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43659

(Confidential.)

272

No. 184.

INDIA OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received 20 December, 1913.)

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

19th December, 1913. WITH reference to my letter of the 6th August,* I am directed by the Marquess of Crewe to forward for the information of Mr. Secretary Harcourt the enclosed copy of a report by Mr. McNeill and Mr. Chimman Lall on the subject of the proposed amalgamation of the Dutch and British Emigration Agencies at Calcutta.

I have, &c.,

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

Enclosure in No. 184.

SIR,

Suva, Fiji, 25th September, 1913. WITH reference to your letter J. & P. 2413 of 6th August, 1913, we have the honour to submit the following report concerning the amalgamation of the Dutch and British Emigration Agencies at Calcutta.

2. We observed nothing in Surinam which would justify us in recommending such a change in the interests of the immigrants into that Colony. The classes of immigrants, are the same as those found in British Colonies in the West Indies. Until we have had an opportunity of inquiry into the question of recruitment in India we hesitate to pronounce for or against the present system of separate recruit- ment. Possibly our reply to the second request contained in the letter of 30th June from the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies may suggest that an immediate change would be undesirable.

3. The condition of the immigrants in Surinam compared unfavourably with that of those in British Colonies in one important respect. The wages earned by indentured immigrants were substantially lower, and opportunities of supplement- ing the wage earnings by cultivating small plots of land or keeping cows, as in Trinidad and Demerara, were seldom afforded. Settlements on or near estates are rarely found so that small owners or leaseholders cannot, as in the other colonies mentioned, supplement the profits of their cultivation by occasional earnings as day labourers. The Colony is passing through a severe crisis, owing to the destructive outbreak of disease in cacao plantations some years ago and to the more recent col- lapse of the banana industry, owing to disease having attacked the valuable species of banana suitable for export. Last year also drought was added to other visitations. There are only four sugar estates, and the great majority of estates growing cacao, bananas, and coffee are in the hands of persons who are unable, perhaps occasionally unwilling, to spend capital on development or even in proper maintenance. The Netherlands Government recently wrote off as irrecoverable a substantial sum (1.000,000 guilders we are told) lent to planters financially crippled by the outbreak of banana disease.

The Surinam Government has devoted much attention and substantial expendi- ture to the settling of immigrants on the land. This colonisation work has been, in our opinion, more systematic in this colony than elsewhere, but the results have been sadly marred by the outbreaks of disease above mentioned. We saw one very well devised settlement in which four-acre plots had been planted with cacao, which yielded well until about ten years ago, when disease first appeared. The present vield is probably not one-sixth of the normal and the settlers, in an apparently vain expectation of a providential expulsion of the disease, will not substitute, for the cacao trees, coffee or any other remunerative product. In other settlements the banana disease has done harm, though coarser kinds of plantains repay cultivation for the local market. In a few rice is being grown profitably and the cultivation

of this crop will probably extend.

With the Colony in its present state, immigrants engaged in petty trades and industries are necessarily affected by the general depression. We found, however,

• No. 132.

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that casual day labourers near Paramaribo earned fair wages, that the Indian immigrants had pushed the blacks out of the carting business, and that the business of milk supplying had fallen into Indian hands.

4.

We shall lay most stress on the inadequacy of the wage earnings on most estates, and shall suggest that in the last year or two of the indentured period the cultivation of small plots and the keeping of cows be encouraged. Inspecting officers have prosecuted some managers for setting excessive tasks, but more general measures are necessary. The heavy losses to planters in recent years palliate but do not justify the tolerance of consistently low earnings. expense of the indentured immigrants is obviously not allowable. We are unable to Recuperation at the suggest that any more be done for settlers than the Surinam Government is doing. It has assisted them with loans and has established small land banks under official direction, besides giving a donation of 100 guilders (one guilder settler who forgoes his claim to return passage. Plants and seeds are distributed. 1s. 8d.) to each and district officers devote much attention to colonisation work. The local officials hold that a large variety of discase-proof products can profitably be grown. Rice. coffee, plantains, and ground provisions will repay cultivation.

=

5. Our special reasons for hesitating to recommend any change in the system of recruitment will now, we think, be intelligible. Until wages are in fact enhanced and until apparently reasonable hopes of improvement in the general condition and prospects of the Colony have been realised it may be thought desirable to allow the Dutch authorities to continue to recruit. If a British Colonial officer is responsible for the shipment of emigrants to Surinam the British Consul in Surinam can hardly fail to experience an increase in complaints and in requests for inquiry or inter- vention. If the same agency recruits for Surinam and other colonies dissatisfied immigrants will urge that they were sent unwillingly to Surinam, that they were given to understand that their destination was Demerara, Jamaica, &c., &c. it is now a common complaint that subordinate recruiters habitually make false promises, having pledged immigrants to secrecy about these promises in the immigrants' interests, the volume of charges, which can neither be proved nor refuted, against recruiters will certainly not be reduced by the proposed amalga-

We have, &c..

ination.

The Under Secretary of State for India,

Public Department,

India Office, S.W.

44136

SIR

(No. 494.)

No. 185.

TRINIDAD.

J. MCNEILL.

L. CHIMMAN LALL.

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 23 December, 1913.)

Government House, 8th December, 1913.

As

I HAVE the honour to report, in reply to your despatch, No. 400, of the 31st of October,* that, the Finance Committee having agreed to the proposal to allow of a three-fourths pension after ten years of service, and a gratuity upon the same basis for service of less than ten years, to the Clerks at the Trinidad Emigration Agency at Calcutta whose services may shortly be dispensed with, I telegraphed to you accordingly on the 6th instant. I

›. 157.

I have, &c..

GEORGE R. LE HUNTE.

Governor.

† No. 176.