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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TC.O. 885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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SIR,

(No. 465.)

274

No. 186.

JAMAICA

THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 30 December, 1913.)

King's House, Jamaica, 13th December, 1913. WITH reference to my predecessor's despatch, No. 3, of the 4th January, 1913,* on the subject of the visit of the representatives of the Indian Government to enquire into East Indian immigration in the West Indian Colonies and Fiji, I have the honour to transmit to you a memorandum submitted by Mr. McNeill of the suggestions which Mr. Chimman Lall and himself are likely to make regarding East Indian immigration arrangements in Jamaica, together with a memorandum by the Acting Protector of Immigrants relative thereto.

2. I desire to say that I concur generally in the Acting Protector's remarks, and, in regard to Crown lands, that these will become available for settlement as soon as new roads can be constructed. I shall also be prepared to introduce into the Legislative Council the Bills necessary for altering the immigration laws of the Colony in the direction pointed out by him.

3. As regards the fees for second term immigrants, I have the honour to state that it is at present impossible to relinquish the revenue derived from this source without rendering the immigration fund inadequate to meet its obligations.

4. You will observe that Mr. McNeill's memorandum is spoken of by him as being the "personal view" of the Commissioners, and I consider it advisable in these circumstances to await the full report and recommendations of the Commissioners, which will be transmitted, no doubt, in due course.

SIR,

I have, &c.,

W. H. MANNING,

Enclosure 1 in No. 186.

Governor.

Kingston, Jamaica, 17th July, 1913. I HAVE the honour to forward herewith, for the information of His Excellency the Governor, a short memorandum of the suggestions Mr. Chimman Lall and myself are likely to make regarding immigration arrangements. The memorandum repre- sents, of course, only our personal views, and even these may be modified after further experience and fuller consideration of all the information obtainable. It may be useful to have a provisional summary of the recommendations which will be made by us to the Government of India.

The Honourable

the Colonial Secretary, Kingston.

I have, &c.,

We suggest that the following matters receive consideration:-

J. MCNEILL..

1. The recruitment is unsatisfactory. The immigrants include too many persons who are unfitted for work on estates. Some are physically unsound, some are too old, some belong to castes which do not engage in manual labour. The inferior recruits are troublesome and expensive, and tend to create an atmosphere of querulous discontent. The subordinate recruiters are men who know nothing of the conditions under which immigrants live and work in the Colonies, and must rely on their own imaginations for details. It is thought that recruitment might be improved if some of the subordinate recruiters were selected from immigrants who had com- pleted five years of industrial service. These might be remunerated by regular

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monthly salaries, small bonuses per approved recruit, and might, after ten years, receive a bonus of Rs. 200 to Rs. 500, according to the efficiency of their work as recruiters. The experiment is, at least, worth trying.

More women should be recruited. The 40 per cent. minimum is not exceeded. Recruiters of the kind proposed might be more successful in getting young married couples to emigrate. In any case, the minimum should be raised to 50 per cent. If it is difficult to get more women, the adjustment of the proportion, by the mere exclusion of inferior men, would be a gain. Returned" immigrants, if physically

fit, should be encouraged and not discouraged.

2. The possibility of undertaking systematic treatment of ankylostomiasis on board ship should receive careful consideration. We are informed that Medical Officers in charge of immigrant ships have adopted a non possumus attitude. It is true that they may not be able to treat all cases. or four compounders trained in this work it would be possible to do good work. But if they are assisted by three The serious cases will have to be treated sooner or later, and treatment on the voyage should be less and not more expensive. suffering from ankylostomiasis to estates as efficient labourers, and it is undesirable It is obviously wrong to send coolies that their indentured service should begin in a hospital at the Immigration Depôt ~ or on an estate. It is better that the coolies should realise that they were unhealthy in India.

3. The medical arrangements seem to be susceptible of improvement. They are better than in the Colonies, in so far as all patients are treated in well-equipped public hospitals in charge of Government Medical Officers. They are less efficient inasmuch as a doctor visits estates regularly only once a month. cannot visit all estates in their charge regularly once a month. Immigrants who Some doctors are keen workers will not stop working and earning money to have minor ailments treated at a distant hospital, and will, ultimately, be incapacitated for a longer period than if promptly treated. Shirkers will frequently go to hospital for a few days rest at Government expense. notorious malingerer, because malingerers occasionally contract real ailments. Some A doctor cannot lightly turn away even a ailments, e.g., malarial fever and ankylostomiasis, cannot be adequately dealt with as individual clínical cases in hospital. These diseases always, and other diseases some- times, are due to local conditions, and require preventive measures rather than merely curative treatment. Under the estate hospital system there is always a trained compounder on the spot, the Medical Officer visiting the estate two or three times weekly. In Demerara many doctors visit estate hospitals daily. The former can treat petty ailments at once, carry out systematically the orders of the Medical Officer as regards both curative and preventive measures, and in more serious cases either inform the Medical Officer or send the patient to a public hospital. Where estate hospitals are visited even twice a week 'very few cases demand removal to a public hospital. A compounder can also see to the proper issue of rations or diet to convalescents, and it must not be overlooked that discharge from hospital does not imply return to normal health and capacity to work.

We recognise that in the case of estates with only a small number of immigrants an independent estate hospital for each could not be reasonably insisted upon. Often both small or large estates might unite in providing and maintaining a joint hospital in a suitable central situation. Ordinarily, an estate with upwards of fifty immigrants might be required to provide a suitable building for a hospital. a compounder, and medicines. As regards estates with fewer immigrants, the arrangements now existing might be continued where the establishment of a joint hospital presented serious difficulties, or where the public hospital was itself very near. Medical Officers should be required to visit estate hospitals twice a week. and where the average number of sick was not less than twenty daily, three visits might be required.

The proposed change would add to the Medical Officer's duties, inasmuch as it involved much additional travelling. His work in the public hospital would be lightened considerably. It is thought that the reduction in public hospital expenses might enable Government to pay adequate allowances to Medical Officers for the new duties. The estate would be directly charged with new expenditure, but it is believed that against this could be credited an increase in the working efficiency and in the contentment of the immigrants, and a reduction in cost of conveying patients to hospital. We are not directly concerned with the apportionment of cost, but have thought it desirable to indicate that in making our proposals we took account of obvious difficulties, but not as insuperable objections. The present system

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