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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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2. I have to express my satisfaction that the Government of Trinidad are willing to lease Crown lands for the purpose of rice cultivation, and to request that steps may be taken to put the policy into force without delay.

3. I shall be interested to receive reports upon the success of the experiment from time to time.

39902

No. 168.

I have, &c.,

L. HARCOURT.

THE GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION AGENT AT CALCUTTA FOR TRINIDAD, &c., to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 12 noon, 19th November, 1913.) TELEGRAM.

[Answered 17 January, 1914, by 20 in Miscellaneous No. 299.] Emigration Commissioners expected here early in December. It is suggested, for your consideration, that India Office should be requested instruct them to visit Assam before sending report as to Colonies. I am informed that treatment Colonial indentured labourers compares most favourably with present conditions of Assam. Visit as proposed could be accomplished in ten days.-EMIGRATION AGENT FOR TRINIDAD, &c.

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*SIR,

No. 169.

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 21 November, 1913.)

[Copy to Governor, Trinidad, 29 November, 1913. Confidential. L.F.]

India Office, Whitehall, London, S.W., 20th November, 1913.

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Read's letters of the 22nd ultimo and 14th instant, Nos. 33014 and 37482,* regarding the preliminary suggestions put forward by the representatives of the Government of India, Messrs. J. McNeill and Chimman Lal, as to Indian emigration to Trinidad, and, in reply, to state, for the information of Mr. Secretary Harcourt, that his Lordship is in agreement with the view that no action in the direction of adopting the suggestions made can usefully be taken pending the receipt and consideration of Messrs. McNeill and Lal's final report.

A copy of the letters under reply, with their enclosure, is being sent to the Government of India.

I have, &c.,

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

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2. As Lord Crewe is aware, there have hitherto been two British Emigration Agents at Calcutta, one, Mr. Gibbes, representing the Colony of British Guiana, the other, Mr. Marsden, representing the Colonies of Trinidad, Jamaica, and Fiji. The latter officer has, as a general rule, had the assistance of an Assistant Emigra- tion Agent. An Emigration Agent has also been stationed at Madras, who has been primarily concerned with recruiting for Fiji, but has also at times recruited emigrants for British Guiana and Trinidad. This officer, a gentlemen of native extraction, who has now retired from the service, was virtually independent of the Emigration Agents at Calcutta.

3. The two Agencies at Calcutta and the Agency at Madras are being anal- gamated in accordance with the desire of the Indian Government, and it is pro- posed that, for the present at any rate, and subject to any change which the working of the new arrangements may show to be desirable, one Emigration Agent should be stationed at Calcutta, and the other should reside for the most part at the depôt to be established at Benares. Two Colonial officers, i.e., Mr. Doorly, the Protector of Immigrants in Jamaica, and Mr. Hill, of the Immigration Department, British Guiana, have been temporarily seconded to assist the Emigration Agents in India: and it is proposed that Mr. Doorly should for the present take charge at Madras and that Mr. Hill should help the Emigration Agent at Calcutta.

4.

It will be necessary to gazette the appointments of Mr. Doorly and Mr. Hill, and it will also apparently be desirable to gazette anew the appointments of the two Emigration Agents because of the alterations in their duties which will result from amalgamation. If this last is found to be necessary, I. am to express Mr. Harcourt's hope that the gazette notices may be so drafted as to enable either Mr. Gibbes or Mr. Marsden to take charge of the recruiting arrangements at Calcutta, Benares, and Madras, and similarly to enable Mr. Doorly and Mr. Hill to assist and, when necessary, to relieve the Emigration Agents at any of the depôts or recruiting districts in which their services may be required.

5. The Government of India will, no doubt, agree that it is desirable to afford all facilities to these different Emigration Officers for moving freely from one recruiting centre to another, thus making their services available wherever they are most required. This is specially important in the immediate future, while the new arrangements are being brought into working order, but it will always be expedient, in order to relieve pressure of work and to facilitate leave arrange- ments, &c.

6. It will be seen from the enclosed telegram* that the matter of special urgency at the present moment is that either Mr. Gibbes or Mr. Doorly or, preferably, as already indicated, both officers should be enabled to undertake the necessary recruit- ing at Madras on behalf of the Colony of Fiji, and am to request that Lord Crewe may be so good as to request the Indian Government to take the necessary steps, either by executive instruction or by gazetting, to enable the recruiting at Madras to he proceeded with.

I am, &c.,

HENRY LAMBERT,

for the Under-Secretary of State.

39902

No. 171.

SIR,

No. 170.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE.

[Copy to Emigration Agent, 21 November, 1913. L.F.] [Ansicered by No. 187.]

Downing Street, 21 November, 1913.

I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to transmit to you, for the con- sideration of the Marquess of Crewe, the accompanying copy of a telegram which has been received from the Emigration Agent for Trinidad, Jamaica, and Fiji at Calcutta, in which it is urged that, in consequence of the alterations which are being made in the Agencies, it becomes necessary to gazette Emigration Agents at Calcutta and Madras.

• Nos. 152 and 163.

↑ No. 165.

SİR,

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE.

[Answered by No. 189.]

Downing Street, 22 November, 1913. Wrra reference to previous correspondence, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to request you to inform the Marquess of Crewe that he understands that the representatives of the Indian Government who have been visiting the Colonies which recruit indentured Indian labour are expected to return to India on the completion of their tour early in December.

2. I am to suggest, for the consideration of the Marquess of Crewe, that it might be of advantage if these gentlemen were instructed to visit Assam, before

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• No. 165.

S

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