2225.
RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TELLC.O.
885
13 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 138.
(CAPE OF GOOD Hore.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Royal Courts of Justice, We were honoured with your Lordship's command, signified in Sir Robert
January 31, 1889. Herbort's letter of the 23rd instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us, for our opinion and advice, the enclosed copies of a Bill passed by the Legislature of the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of so altoring the Customs Tariff of the Colony as to enable it to enter a proposed South African Customs Union. That Sir Robert Herbert was to enclose copies of certain correspondence which had taken place since the receipt of the Bill in this country, between the Colonial Office, the Foreign Office and the Governor, together with copies of local Acts, Foreign Office memoranda, and of a Parliamentary paper referred to in, or bearing upon, the correspondence.
That the Bill, which was reserved by the Governor for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure, had, as we should gather from the correspondence, been since assented to by Her Majesty in Council, but that the Governor had been directed not sue the Proclamation necessary under section 1 to bring it into force, pending the receipt of assurances from the Colony that it would be so amended as to avoid giving ground of complaint to those foreign countries which by treaty enjoyed most favoured nation rights in the Cape of Good Hope.
That, for the purposes of the present case, it might be taken that the Act, in so far as it favoured the commerce of Natal, or any other British possession in South Africa, need not be regarded as contravening the most favoured nation rights of foreign countries. That the opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown of the 14th of January 1882 appeared to bear out that view.
That it would also appear from the correspondence that a distinction might be drawn by the Cape Colony (as it was by many foreign countries, notwithstanding their being bound by most favoured nation treaties) between favours conferred on commerce by land and favours conferred on commerce by sea; and that it was only in so far as the Capo Act conferred favours on the commerce of foreign countries (being members of the Customs Union) brought to the Cape Colony by sea, that the new Cape law was open to objection from a diplomatic point of view.
That Sir Robert, Herbert was to direct our special attention to the draft despatch to the Governor of the Cape, which formed an enclosure to the Colonial Office letter to the Foreign Office of the 27th of December, and to submit for our consideration the following questions :--
(1.) Whether that despatch correctly indicated the objections to the Customs Union Act in its present form, and the points in which it was at variance with the rights, under most favoured nation clauses, to which some foreign countries were entitled in the Cape Colony; and
(2.) Whether the amendments to the Act proposed in that despatch, and shown in the annexed copy of that Act marked A., would remove the objections above referred to; whether they were proper and sufficient, and, if not, Sir Robert Herbert was to request that we would be good enough to suggest such other and further amendments as would be sufficient for the object in view.
We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your Lordship's commands, have the honour to
Report
That in our opinion the draft despatch does correctly indicate the objections to the Customs Union Act, in its present form, and the points in which its provisions might conflict with the rights of other nations under the most favoured nation clauses of treaties.
2. We are of opinion that the amendments of the Act shown in the copy marked A. and referred to in the passage enclosed in red ink brackets on page 21 of the draft despatch, would not remove the objections referred to.
+ ST014.-5. 30.-2,89.