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9. I attach a copy of a minute and a return, by the Registrar of the Supreme Court, of East Indians tried for murder and violent assaults, which was asked for by Mr. McNeil. A copy has been sent to him.
SIR,
No. 127.
TRINIDAD.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Confidential.)
(Received 24 June, 1913.)
[Answered by No. 133.]
Government House, 6th June, 1913. WITH reference to your Confidential despatch of the 31st December last* and previous correspondence, on the subject of the visit of the representatives of the Indian Government to enquire into the conditions of East Indian labour in the West Indies, I have the honour to inform you that Mr. McNeil and Mr. Chimmanlal arrived here on 14th January, and after making investigations and visiting several estates they left for British Guiana on 25th February, and from there forwarded their recommendations on various points, and suggested amendments of the Immigra- tion Ordinance, No. 161.
2. I considered these carefully with my officers, and on the return of the representatives on their way to Jamaica, on 13th May, we discussed them in detail with them.
3. I enclose a full minute of our conferences on the 16th and 19th May, show- ing each recommendation and the decision arrived at, for your information and further instructions, where necessary. The Attorney-General, who is at the moment occupied with a heavy Criminal Sessions, will draft an amending Ordinance embody- ing the decisions on Ordinance No. 161, which I will forward for your consideration at a later date.
The representatives left here for Jamaica on 20th May, and a copy of the above-mentioned minute was forwarded to them there on the 2nd instant.
4. The suggestion that the claim to a return passage Ordinance No. 161, Section 225 should be exercised by the immigrant within five years is concurred in by my Government, but was specially reserved for your consideration and instruc- tions. It seems to me very reasonable.
5. The question of a separate prison for Indians committed for breaches of the Immigration Law and their employment on agricultural labour, Government Farm, &c., has been under the consideration of my Government for some time, but there are no funds at present available.
I am glad to say that I found on inspecting the Royal Gaol on 31st May that the number of prisoners for breaches of Labour Law was much fewer-38 against 67 on the same day, 1912.
6. The representatives' suggestion that the Government should allow immi- grants to purchase Crown lands on a system of payment by instalments is not approved of by my Government. It has been tried, with very bad results, with the Creole population, and I do not consider it expedient to revert to the system of sale on instalments, which was condemned and discontinued before I came here, or to make an exception in the case of East Indians, which would give rise to great ill- feeling amongst the Creoles, with whom, as you are aware from the repeated repre- sentations of the Trinidad Working Men's Association, if they are of any value, there is already a strong feeling of jealousy of the East Indians.
7. The question of the registration of Indian marriages before 1881 (Ordi- nance 6, of 1881) and of the registration of Indian priests was carefully considered, but it was not found possible to accept the suggestion of the representatives. enclose, for your information, a copy of a minute on the subject by the Registrar- General, and a minute by the Attorney-General on a previous suggestion by the Protector of Immigrants for the legalizing of marriages prior to 1881.
8.
With these two exceptions I may say that I and my officers are in almost complete accord with the views of the representatives, and I shall be very glad to do all in my power to bring them to effect."
• No. 97
I have, &c.,
GEORGE R. LE HUNTE,
Governor.
Enclosure 1 in No. 127.
The following are the matters regarding which we wish to make suggestions: 1. The recruitment ought to be improved. Men who obviously cannot do good steady work are now recruited. Besides weedy and weak men the recruits include men with obvious physical defects. We have seen a man with a right wrist broken long before he left India, a newly-arrived deaf man who was a semi-idiot, a newly- arrived' old woman of 50, &c. It would seem desirable to require not merely a medical test which does not exclude even the positively unfit, but, if practicable, a physical test of some kind. A contractor engaging workmen whom he could not readily dismiss would reject forthwith about ten per cent. of those now recruited. These unfit men greatly increase the number in estate hospitals and eventually swell the prosecution record. They are a burden to the estate, to the Colony, and to the Immigration Fund. They foster querulousness and discontent on estates and bring discredit on the system of indentured immigration.
2. The instruction to recruiters to reject "returned" immigrants as such should, we think, be withdrawn. A "returned" immigrant may occasionally suffer from excess of cleverness, but he has been through the mill and knows his work. Ile may put the recruits up to petty tricks on board, but they are not likely to be more apt pupils on board than in the first week or fortnight after their arrival in the place where the tricks are to be practised. The recruits are ignorant, but the more intelligent will not be discouraged by knowing that men who have been returned to India re-indenture themselves. To reject robust returned" immigrants and fill
up the complement with barbers and washermen seems to be looking for, and not avoiding, trouble.
4.
3. We enquired regarding the possibility of employing time-expired men as recruiters, and understand that the proposal is not viewed with favour. We have not met the recruiting agents and heard their views, but we have heard from Indian official sources that the existing subordinate recruiters are as a class disreputable. We have no experience of recruiting work, but our general Indian experience induces us to believe that it would be well to employ selected time-expired men as recruiters, paying them a reasonable salary, a small bonus per head, and periodic increments to the salary if work is efficient. For efficient service they might be promised from 300 to 500 rupees at the end of ten years. This might be discussed with Mr. de Boissière. We do not propose that these alone be employed, but that a trial be made in one or two districts.
The medical treatment on board ship seems susceptible of improvement. Recruits arrive with ankylostomiasis, which might in almost all cases be cured on the voyage. For eight or ten days sea-sickness may, interfere with effective treatment, but during the remaining month systematic treatment should be undertaken. The disease is debilitating and a man's attitude to his work during the whole period of his indenture will be affected if in his early days his home-sickness and his depression at finding that his work requires steady physical exertion and that his wages have an unexpectedly low purchasing power are accentuated by physical weakness or con- finement to hospital. We believe that ill-health is more responsible for desertion (and eventually imprisonment) than promises of more profitable employment in the woods in Venezuela, &c. If a man is suffering from ankylostomiasis he must be treated either on board or after arrival. Even if it was not cheaper to treat recruits on board it seems imprudent to let their first experience of estate management he confinement to hospital on low diet and no pay in cash. It would be better to treat them on board and at the depôt, and let them realise that they brought the disease with them, and it would be economical as well as prudent to strengthen the medical staff on board, if this is necessary.
5. As we think that ill-health is ultimately responsible for a great deal of the discontent, we think that the health of indentured immigrants should receive careful attention from the outset. Adult immigrants at least, and perhaps also minor
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