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PUBLIC RECORD

OFFICE

Reference :-

FREE C.O.

885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

3081

(No. 2.) SIR,

No. 100.

JAMAICA.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 27 January, 1913.)

[Copy to India Office, 6 February, 1913. L.F.]

King's House, Jamaica, 4th January, 1913.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 303, of the 29th October last,* transmitting a copy of a letter from the India Office enclosing a despatch from the Government of India dealing with certain points of detail connected with emigration from India to West Indian Colonies and Fiji.

2. With regard to the supply of nominal rolls showing the distribution of the labourers, I would beg leave to say that the Protector of Immigrants reports that he has in his office copies of such rolls in respect of all indentured immigrants now in this Colony, that is, arrivals subsequent to 1907, and that with a view to avoiding the heavy work of making fresh lists, I have on his suggestion, approved of his showing on these nominal rolls the address of each immigrant and despatching these to the Protector of Emigrants at Calcutta.

I have, &c.,

SYDNEY OLIVIER,

3082

(No. 3.) SIR,

No. 101.

JAMAICA.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 27 January, 1913.)

Governor.

King's House, Jamaica, 4th January, 1913.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch, No. 336, dated the 3rd December, 1912,† enclosing copy of a further letter from the India Office with regard to the visit of the two representatives of the Indian Government to enquire into the conditions of the life of the Indian immigrants in the West Indian Colonies and Fiji.

2. I would beg leave to say, in reply, that every possible facility will be given to these gentlemen to carry out the objects of their mission, and that all necessary information will be made available to them.

3456

SIR,

No. 102.

I have, &c.,

SYDNEY OLIVIER,

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received 30 January, 1913.)

Governor.

India Office, Whitehall, London, S.W.,

29th January, 1913.

Wrra reference to Sir H. Just's two letters of the 19th December last, on matters connected with the amalgamation of the British Emigration Agencies at Calcutta, I am directed to say that the Marquess of Crewe is communicating this opinion to the Government of India.

• No. 80.

↑ No. 86.

I have, &c.,

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

Nos. 92 and 93.

3657

SIR,

No. 103.

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

(Received 1 February, 1913.)

[Answered by Nos. 108 and 113.]

British Guiana Government Emigration Agency, 61, Garden Reach, Calcutta,

January 9th, 1913.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, No. 22576, of the 19th December last* (with enclosures), and also of your Confidential letter of the same date and number.†

2.

With reference to the latter, I have to express my regret that my action in deferring compliance with the Secretary of State's instructions, conveyed to me in your letter of the 16th August last, for the reasons explained in my letter of the 9th October, § has not met with his approval. It only remains for me to carry them out without delay, and an expression of my views on the points indicated in para- graph 2 of your letter under reference will be submitted at an early date.

It is

3. The instructions embodied in your letter (non-Confidential) of the 19th December,* in regard to the various points connected with the pending amalgamation of the Agencies on which a joint report is desired from Mr. Marsden and myself will be complied with in due course. I trust, however, that I may be pardoned if I venture to ask without delay for early reconsideration of one of these points, as the matter appears to me to be of vital importance to the success of the whole scheme. I refer to the Secretary of State's decision that Mr. Marsden should be placed in charge of the up-country depôt at Faizabad or Benares, and that the Madras Agency should be entrusted to a new Assistant, for the supervision of whose work I, as the Calcutta Agent, am to be responsible. Such an arrangement can, I think, only have been decided on under an entire misconception of the rôle which the up-country depôt is designed to play in regard to the combined Agency's work. Its object, as I have always conceived it to be, and as I understand Lord Sanderson's Committee also conceived it, is to form a central collecting centre in the heart of the recruiting districts in charge of a responsible Colonial Officer (not necessarily an Emigration Agent, although the word "Agent" is used in paragraph 78 of the Committee's Report), where intending emigrants can be assembled and accommo- dated temporarily prior to their despatch to the main depôt at Calcutta. desirable that the emigrants collected should be despatched to the Calcutta depôt with as little delay as possible, as there will be constant risk of their being claimed by relatives, or of their changing their minds and refusing to emigrate, so long as they remain in the neighbourhood of their homes. For this reason the number of emigrants to be accommodated simultaneously in the new depôt will always be a limited one, and is unlikely ever to exceed 150 to 200 at any one time. The size of the depot will consequently be small, and the establishment should consist of not more than two or three clerks, and an outdoor staff of guards, sweepers, &c., which will probably not number one-tenth of the strength necessary at the Calcutta Agency. The officer in charge will be in touch with, and able to closely supervise and promptly check abuses on the part of, the recruiters; he will accept or reject on the spot any recruits who are brought in or present themselves as emigrants, thereby saving them the inconvenience and disappointment and the recruiters the monetary loss which in so many cases is caused by rejections after arrival at Calcutta; and it is expected that by personal intercourse, and constant official contact with the local magistrates, he will be in a position to raise the status of Colonial emigration generally in a way which is impossible so long as illiterate recruiters remain its only representatives. All instructions as to the numbers of recruits to be supplied, the dates by which they must arrive here, &c., &c., would obviously have to issue to him from the Calcutta Agency. In other words, the up-country depôt will be merely a sub- department of, and its main function that of a feeder to, the latter.

4. The duties of the officer in charge, as I have indicated them above, could all be adequately discharged by an Assistant to the Emigration Agent; and indeed, in my view, it is absolutely essential that the officer in charge of the up-country depôt

§ No. 70.

No. 90.

† No. 91.

‡ No. 65.