4. Mr. Harcourt would further wish to be informed what economies it will, in your opinion, he possible to effect; and what additional accommodation, if will be necessary to acquire at Calcutta upon the expiration of the present lease of any, it the premises of Trinidad, &c., at the end of 1913, and what is likely to be the approximate rental as compared with the rent of the present premises. understood from Mr. Gibbes, when these matters were discussed with him last year, It was that he was of opinion that separate depôts must always be retained at Calcutta, and his views on this point were adopted in the correspondence which has taken place with the India Office. It is understood, however, that you feel some doubt upon this question, and consider that it should be possible, at any rate, to reduce the depôt space at Calcutta.
5. With regard to the Madras Agency, I am to inform you that the Government of Fiji are anxious to take advantage of the amalgamation of the agencies at Cal- cutta, to bring the existing arrangements at Madras to an end. They propose that Mr. Conran's services should be dispensed with, and that the Madras Agency should be made a branch of the Calcutta Agency, and placed under a European official, who would be responsible to the Emigration Agent at Calcutta. Mr. Harcourt is disposed to favour an arrangement of the kind suggested by the Government of Fiji, and I am to enquire whether you can give any estimate of the cost of the establishment which will be required at Madras as compared with the cost of the present Agency.
6. Prints of the recent correspondence* respecting the amalgamation of the Agencies are enclosed for your information.
22576
SIR,
(Confidential.)
I am, &c.,
HENRY LAMBERT,
No. 58.
for the Under-Secretary of State.
MR. A. MARSDEN to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received July 19, 1912.)
[Answered by No. 90.]
Englefield, Wennington Road, Southport,
18th July, 1912.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your confidential letter, No. 12861/1912, of the 12th instant.† enclosing correspondence relative to the amalgamation of the Colonial Emigration Agencies in India and, as desired, now submit proposals for the carrying out of that object in the manner which appears to me the most efficient and economical.
2. The lease of No. 21, Garden Reach, Calcutta, the present depôt for the Trinidad, Jamaica, and Fiji Agencies, will expire on 31st December, 1913, and I made a provisional arrangement with our landlords, the Port Commissioners of Calcutta, for a piece of land lying half a mile lower down the river (but two or three acres more in size) to be available when required. The present depôt covers 18 acres.
The rent of the present depôt is £750 per annum; the rent of the land offered by the Port Commissioners (including a house for the agent not yet built) would be £2,200 per annum, the lease to be for ten years with option of renewal for another ten years. See correspondence from Calcutta dated February/March, 1909.
Lines for the coolies to be built, including hospital and dispensary, will entail an outlay of £1,000, offices for staff and clerks £500, repairing walls and enclosing £500; say £2,000 altogether. These figures are approximate, as I have not the means at hand of verifying them, but are not very much out either way.
3. The Port Commissioners acquired our present premises at No. 21, Garden Reach under the Land Acquisition Act, from our former landlord Mr. Apcar, but should they require the depôt for dock extension before the lease terminates any necessary compensation would be given.
4. A valuable asset at this Agency is a private pier abutting on to the river from which coolies embark and disembark from steamers lying alongside, which is
† No. 57.
• Nos. 39, 43, 44, 46-8 and 51.
availed of on payment of a small fee by all the agencies, including the Dutch Agency of Surinam. It would not be possible to have this facility in the new land offered by the Port Commissioners, as it does not abut on to the river, and coolies would have to be inarched through the street, when embarked, to the docks, a full mile distant, a disadvantage for women and children in wet weather.
The correspondence from Calcutta before alluded to will show how difficult it is to get any other suitable land, and the exorbitant prices that would be demanded.
The transfer of the Capital to Delhi since has practically made little if any difference in values.
5. The British Guiana Agency, where Mr. Gibbes resides, and which is leased from a private individual, has another six or seven years of a ten years' lease to run, the rental being £600 per annum.
It is not considered a healthy depôt for coolies, owing to an open brook and drain at the back, and to its proximity to a considerable number of native dwellings.
It is further liable to attacks of cerebro-spinal meningitis when the number of coolies collected exceeds 500, although the depot is registered to contain 900 coolies, but has within the last three years been cleared of many of its unnecessary trees and vegetation, and modelled by Mr. Gibbes on more sanitary lines than the state in which it formerly existed.
6. This British Guiana depôt is immediately opposite the land alluded to in paragraph 2, offered by the Port Commissioners for Trinidad, &c., and is separated only by the high road. It is worthy of consideration whether only such quantity of land should be taken from the Port Commissioners as would provide for coolie accom- modation and their lines only, and dispense with the house proposed in the Calcutta February-March, 1909, letter to be built for the Agent.
An annual rental of £500 should then pay for as much land as would be required, and the remaining £250 out of the Trinidad present rental should pay for the rental of a depôt and house to be established up country. It would be impossible to avoid, however, an outlay of £2,000 in Calcutta in the first year for coolie lines and offices, and of £500 for up country-for a similar purpose.
7. The British Guiana house is only large enough for the Agent, and the office, situated in the basement, will not admit of expansion. When amalgamation takes place a larger office will be required, and could be obtained by the erection of a building in the grounds opposite, referred to in paragraph 2, and could be so designed as to accommodate those assistants and clerks whom it is necessary should reside on the premises.
A house allowance for the assistant whom it would be necessary for the Calcutta Agent to have should not be overlooked.
8. The proposal that a Government depôt for the collection of coolies be estab- lished up country, either at Benares or Faizabad, if placed in the hands of an English officer who knows his work and makes the personal acquaintance of those Indian officers and officials who come in contact with Colonial emigration, will help in a measure to remove the prejudice and ignorance at present existing, which makes Colonial emigration so unpopular.
CBut this departure will be shorn of much of its success unless it is more generally recognised amongst the officials whose duties bring them into contact with colonial emigration that the officers entrusted with the direction of colonial emigration are also servants of the Crown, and are ready and willing at all times to assist in the suppression of abuses, and in no way dependent for their remuneration on the number of emigrants who may embark for the Colonies.
An impression by no means uncommon exists up country that an Emigration Agent is a private agent working for his own ends, and to the best of my recollection this is not removed by the manner in which he is locally gazetted. should be rectified, and the Agent described as a member of the Colonial Civil Service, This, I think, appointed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to perform certain duties, and approved of in India by the requisite authority.
It will be on this up-country depôt that the success of amalgamation will largely rest, and where in the beginning work will be hardest and difficulties to overcome the most numerous.*
Apart from his duties at the up-country depôt, the officer appointed should visit, when necessary, other towns up country, where sub-agencies exist, and report on those cases sent up to him for investigation by the Agent in Calcutta.
• See No. 92 and 95.
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