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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Government of India will be appealed to, and the continuance of the indentured system is likely to be seriously threatened. In view of the existence of the feeling to which we have referred. it behoves the Colonies, if they value the continuance of imported Indian labour, to take prompt action on the recommendations which have been made by the Committee, and we trust that this aspect of the question will be brought to their notice in connection with these recommendations.

11. The Committee have observed that the unpopularity of the indentured system of emigration in India is in great measure attributable to misrepresentations regarding the treatment of labourers in the Colonies, to the lack of information regarding the emigrants and the difficulty of communication between them and their relatives, and to abuses connected with recruitment. With a view, therefore, to popularise emigration the Committee propose in the first place that an officer of the Government of India should be deputed periodically to the Colonies to report on the actual conditions prevailing there. (Paragraph 54.) With regard to this, we would again lay stress on the fact that the continuance of emigration to the Colonies is not a matter of serious importance to India, seeing that the average number of emigrants during the past five years was only 17,981. The relief thus given to the congestion of population in this country can only be described as microscopic. hand, as stated in paragraph 6 of despatch No. 99, dated the 10th December, 1909, On the other from Lord Minto's Government, the rapid development of Indian industries has brought to the front the question of home employment, and it is not uncommon to hear complaints of scarcity of labour and objections to the Colonies being allowed to draw on India at all. We have already expressed our views on this subject. considering all the circumstances, it does not appear to us that a case is made out for But inspecting officers being sent to the Colonies at the expense of the Indian tax-payer in order that emigration may be encouraged. It is true that the maintenance of satis- factory conditions in the Colonies and the welfare of Indian labourers who have emigrated there, are matters in which we cannot fail to be deeply interested, but we are not satisfied that from this point of view there is need for recurring inspection. We have not found that the absence of periodical inspection has been a serious handi- cap in the past, and we believe that, in consequence of the tendencies to which we have referred in the last paragraph, we are not likely to be left long in the dark if the treatment of Indian labourers in the Colonies leaves anything to be desired. The general conclusion at which we have arrived is that it would be preferable not to give an undertaking to depute an officer on regular inspection tours to the Colonies, but that we should consider the question of the deputation of an officer when particular circumstances arise which render the adoption of such a course advisable.

12. In the second place the Committee have recommended that facilities should be given to Indian labourers to correspond with their families in India (paragraph 55), and that nominal rolls showing the distribution of labourers among the different estates should be forwarded by each Colony to the Protectors of Emigrants in India, so that they may be able to inform the relatives of an emigrant of his address (para- graph 56). We concur in both these recommendations, and we shall be prepared, in case of their being adopted, to make it known that enquiries regarding emigrants can be made at the offices of the Protectors of Emigrants.

13. The Committee have made several recommendations on the subject of re- cruitment, which is dealt with in paragraphs 65 to 82 of their report. They find that recruitment has not in the past been confined to the right class of people, viz., agri- cultural labourers, but that considerable numbers of casual labourers, who are a fruit- ful source of trouble, are engaged in the industrial cities, and that as the recruiters cover a wide range, their operations are not effectively controlled. The Committee recommend that recruitment by licensed recruiters should ordinarily be confined to North and South Behar and to the Eastern districts of the United Provinces, where a large labour supply is known to exist, and that a responsible Emigration Agent should be stationed at Benares so that he may be able to control recruiting operations. They also advocate the amalgamation of the two British Agencies at Calcutta.

14. The first and second of these proposals of the Committee appear to us as likely to effect improvement in the existing arrangements; although, so long as pro- fessional recruiters are employed, the prejudice against emigration cannot, in our opinion, be wholly removed. proposals by the Colonial Governments.

We recommend, therefore, the adoption of these two India Office letter, dated the 6th April, 1911, we would state that the provisions of With reference to the enquiry made in the the Indian Emigration Act are sufficient to enable us to give effect to the recommenda- tion as to the restriction of the area of recruitment, but that we have no power to

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compel the appointment of an Agent at Benares.

ever, be given effect to by the Colonial Governments without the necessity for the The recommendations can, how- exercise of our powers, and we shall await your Lordship's orders before we take action in the matter of limiting the area of recruitment.

15. We approve the recommendation that the two British Emigration Agencies at Calcutta should be amalgamated. As regards the suggestion made in paragraph 82 of the report that recruitment for Surinam should be conducted through the com- bined Agency, we would invite a reference to the despatch from the Government of India, No. 44, dated the 1st July, 1909, in which it was pointed out that, under Article IV. of the Convention of 1870, the Netherlands Agent is entitled to enjoy all the facilities and advantages afforded to the recruiting Agents of British Colonies. Although, therefore, the suggestion in itself appears a desirable one, it cannot appa- rently be given effect to against the wishes of the Netherlands Government, should they prefer to continue recruitment by their own agents. We would suggest that the views of the Netherlands Government on this question may be ascertained.

16. We now turn to the complaints made by the Aborigines Protection Society in its two letters, dated the 9th November, 1910. The Society urges that the recruit- ment of unmarried women should be prohibited. In the first place, we would point out that section 35 of the Indian Emigration Act provides that no person under the age of sixteen can emigrate by himself or herself, and very few girls in India remain unmarried up to that age. unmarried women would be that unmarried girls would be debarred from accompany- The effect of the total prohibition of recruitment of ing their parents or guardians. This result is probably not what the Society desires to secure. As regards the recruitment of women unaccompanied by their husbands, their case is specially provided for in Section 28 of the Emigration Act, under which the Registering Officer is empowered to defer registration for a week or ten days in doubtful cases, so as to give time for the husband to appear, and to refuse registra- tion if the husband on his appearance does not consent. Among the single women recruited there will inevitably be undesirable characters, but we question whether the proposal made by the Society would be effectual in preventing their recruitment. The device would almost certainly be resorted to of a woman whose character did not count being put up by the recruiter as the wife of an intending male emigrant, whose acquiescence in the plan could be readily procured. Instances of such bogus unions are not unknown at present. We are of opinion, therefore, that it would be useless

to make any provision such as that advocated by the Society.

17. We agree with your Lordship that the suggestion of the Society that Indian officials paid by the Indian Government should be appointed Protectors of Immi- grants in the Colonies should not be accepted. As pointed out in the India Office letter, dated the 8th December, 1910, the proposal is open to serious objections.

18. With reference to the criticisms made by the Society on the character of the recruiters and the method of remunerating them by payment of a commission per head on the labourers recruited by them, we admit that in spite of all precautions there does exist a number of men of indifferent character among the recruiters、 employed. The matter is one for which no entirely satisfactory remedy can be found. We believe, however, that the recommendations made by the Committee on the subject of recruitment will, if adopted, do much to improve the existing system, and in particular the appointment of an Emigration Agent at Benares, who will be in a position to become acquainted with the individual recruiters, should effect an improvement in the class of men employed. In this connection we would make the further suggestion that the number of recruiters should be kept as low as possible. It is our firm conviction that it would be to the advantage of the Emigration Agencies to work with a small number of select men rather than with a large number of persons whose methods cannot always be trusted. tion of recruiters, we are of opinion that the system of payment by commission must With reference to the remunera- be adhered to if emigration is to continue. It would otherwise, we believe, not be possible to obtain the number of emigrants which the Colonies require. The abuses to which the system is liable will, we trust, decrease if an improvement in the class of recruiters employed can be effected by the measures above described.

19. In conclusion, we desire to take this opportunity of bringing to your Lordship's notice a matter to which our attention has been called in connection with this question of emigration. Mauritius by the application in their case of the French laws of marriage and We refer to the hardship imposed on Indians in succession. We enclose a copy of questions asked by the Honourable Mr. Gokhale