CO885-(20-21) — Page 505

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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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No. 90.

COLONIAL OFFICE to THE GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION AGENT AT CALCUTTA FOR BRITISH GULANA.

[Answered by Nos. 103 and 107.]

SIR,

Downing Street, 19 December, 1912. I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 9th of October,* relative to the proposed amalgamation of the two emigration agencies at Calcutta.

2. You are aware, through the letter from this Department of the 21st of March last, that Mr. Harcourt has definitely approved of the amalgamation; and it has now been decided that the necessary steps to effect amalgamation shall be taken as soon as may be conveniently possible.

3. Mr. Marsden expects to arrive in Calcutta, upon the expiration of his leave, on the 19th of February next, and as soon as he arrives you and he should consult together and furnish a joint report explaining all the measures which appear to you to be necessary in order to bring the amalgamation into force.

4. It is expected that there may be some difficulty in completing the necessary arrangements until the lease for the present depôt of the Trinidad, Jamaica, and Fiji agencies expires. The date on which the lease terminates is the 31st of December, 1913, but it might be well to enquire whether there is any likelihood that the Port Commissioners would be willing to entertain a request for an earlier surrender of the lease, say from the 30th of June next-in which case it should be possible to amalgamate the agencies as from that date. In any case it is desirable that, as soon as Mr. Marsden returns, you and he should consider how far it will be possible to make a start with new arrangements even from the beginning of the financial year, viz., the 1st of April next, by combining the work and accounts and reorganizing the staff of the two agencies.

5. Mr. Marsden and you should also approach the Indian Government, and put before them your views as to where the headquarters of the new up-country depôt should be established. It is understood that the choice lies between Benares and Faizabad, and as soon as this question has been settled, steps should be taken with a view to acquiring a lease of the necessary land and of a house for the Emigra tion Agent, and the erection of such lines and offices as will be required for the accommodation of the emigrants, and I should be glad to have an estimate of the probable cost involved at your early convenience.

6. You should also together take an early opportunity of laying before the Indian Government any considerations which you may wish to bring to their notice with regard to the restriction of the areas of recruiting. In so doing you will bear in mind that the principle of limiting the recruiting area has been definitely accepted. But it is open to you to make any representations which you may deem advisable, both in regard to any specific districts where you consider it specially desirable that recruiting should be continued, and also as to the date from which the proposed restrictions should take effect. Statistics of the nature suggested in paragraph 20 of Mr. Mar-den's letter of the 18th of July last would no doubt be of assistance both to the Indian Government and yourselves in the consideration of this question.

7. With regard to the administration of the combined agencies, Mr. Harcourt has decided that the two Emigration Agents should be jointly responsible for its success, dividing between them the two main areas of supervision you will remain at Calcutta and Mr. Marsden will take the up-country district. Neither of you will be regarded as senior to the other; and I need hardly impress upon you both the importance of a thorough understanding and of cordial co-operation. As soon as a depôt has been established in the United Provinces Mr. Marsden should proceed thither and take charge of the arrangements in the recruiting districts, while you will arrange for the reception of the emigrants and their departure from Calcutta.

S. It is presumed that the services of at least one European assistant will be required. If there be but one it will probably be advisable that the officer should usually reside at Calcutta: though he would, of course, be available to assist Mr. Marsden in the United Provinces, whenever his services are specially required there. The whole question of assistants, however, is one to which your attention should be particularly directed.

• No. 76

† No. 51.

‡ No. 58.

117

0. I am to take this opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of your letter of the 14th of November last,* reporting that Mr. de Boissière is anxious to leave India on the 25th proximo. Mr. Harcourt has noted with satisfaction your testimony to the assistance which you have received from Mr. de Boissière during Mr. Marsden's absence in England, and he would have been glad to approve of Mr. de Boissière's remaining in India as assistant to Mr. Marsden and yourself had such an arrangement, been in accordance with his wishes; but as he is anxious to return to Trinidad as soon as possible, Mr. Harcourt is making enquiries with a view to the selection of a suitable successor from the Immigration Department of one of the Colonies which receive indentured labour from India, and he hopes to be in a position to inform you of the arrangements which have been made at an early date.

10. As regards the Emigration Agency at Madras, I am to enclose for your information and guidance a copy of a despatch which has been received from the Governor of Fiji on the subject. It has been decided that advantage should be taken of the amalgamation of the agencies at Calcutta to abolish the separate agency at Madras and to place that agency under the charge of an Assistant Agent. who will be made responsible to the Emigration Agent at Calcutta. 1t will consequently be necessary that Mr. Conran should retire from his present appoint- ment as Emigration Agent for Fiji at Madras, presumably after the close of the Fiji recruiting season, which is understood to end about the beginning of May; but his convenience should be consulted as far as possible, and as, pending further consideration of the Governor's despatch, no communication has been made to him, the matter should for the present be treated as confidential.

11. In the circumstances explained in the Governor's despatch, Mr. Harcourt has decided that the question whether the former Natal depôt should be acquired in place of the present depôt must stand over until Mr. Conran's successor has been appointed. It will probably be desirable that you or Mr. Marsden should visit Madras shortly after the new Assistant Emigration Agent has entered upon his duties and should submit a report, after consultation with that officer, both as regards the site of the Madras depôt, and as regards the possibility of economies in the existing staff, recruiting fees, &c., but no steps should be taken in this matter pending the receipt of further instructions from this Office.

12. A return should be furnished showing the existing staff of the two Calcutta Agencies, and the Madras Sub-Agency, and the length of service of each individual member of each staff; and in this connection you should consider with Mr. Marsden and report what reduction can be effected in the existing staff at Calcutta and which members of the staff could be transferred to the depôt in the United Provinces or to the sub-agency at Madras. The report should also explain precisely which are the members of the different staffs with whose services it would be desirable to dispense. It is understood that no member of the subordinate staff is on a permanent or pensionable footing.

13. You should discuss with Mr. Marsden the matters referred to in the seventh paragraph of his letter, viz., whether a larger office will be required for the staff of the combined agencies at Calcutta, and whether any and, if so, what house allowance should be provided for the Assistant Agent at that port.

14. It will not, in existing circumstances, be advisable to incur the heavy charges for rent which would result if the recommendations of the Committee appointed in 1909 to consider the selection of a site were adopted. In this connection I am to refer to the letter from this Department to the Emigration Agent for Trinidad, &c., of the 15th of April, 1910, and the correspondence previous thereto, and I am to inform you that Mr. Harcourt is in entire agreement with the suggestion made in the sixth paragraph of Mr. Marsden's letter of the 18th of July, that only so much land should be taken from the Port Commissioners as is absolutely necessary in order to provide accommodation for the coolies and their lines. It appears from the fifth paragraph of Mr. Marsden's letter that he thinks it unlikely that the present depôt of the British Guiana Agency could safely be used as the sole depôt of the combined agencies; but the Secretary of State would wish you to reconsider this point. If it is clear that the use of a single depôt would result in overcrowding and consequent risk to the health of the intending emigrants, additional land must be acquired; and in the same way, if one depot only were maintained at Calcutta, and it became necessary to use it for the

‡ No. 58.

• 37931: not printed.

↑ No. 85.

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