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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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Printed for the use of the Colonial Office. March 17, 1875.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Export of Arms.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
1
Reference -
C.O.885
IT may be assumed for present purposes that the powers of the Crown in the United Kingdom to prohibit the export of arms, are derived from, and limited by, the following section of the Customs Consolidation Act, 1853 (16 & 17 Vict, cap. 107):-
“CL. The following goods may, by Proclamation or Order in Council, be prohibited either to be exported or carried coastwise Arms, ammunition, and gunpowder, military and naval stones, and any articles which Her Majesty shull judge capable of being converted into er made useful in increasing the quantity of military or naval stores, provisions, or any sort of victual which may be used as food by man, and if any goods au prohibited shall be exported from the United Kingloin or carried coastwise, or be water-borne to be so exported or carried, they shall be forfeited."
The power conferred by this section on Her Majesty is well understood to be available only for the protection of the Kingdom by preventing munitions of war from reaching the hands of the Queen's actual or possible enemies in case of an actual or impending war between Great Britain and another country.
Further, it has been more than once stated by the Law Officers of the Crown that the power of the Crown under the section "is limited to those cases in which
the exportation is altogether general."*
In practice the inconvenience of a general prohibition has been obviated by a Supplementary Order in Council or Treasury authority, permitting exportation to particular places under bond for their due delivery at the places proposed.
The limitations of the Crown's power in this matter engaged Lord Kimberley's attention at the time of the Ashantee war, and his Lordship referred for the consideration of the Law Officers of the Crown, and also for that of the Board of Customs, a Bill, which had been drafted in this Department, “with a view to enable Her Majesty, by Proclamation or Order in Council, to prohibit the exportation of arms, &c., to any ports or places within limits to be specified in such Proclamation or Order in Council."
The letter from the Colonial Office was answered in one from the Customs of considerable length, in which the English practice respecting prohibitions under the Customs Consolidation Act was stated in detail, and the practical objections to a law authorizing partial prohibitions clearly explained. The following are the passages relating to that point:-
« With reference to the latter part of your letter, in which you state that Lord Kimberley will be glad to receive any suggestions which the Board of Customs may be enabled to offer upon the general question as to what steps could be taken either now or by Imperial Legislation to meet cases of the kind specially referred to in your letter, whether it is desired to click the importation of arms, &e., into any particular place; I am desired to state that the Board are unable to suggest any more convenient unle of effecting the object referred to than that which has hitherto be en followed.
"It would appear at first sight that the process necessary to attain the desired object would be mor simple it power were vested in Her Majesty to prohibit by Proclamation or Order in Council the exportation of armis, &c., to any particular pirts or places specified in the Proclamation or Order in Council, but the Bound desire to point out to Lord Kimberley that under a limited. Preclamation security could be had that arms enteral out for a port not included in the Proclamation would reach
• Law Officers tu Colonial Office, May 20, 1873, Gold Coast Correspondence, Confidential, No. 30, p. 76.
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3PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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