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No. 140A.
(WEST INDIES.)
REPORT OF SOLICITOR OF CUSTOMS ON THE QUESTION OF THE RIGHT OF COLONIAL GOVERNMENTS TO SEIZE VESSELS FOR BREACH OF COLONIAL CUSTOMS LAWS.
THE
LORD KNUTSFORD does not ask, apparently, for any opinion as to whether inter- Colonial action in the matter of seizing ships for offences against the Revenue laws is desirable, whether in the smaller sphere of the West India Islands, or as between all Colonies or Possessions of the Empire generally, and including the United Kingdom itself; but only the question whether such legislative provision should be conferred by Imperial legislation.
On this I would remark that Imperial legislation on Customs matters, carrying provisions beyond the United Kingdom (except to the adjacent Island of Man and the Channel Islands) is not now usual.
No doubt, theoretically, the right of the Legislature of the Mother Country to apply provisions to Dependencies, by express reference, still exists; but it is, power which is dormant especially as to strictly Parliamentary Colonies, except on a think, a fow subjects.
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It exists, no doubt, as to the Merchant Shipping Laws, as the Attorney-General of Barbados in his opinion implies, because the question of British shipping is, essentially, Imperial question, and it is considered that, in whatever part of Her Majesty's dominions it may be, a British ship is a British ship. It exists, also, as to Admiralty Courts, because their decisions as to Prize of War are so capable of becoming questions of Imperially international importance, and the Foreign Enlistment Act covers all British Possessions. It has been applied, recently, also as to copyright, treating that as a question common to the Empire, subject to special provisions.
And no doubt there are some Consolidation Act (39 & 40 Vict. c. 36) which extend to Colonies, but these sections sections (150, 151, and 153) in the Customs are really only remains of earlier enactments before the development of our Colonial system, and are practically dead letters.
Practically, since the Colonies have come to legislate for themselves, either as Parliamentary Colonies, or as Colonies with Legislative bodies, no enactment of operative force has, in the Imperial Legislation as to Revenue, touched the Colonies.
The Colonies have, all of them, their own Revenue laws, and are left to themselves, independently of the Imperial Act, to enact and to enforce them.
This is how, I think, the precise legal position stands.
But while this is so I do not go so far as to say that there is any absolute and literal legal obstacle to such legislation as Lord Knutsford inquires about.
I should say, however, that without inter-Colonial assent previously obtained it would be a matter of questionable propriety and expediency to enact by Imperial law that officers of Customs of any Colony should act in relation to offences committed beyond the jurisdiction of the Colony which they serve.
As to the question of more practical expediency the United Kingdom is not situated so as to feel the inconveniences experienced in the West Indies. If vessels liable to forfeiture here escape, not a usual occurrence, they are either lost sight of entirely and the matter is dropped, or careful attention is given to watch at ports their more than probable return to a great centre, and to seize them then.
The annoyance of seeing within comparatively a few miles, and under the same Crown, a forfeitable vessel safely riding at anchor, free of control, is an incident which does not apply to the Mother Country.
So far, therefore, as the Home Customs are concerned, such an Imperial Act as Lord Knutsford indicates would not be one which the Revenue of the United Kingdom would essentially require or care about. Empire generally, there might be several dependencies, or blocks of dependencies, I should think, too, that as regards the which would have similar feelings, and which might object to their officers being called upon to do this work for other dependencies, which, but that they are parts of the same Empire, do not immediately concern them.
Canada might feel this as to any Colony but themselves; the Australian Colonies might feel it as to any dependency not in their own group, and in their own group might prefer to arrange it by their inter-Colonial Congress.
▲ 57014.-13. 25.-3/89,
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