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in small lots of an acre or two is increasing daily, so that it is apprehended that in the near future the sugar estate owners will be completely swamped by the resident element. The sugar estate owners being mostly white and the resident class mostly Indiar, what is really feared is that in the districts the Indian element will become It is a fact that very few preponderant to the complete exclusion of the white. Indians or persons of African or mixed descent own sugar factories. The tendency In the past Indian of the Indians is to own a few acres of land but not a factory. landlords have never been able to work successfully the factory or engineering side of an estate. The provision that the shareholder should be at the time of registration been SO inscribed inscribed Con the register of shares and should have

12 months before registration as a voter is a safeguard against shares being passed from one person to another merely to constitute the latter an elector. It should be noticed no such safeguard exists in the case of the present moveable qualification. It is not likely that this proposal would increase unduly the plural voting which exists under the present constitution. It will be remembered that most of the employees of Government and many traders, &c., who work in Port Louis have now a vote in the capita on the salary qualification, and another in Plaines Wilhems on the tenancy or moveable qualification.·

The above are the arguments which can be put forward in favour of the new clause. It is, however, open to grave objection. It is clearly intended to favour the white at the expense of the Indian element of the population. Further I can find no other Colonial Constitution which has adopted such an article. It is quite true that in any revision, one of the difficulties will be to safeguard the rights of the white classes which are being more and more encroached upon by the others. But I cannot think that the bestowal of a right of vote on shareholders is the correct solution of the difficulty. 11. Proposal (g). This is comparatively unimportant. The precedence granted to the Senior Member for Port Louis has sometimes given rise to friction, and it is believed that should the “Senior Member" as he is called be chosen by the majority of his colleagues, he would have greater authority. No special privilege attaches to the function. The Senior Member reads the address in reply to the Governor's speech at the opening of each session, and on him devolves the duty of complimentary and other addresses.

12. Speaking generally, the proposals may be said to be of a moderate nature. There is nothing really revolutionary except possibly Clause 2 (). No change is suggested in the number or division of existing constituencies, nor in respect of the financial initiative resting with Government nor as regards the power of veto left to the Governor on occasions when he might feel justified in over-riding the decision of the majority of the Council.

14th October, 1925.

No. 8.

H.. PRICHARD,

Procureur General.

57802/25

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

SIR,

(Confidential.)

[Answered by No. 9.]

Downing Street, 3rd March, 1926.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 14th November,* enclosing reports of the preliminary debate which took place in the Council on the motion for the amendment of the Constitution of Mauritius.

2. I have read your despatch with much interest, and I appreciate the full

and clear manner in which you have explained the points at issue.

3. I gather that public opinion has not yet been strongly expressed in favour of the proposals for the amendment of the Constitution, and that there are, in fact, differences of opinion amongst the various sections of the population. I do not propose, therefore, to form any final eonclusions at the present time, but I shall be glad if you will submit a further report on the matter in due course after the meeting of the new Council, and will inform me to what extent, if at all, the movement in favour of the proposals has developed.

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4. If there should be any real and general demand for reform, I should be prepared to entertain proposals for some modification of the Constitution on the general lines indicated in the resolution discussed in the Council, but I must, for the present, reserve my decision on certain sections of that resolution.

5. I should see no serious objection in principle to the amendment of Section 7 of the Letters Patent of the 11th September, 1913, so as to provide for

(1) a limited number of Ex-officio Members of the Council, the Governor being left free to nominate such additional Official Members as will make up the total number provided for in the Constitution.

(2) a definite number of Nominated Unofficial Members who would be under- stood to possess entire freedom of voting on any measure before the Council, provided that additional clauses were added on the lines of Sections 53, 54, and 55 of the Ceylon Order in Council of the 19th December, 1923, giving the Governor power to declare any vote to be of paramount importance, in which case only the votes of the Ex-officio and Nominated Official Members would be taken into consideration. In that event, your proposals to limit the duration of the appointment of the Nominated Unofficial Members and to alter the rule governing the absence of such members would be carefully considered.

6. I could only entertain proposals for a variation of the number of Elected Members of the Council on the principle that constituencies should be as nearly as practicable of equal population, and any redistribution of seats would require to be examined in this light.

7. As regards any proposals for the variation of the qualifications for the franchise, I should be reluctant to entertain proposals which might be held to be intended to benefit any particular class or race at the expense of the others, and I should require before any variation in this direction were introduced that the proposals should be examined by a Committee of Enquiry holding their sessions in public, before which all sections of the population would be invited to appear.

8. At the present stage I have not felt it necessary to invite the views of the Indian Government on the tentative proposals now under discussion.

I have, &c.,

C. 32952/27 (No. 4].

No. 9.

L. S. AMERY.

THE OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT to THE SECRETARY OF STATE, (Received 31st October, 1927.)

(Confidential.)

SIR,

[Answered by No. 12.]

Government House, Port Louis, 30th September, 1927. WITH reference to your Confidential despatch of 3rd March, 1926,* I have the honour to forward herewith verbatim reportst of a debate which took place in the Council of Government on 22nd March, 1927, and subsequent days, on a motion by Mr. Pezzani, Elected Member for the District of Plaines Wilhems, to the effect that: The Council of Government is of opinion that this Colony is now ripe for representative Government."

It was apparent at the 2. The original motion was not put to the vote. concluding stages of the debate that the motion could not be carried and the mover The Council divided on the question as to then attempted to amend his motion. whether the motion should be amended and this proposal was negatived by 10 votes to 5. The Official Members took no part in the debate and did not vote.

3. It was finally decided that the debates on the motion together with the debate that took place in 1925 (please refer to Sir Herbert Read's Confidential despatch of the 14th November, 1925) should be sent to the Secretary of State for his consideration.

• No. 7.

* No. 8.

† Not reprinted.

: No. 7.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PLC.O. 882/11

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