Papers on British policy and the Arab movement [‎146r] (295/380)

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PART II.—ARRANGEMENTS WITH ALLIED POWERS.
1.—French Possessions in India.
21. h rench territorial rights in India fall under two heads, viz. :—(1) Settlements
held in full sovereignty and administered by French resident officials ; and (2) certain
scattered patches of land, known as the Loges, the sites of former French factories,
over which the French Government claim to exercise certain rights of jurisdiction,
ihe settlements are live in number. The most important is Pondicherry, which, with
its dependencies, covers an area of 115 square miles, and contains a population of
over 170,000. Of the remaining four, three (Karikal, Mahe and Yanaon) are, like
Pondicherry, situated on the coast and within the limits of the Madras Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent. .
Ihe fifth (Ohandernagore, which covers four square miles and contains about
27,000 inhabitants) is on the river Hooghly, some 20 miles north of Calcutta. The
Pondicherry Settlement is not a compact block of territory, but comprises, besides the
main settlement on the coast, in which the town of Pondicherry is situated, some
10 isolated strips of French territory in the adjoining British district. The main
settlement itself is very irregular in shape, dovetailing in and out with British
territory; it also contains a British enclave An area of land belonging to one country and entirely surrounded by land of just one other country. approximately in its centre. Of the
Loges, the largest is that at Masulipatam in Madras, which covers an area of 07 acres.
There are two at Surat in Bombay, and two at Dacca in Bengal. In all, some 12 of
these Jjoges are claimed by the French Government, though the claim is not in every
case admitted by the British authorities. Even where the French claim is not denied,
the nature of the actual rights either recognised or exercised varies considerably in
the different localities.
22. Negotiations on the subject of the French Settlements passed between the
British and French Governments in 1857 and again ill 1883-85. On the former
occasion the object aimed at was the cession of all French territory except Pondicherry
and Karikal; on the latter, the extinction of French rights in the Loges in return for
territorial compensation in the Pondicherry region. On neither occasion was any
agreement reached. The matter was not again broached with the French Government
until April 1914, when the question of Chandernagore (which had developed into a
dangerous centre of Indian sedition) was raised by Sir Edward Grey during a visit to
Paris. No progress was made towards an agreement on the subject.
23. So far as the four Madras Settlements (Pondicherry, Karikal, Mahe, and
Yanaon) are concerned, the worst that can be said is that their continued existence
constitutes an administrative inconvenience. But the question of really vital
importance is that of Chandernagore. The situation there may fairly be described as
intolerable. Thanks to the weakness of the local French administration, the town
has become a veritable hotbed of revolutionary conspiracy directed against the British
Government. It provides an anarchist centre, within a few miles of Calcutta, where
plans can be hatched, bombs manufactured, arms imported, emissaries instructed and
youths depraved icith absolute impunity. Numerous outrages, including in all
probability the attack made upon the Viceroy himself in December 1912, can be
traced to this source. The British police and magistracy are necessarily impotent,
while the local French authorities, given the best will in the world, are not strong
enough to control the situation. It is true that a temporary agreement was concluded
with the French Government in the early part of the present year for the expulsion in
certain cases, and surveillance in others, of seditionists seeking refuge in French
territory. But this arrangement is merely in the nature of a war measure, and will
terminate automatically a year after the conclusion of peace. It is not too much to
say that the only hope of a permanent solution lies in the cession of Chandernagore to
Great Britain. It is also very desirable that French rights in the Loges should be
finally extinguished, both on account of the practical inconveniences to which they
give rise, and because the existence of these small enclaves An area of land belonging to one country and entirely surrounded by land of just one other country. is an anomaly which
contains a certain element of danger—however slight it may be—to the good relations
between the British and French Governments.
24. It would be desirable to press in the first instance for the complete extinction
of French territorial rights of every description throughout India. Failing that, for