6678.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TEC.O. 885
السياسيا
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- | COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
MY LORD,
No. 59.
(SOUTH AFRICA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
M
Royal Courts of Justice, April 18, 1894. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Bramston's letter of 7th February last, stating that he was directed to thank us for our Report of the 21st November 1893, on the subject of the wish of the British South Africa Company that extradition arrangements with the Orange Free State, the South African Republic, and the adjacent Portuguese possessions might be made with respect to the territory within the Company's field of operations.
That that territory was under the protection of Her Majesty, though not part of Her Majesty's dominions, and was within the zone defined by the eighth Article of the General Act of the Brussels Conference, dated 2nd July-1890.
That your Lordship trusted you were right in considering the effect of our Report to be as follows, viz. :-
That the right of extradition was the prerogative of the Sovereign of the country, that was to say, of Lobengula, and that Her Majesty in taking under Her protection Lobengula and his country did not thereby acquire the right of extradition in respect of foreigners that it was not open to Her Majesty to assume that right by Order in Council under the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890, or to confer it upon the High Com. missioner: nor, without an assumption of territorial sovereignty, to give facilities to foreign police for the arrest of foreigners within the Protectorate; but that Her Majesty, who possessed certain jurisdiction within the Protectorate might, with the consent of a third Power, lawfully extradite the subjects of that Power without reference to Lobengula.
That your Lordship regretted to be obliged to trouble us again on the subject, but that there were two questions which did not appear to have been sufficiently brought out in the reference on which our Report was asked, namely:—
Whether Lobengula had not, in fact, already conceded to Her Majesty, or by sufferance recognised the acquisition by Her Majesty of the right of extraditing foreigners, and whether the Powers who were Signatories of the General Acts of the Berlin and Brussels Conferences had not consented to the exercise of that right by Her Majesty,
That in connexion with that point Mr. Bramston was specially to invite our attention to the Report of our predecessors in office, dated 17th April 1891,† and to the Memorandum which was thereto annexed.
That the case of Cyprus appeared to be analogous in its circumstances to the present. case, and that Mr. Bramston was briefly to recall them.
That on 4th June 1878 Turkey by Convention assigned to Great Britain the island
of Cyprus "to be occupied and administered by England."
That an annex to that Convention, but not relating to the present question, was See P.P. signed on the first July 1878.
That by a further Convention, dated 14th August 1878, it was declared that the Sultan had transferred to Her Majesty for the term of the occupation full powers for making laws and Conventions for the government of the island in Her Majesty's name. That Her Majesty's authority in the island was recognised by foreign Powers.
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That a subsequent Convention was made on the 22nd February 1879, but that it did See P.P. C. not bear on the present question.
That in exercise of the powers thus conferred, Her Majesty, under the advice of the Law Officers, made an Order in Council, dated 15th July 1881, regulating extradition in Cyprus. That a copy of that Order and of two Reports of the Law Officers, dated 3rd and 20th May 1881,§ were enclosed for reference. That it was suggested that the deduction to be drawn from those transactions was that the prerogative right of extradition was assignable by its possessor.
That the Charter to the British South Africa Company was dated 29th October 1889, and that an Order in Council delegating to the High Commissioner all powers and jurisdiction which Her Majesty at any time before, or after the date of the Order had, or might have, within the limits of the Order (comprising inter alia the Company's field of operations), was, as we were aware, passed on the 9th May 1891, and that, under that Order, courts has been established and jurisdiction exercised without question by Lobengula.
*No. 46 in Vol. V.
o 79871.-18.
† No. 209 in Vol. IV. 25,-5/94.
+
No. 251 in Vol. III.
§ No. 255 in Vol. III.
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