CO885-(20-21) — Page 467

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

12518/10.

26014/11.

12518/10.

•

26014/11.†

12518/10.

3014/10-

11.‡

12518/10.

3014/10-11

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(2) That steps should be taken to diminish the number of prosecutions and

convictions for breaches of the labour law.

No substantial reduction has yet been effected, but the Governor has been instructed to secure an amendment of the law which will substitute fines (to be recovered by deduction from wages and not by imprisonment) for sentences of imprisonment, or fines with alternative of imprisonment, in the case of all ordinary offences against the labour law.

(3) That Magistrates should not be compelled to extend the period of a labourer's service by the time lost to an employer by reason of the pro- ceedings taken against a labourer for absence from work or desertion. Magistrates will now have full discretion as to extension of period of service in such cases, and extensions will be limited to the time lost by the absence from work and the sentence; and in no case can the total amount of extensions exceed six months. (4) That re-indentures should be limited to one year and ultimately forbidden. This has been arranged.

(5) That the hours of work of children should be limited and provision made

for their education.

It appears that children under 10 years of age are not required to work, and the and 26014/ Governor is to be empowered to prescribe regulations for the education of such

children.

11.

26014/11.†

(6) That inducements should be offered to time-expired labourers to settle in

Fiji. The Government has this proposal under consideration.

The Government of Fiji have pressed for the concession to Fiji (referred to in paragraph 7 of the Government of India's letter of May 25th, 1911) that the coolies 26014/11. should pay part of cost of their return passages, but the Secretary of State has refused this, partly because the passage can only be claimed within two years after complet- ing ten years' residence, a limitation not applicable to Trinidad. December, 1911.

34886

SIR,

No. 43.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE. [Answered by No. 44.]

T. C. M.

Downing Street, 1 February, 1912.

your

I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to acknowledge the receipt of letter of the 28th of October last, enclosing a despatch from the Government of India relative to the report of the Committee on emigration from India to the Crown Colonies and Protectorates.

2. I am to request you to inform the Marquess of Crewe that Mr. Harcourt proposes to deal in the present letter only with those questions which are con- nected with the recruiting of labour in India. The other matters referred to in your letter and its enclosure will be considered in a further communication.

3. The questions which affect recruiting in India can be conveniently discussed under three heads, viz. :—

(a) The amalgamation of the Agencies at Calcutta and, as a corollary thereof, the establishment of a responsible agent in the United Provinces;

(b) The restriction of the area of recruiting; and

(c) The payment of recruiters by commission.

4. The question of amalgamating the Agencies is not a new one (see paragraph 81 of the Report of the Committee); nor is the contemplated change very extensive, as it only concerns the staff of the two Agencies. The two depôts must necessarily remain separate as they are at present. The change, which is advocated in the interests of economy and of administrative efficiency, has been agreed to in principle

• No. 34. † No. 32.

§ Enclosure 1 in No. 39. | No. 39.

No. 16.

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by successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies, and it probably would have been carried out some years ago but for the opposition of two of the Colonies concerned. In transmitting the Report of the Committee to the four Colonies which now recruit coolie labourers in India, Mr. Harcourt once again drew attention to the amalga- mation scheme and invited the acceptance of the Committee's recommendations. The Governors of Fiji and Jamaica have agreed to the proposal, but unfortunately the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council of Trinidad continue to oppose it strenuously, while in British Guiana the feeling is also on the whole favourable to the maintenance of separate agencies.

5. Mr. Harcourt does not, however, anticipate that in a matter of this nature individual Colonies will expect that their view should prevail over those of the Government of India and the Secretaries of State for India and the Colonies, and he believes that, with the further explanations which he proposes to give, the objec- tions of the dissentient Colonies, which seem to be founded to a large extent on a misapprehension as to the effects of the proposal, will disappear. In these circum- stances he proposes, subject to any further observations from Lord Crewe, to inform the four Colonies in question that amalgamation is considered necessary in the interests of recruiting, and that he has therefore been unable to resist this proposal. In the meantime, Mr. Harcourt would be obliged if Lord Crewe would treat his decision on this subject as strictly confidential, until he has communicated it to the Governments of British Guiana and Trinidad.

6. Mr. Harcourt concurs in the view that a responsible agent should be stationed in the centre of the recruiting districts in the United Provinces. He notes that the Indian Government suggest that the officer in question should be stationed at Benares; Mr. Gibbes, the Agent for British Guiana, on the other hand, is of opinion that Fyzabad would be a preferable station. The question is one of detail and need not be immediately decided.

7

There would appear to be no objection in principle to the proposed restric- tion of the area of recruiting; the matter appears to be mainly one for local arrangement between the Indian Government and the Emigration Agents at Cal- cutta, but it is desirable that the Emigration Agents should be fully consulted before definite restrictions are agreed upon, and I am to suggest that any reasonable modifications which they may desire should, if possible, be accepted.

8. With regard to the third question above mentioned, Mr. Harcourt has had the matter fully discussed with the Agent for British Guiana; and while he may admit that payments by commission for recruiting do afford certain opportunities for abuse and are, therefore, pro tanto, unsatisfactory, he does not find that the ments against the present system are in any way strong enough to justify the view argu- that it would not be possible to defend the retention of the system of indentured emigration if the recruitment of the labourers desired is dependent upon the pay- ment of commissions to the recruiters." indicates that in practice grave abuses have not occurred.

The Report of the Committee (paragraph 7) Agencies at Calcutta, the appointment of an Agent in the United Provinces, and the The amalgamation of the restriction of the area of recruiting-to all of which Mr. Harcourt has agreed-are designed expressly to minimise the objections to which the existing system is liable. The Government of India, whose intimate knowledge of the local conditions recruiting districts lends special weight to their views, are satisfied" that the system of payment by commission must be adhered to if emigration is to continue." view is also shared by Mr. Gibbes, who states that recruiting for Assam is paid for This in the same way as recruiting for the Colonies, i.e., by commission. After the fullest possible consideration, Mr. Harcourt is greatly disposed to doubt whether any satis- factory alternative can be devised.

the

9. The Secretary of State would, of course, be glad, if it were possible, to introduce a system which would put an end to commissions without unduly enhancing the difficulties and cost of recruiting, and he would be glad to consider any scheme which appears to offer reasonable prospects of successful recruiting at a reasonable cost: but there is one point upon which he must lay the greatest stress: it is, in his opinion, essential that any new system of recruiting should apply equally to all recruiting in India, and that the Colonies they should also be abolished in the case of recruiting for Assam and commissions are abolished in the case of recruiting for Surinam. It would be impossible to forbid the Colonies to recruit by commission if any other competing agencies were allowed to retain the system.

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