr. Nallétamby pour remplacer Sir Virgile Nax, c'est-à-dire

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