| PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TILNIC.O. 882
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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the Queen
An agreement is always alleged, and the agreement depends upon papers which cannot be found. What I desire to point out is that all those negotia- tions, extending from 1-62 to 1×66, when the Home Government contended that it should not have cast on it an additional burdens by reason of the transfer from India to the Queen of these Settlements, and all the different contentions put forward in the correspondence, became merged in and superseded by the Act of Parliament. Any negotiations for any other contract, as soon as you put your contract in writing, it is the writing that is followed, and it is that Act of Parliament that we follow, and that we ought to follow and are bound to follow. But we must always bear in mind that it is competent to the Imperial Parliament, if they have not provided for the maintenance of the peace of this Colony satisfactorily it is competent to them to pass another Act of Parliament amending that Act: but before that can be done, not only have the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and the Lords of the Treasury, and the Secretary of State for the War Department to be heard, but the Members of the House of Commons have to have a say, and I apprehend, if this question ever comes before Parliament again, that it will be exceedingly difficult to obtain a decision in the House of Commons en forcing any larmer contribution for our defences upon us than we have hitherto given
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Now, my object in wishing provision to he made in this Bill to show that we only vote what we are constitutionally justified in voting money for the maintenance of peace, order, and good government in this Colony, and not for Imperial purposes
There seems to because we appear to be in a constant danger of further demands. be nothing settled, and nothing ever can be settled on the indications of these des patches to the Governor frequently to the effect that possibly more money may be demanded under altered circumstances. Well, Sir, those altered circumstances are connected with the cost of works for Imperial purposes, and it should be made as dear as it can be made that we only vote this money for expenditure that is not for Imperial purposes.
The argument is constantly urged, when we compare the amount of contribution demanded from us with that demanded from other Colonies, that we are a flourishing Colony and can afford it But, Sir, we are not as flourishing a Colony in the proper sense as we ought to be The money which we make by way of revetane is not spent as it should be for the Colony. There is nothing like the public expenditure which a It is surrounded by immense advantages, Colony of this importance should have.
and we ought to seize every opportunity to avail ourselves of those advantages, and I think we are frequently prevented from doing so by too great.caution and restric tions in spending money for that purpose. And, generally speaking, this Colony does not get the benefit of the revenue which it makes to the full extent that it ought to do.
It is under policed absolutely insufficiently policed; it is under-officered generally, and its officers are insufficiently paid. It is not supplied as its importance demands, and as its opportunities demand, with buildings and establishments and accommodation generally, and the want of the supply of these demands operates to prejudicially affect the trade and progress and welfare of the Colony.
Mr. MURRAY: Sir, I will not enter into any argument on the legal points which have been raised by my honourable and learned friend, and I would say that I have no desire whatever to reopen the question of the fairness or otherwise of the impost placed upon the Colony by way of military contribution. At a late stage in the controversy on the military contribution, this Council, without admitting the fairness of the claim, withdrew its opposition to paying 17 per cent. of its revenue as such contribution, and the point now before us is only the one whether it is to the greater advantage of the Colony to pay 20 per cent. of its revenue as a contribution, or to continue the old rate of 174 per cent. plus certain other sums payable to the Military Department. Whether it will be an advantage in the future to depart from the present arrangement and accept the new one it is impossible for any one definitely to say, but, without admitting in any way that the Colony is fairly taxed by this impost, and on the ground merely that it will remove some amount of friction between the Colony and the Home Government, I offer no opposition to the Bill. There is one clause in it, however, that the Attorney-General should, I think, alter in Com- mittee, and that is clause 3, in which there should be some provision that the per- centage.s should not be charged upon the gross returns of any Government Railway. I think your Excellency stated that that had been settled.
The GOVERNOR: Yes, that is conceded.
Mr. MURRAY: In such case it should be definitely stated in the Ordinance. The COLONIAL Secretary: Sir, in the absence of the Attorney-General, I must
ask the indulgence of the Council in having to deal with a professional and able lawyer such as the honourable member who has addressed the Council at such length. The honourable member raised very many legal points; I will take the last one first. He says that it is not competent to this Council to vote or deal with any sum of money unless it can be shown that that expenditure is advisable for the peace, order, and good goverment of the Colony. Accepting that statement, I submit that the object of this Bill that the expenditure contemplated in this Bill may liberally be said to be for the peace, order, and good government of this Colony. The honourable member seemed to me to have in his mind some distinction between troops employed for Imperial purposes and troops employed for local purposes. What the absolute distinction was I listened very attentively to hear, but it was not stated. submit that the distinction is a very fanciful one. Suppose we have here 1,500 troops, those troops are available for all local purposes. It would be impossible to allot 600 or 800 and say they were for local purposes, and not for Imperial. How would the Colony take it if, in an Imperial energency, the local troops declined to act; or how should we view the Imperial troops if, on a local emergency, they declined to act? The distinction is a perfectly fanciful one, and I do not think it can be maintained at all in practice.
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Then, again, we are told that the expenditure must be confined to the Colony itself, and the example is given of the illegality of some expenditure for the good of the subjects of some of Her Majesty's Colonies in the West Indies who suffered from a great calamity; and similarly an example might be given of a vote which this Council passed some years ago for a calamity which took place in Java. I submit that even those sums might he regarded as expended for the peace and order and As we do to others, others will do to us. It is of good government of this Colony. the greatest importance for us to be good neighbours with the Netherlands-Indian Empire, and that money which we sent to Java, though it was sent from feelings of. humanity, was well spent. We derive a large part of our prosperity as an entrepôt From the countries composing the Eastern dominions of the Netherlands Government, and part of the income of this Government comes from such prosperity. We cannot say this to the same extent of the West Indies, but as we treat others, others will treat us, and I say that for the peace and good order of this Colony we should be known as people who are humane and generous, and I hope we should be treated in the same way by others in any calamity which should overtake this Colony. I am reminded of an old Latin proverb " do ut des," which is very much in point, and constitutes such measures good policy. I don't think it has occurred to any one except the honourable member opposite--and it only occurred to him in connexion with this Bill-that there was any irregularity in the vote for hurricane relief for the West Indies. For my own part I am not ashamed of it, and I don't think it occurred to any of Her Majesty's advisers that there was any irregularity, and from the papers laid before this Council it appears the vote was received with satisfaction, though it was not originated on any requisition from Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State.
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I may go further in this question of peace, and protection, and good order of the Colony, and point out how very much we are indebted in Singapore, of all places in the world, to external circumstances for our peace and prosperity. If Her Majesty's Government had not adopted a spirited foreign policy, and Singapore, without that spirited foreign policy, were surrounded by a nest of pirates, and we confined our- selves to ourselves here, and kept only our 3-mile limit free, where would be the immense commerce which we see every day? Again, supposing a state of war existed, and a hostile expedition was fitted out against this port, amongst others, we should rely a great deal for the protection of this port, on the vigilance of Her Majesty's Navy, which might be thousands of miles away. We should expect, and expect rightly, that any of Her Majesty's Navy which came across such an expedi- tion would resist it with all the force at its command. From that point of view, no distinction between what was Imperial and what was local would be justified. If we could stop an invasion by sending a force to the port where the invasion was being prepared, that would be money well spent; it would be idle to say that it was not lawful to spend any money to check that expedition until it arrived within the 3-mile limit.
Now, to go back to the legal question raised: I take it that when Her Majesty becomes possessed of a Colony, in any country in the world, there are four ways in which Her Majesty's will can be carried out in that Colony. The honourable mem- ber enumerated three, but I think he omitted a fourth, which I shall put first, and that is the laws of the Imperial Parliament. Certain laws are current here, and originate