CO885-(20-21) — Page 473

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

गय

Reference :-

C.O. 885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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the planting community, and on the representation of the Planters' Association I accorded an interview to a deputation of representative planters from various parts of the Colony. One of the principal amendments to which exception was taken was that limiting the total extension of an immigrant's indenture for desertion to six months. It was pointed out that in this Colony, owing to the almost total absence of any local labour, there is a constant demand by Indian settlers for labour, and among this class a deserter can obtain employment with but little risk of detection, owing to the difficulty of identifying him outside the district where he is indentured. The demand for labour by the Government and by European residents is also a strong incentive to desertion. Cases were quoted in which deserters had long escaped detection by enlisting in the police and by taking employment in the house- hold of the Colonial Secretary. It was admitted that up to the present time desertions have been limited in number, and that the consequent loss to planters has been small, but it was urged that the chief deterrent to desertion lay in the fact that the deserter was liable to return to his plantation to complete the term of service for which he had contracted. The planters fear that the limitation of the period for which extension of indenture may be granted will result in an increase of the number of desertions, since it would be possible for an immigrant to desert for the whole period of his five years' engagement, and on the completion of that term to commute the maximum extension to which he would be liable for a payment of some 35s.

3. In this connection Mr. Powell, the President of the Planters' Association, drew attention to the fact that in the recently published New Hebrides Labour Regulation provision is made for the extension of indentures for desertion without any limitation as to the maximum term of such extensions.

4. In accordance with your instructions the proposed amendment will be carried into effect. I assured the planters that an endeavour would be made to so improve the system of reporting and dealing with cases of desertion as to render it difficult for an immigrant to escape detection for any length of time. Should it be found, however, that there is any marked increase in the number of desertions in the future, I trust that you will be prepared to reconsider your decision in the

I have, &c.,

matter.

12861

No. 53.

F. H. MAY.

GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION AGENT AT CALCUTTA FOR BRITISH GUIANA to COLONIAL OFFICE.

SIR,

(Received April 27, 1912.)

[Answered by No. 65.]

British Guiana Government Emigration Agency,

61, Garden Reach, Calcutta, 11th April. 1912.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 4452, of the 21st March,* informing me that the amalgamation of the two British Emigration Agencies at Calcutta has been decided on, and notifying me of Mr. de Boissière's appointment to act as my assistant during Mr. Marsden's pending absence from India on leave.

In connection with the amalgamation of the Agencies I venture very respectfully to suggest, for the Secretary of State's consideration, that in order to render such an amalgamation thoroughly effective it should include also the Emigration Agency for Dutch Guiana (Surinam) at Calcutta, and the present temporary Emigration Agency at Madras for Fiji and Trinidad.

2. As regards the former, Lord Sanderson's Committee remark in paragraph 82 of their Report that" with the Dutch Agency

the objections to compet-

ing agencies appear in their full force," and, after briefly specifying a few of those objections, they go on to remark that "it is evident that if the two British Agencies

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at Calcutta are amalgamated some arrangement should be made by which the recruits for foreign Colonies should be supplied through the combined Agency." I have no hesitation in saying that such an arrangement may be regarded as vitally necessary to the satisfactory working of the combined Agency and, although I understand that treaty obligations preclude any likelihood of the very prejudicial competition of Surinam in the Indian labour market being put an end to altogether, I trust that this opportunity will be taken for at least regularizing its Agency's methods of recruitment by placing it under the control of British officials.

3. In regard to the Madras Agency, I think it right to remark that the increas- ingly severe competition of the Assam Tea Association in all our most important recruiting centres will certainly compel all the Colonial Agencies to extend their operations to the Madras Presidency in the near future. A majority of the emigrants for Fiji during the present season will be recruited in Madras, and it is probable that a large proportion of the Trinidad requisition will have to be obtained there as well. Last year the British Guiana Agency, which had hitherto not found it necessary to recruit in Madras, and consequently had no agent or organization there, was able to obtain only 1,697 of the 1,950 emigrants required by planters in the Colony. It is probable that in a very few years Madras will have become a more important centre of recruiting activity than Calcutta, and it is, therefore, obviously advisable to take early steps to organize the agency there on lines adequate to meet this development.

4. With no wish whatever to disparage the present agent, it must be stated that he is not a desirable representative of important Colonial interests in India, where the fact that he is a native-and not a high-class native of the country is in itself a fatal disqualification for such a post. officials very much as they regard an ordinary native clerk I am simply recording In saying that he is regarded by the local what is well known to everyone connected with Colonial emigration in India, and I submit that the appointment in his place of an officer who is in a position to meet the Madras officials on a footing of social equality is essential both for the dignity and the interests of the Colonies he is to represent.

5. I suggest that under the new amalgamation the senior Emigration Agent, with an assistant, shall reside at Calcutta in charge of the joint agencies; that the junior Agent be stationed at Madras; and that the second assistant be posted to Faizabad (or Benares, as may be subsequently arranged) in charge of the up-country depôt. The Madras Agency would be generally subordinate and, for some years at least, complementary to the agency at Calcutta, all arrangements as to ships' sailing- dates and the relative numbers of emigrants to be supplied by each agency in each season being made by the latter.

6. I understand that the present depôt at Madras is unsatisfactory from many points of view, e.g., its distance from the place of embarkation and from the Agent's office, its insanitary surroundings, the fact that it is entirely unfenced, and so offers every facility both for coolies to abscond and for outsiders to introduce infectious disease, &c., &c. An excellent depôt can probably be secured in place of it by acquiring from Messrs. Parry and Company, late Emigration Agents at Madras for Natal, the premises which they have utilized till recently as the depôt for that Colony, but which they have no further use for now that all emigration to Natal has ceased. It is, I believe, an admirable depôt in all respects, and much more conveniently situated than the present Fiji depôt.

7. I venture to urge that the amalgamation, now that it has been definitely decided on, may be pressed forward into operation with as little delay as possible. The present position of affairs, under which Mr. Marsden represents three Colonies, and may be said to be chronically overworked, while I represent one Colony only, and am practically idle for several months in the year, is highly unsatisfactory. It has the further inherent disadvantages that my recruiters become disorganized, owing to being thrown suddenly out of employment when their recruiting season ends, and that the services of a certain percentage of them are permanently lost to the Agency that the cost of immigration is disproportionately heavy in the case of British Guiana as compared with the other Colonies, inasmuch as the entire expendi- ture incurred in connection with the Agency (rent, salaries of office and outdoor staff, construction and upkeep of depôt buildings, conservancy, &c.) falls exclusively

• No. 51.

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