PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
mentioned section contemplates. I therefore can give no decision upon it, though I have conveyed to you my opinion upon this question in the sixth paragraph of this Despatch, which has been considered and approved by the Law Officers.
11. The first question also is not framed correctly, but as the jurisdiction of the Court depends upon the existence of Her Majesty's jurisdiction in Swarra Kunda, for all such jurisdiction has been assigned to the Courts of the Colony by Order in Council, I have with the approval of the Law Officers given my formal decision upon it.
12. The evidence given in the case and attached to the application of the Supreme Court refers to the proclamation, which, under a misapprehension of your instructions you made at Swarra Kunda amongst other places on the north bank of the Gambia. Those proclamations announced that the sovereignty of the district would thenceforth be vested in Her Majesty. And, as I have already informed you in my Despatch of the 13th October last, if your action had been approved and ratified by Her Majesty's Government the annexation of the territory mentioned in any of these proclamations would have been complete, but it was my duty to acquaint you that Her Majesty did not accept the sovereignty of the territories in question, and that your procla- mation would consequently be inoperative and of no effect. Under these circumstances I did not think it necessary to instruct you to withdraw the proclamations, as any further step of this kind might be misunderstood by the natives, who would naturally not understand the difference in law between annexation and protection.
13. It will be convenient that you should furnish the Chief Magistrate with a copy of this Despatch.
(Initialled)
C. R.
J. R.
18/4/94.
Administrator Llewelyn, C.M.G.
I have, &c. (Signed)
7140.
No. 61.
(ANTIQUA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Royal Courts of Justice, April 25, 1894. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 22nd February last, stating: That by the Tariff Acts of the United States of America, 1890, commonly known as the McKinley Act, sugar not above No. 16, Dutch Standard, molasses, tea, coffee and hides were placed on the free list, but by Section 3 (known as the Reciprocity Clause) it was provided that whenever, after the 1st of January 1892, the President of the United States should be satisfied that the Government of any country producing and exporting all or any of the above mentioned articles imposed duties or other exactions upon the agricultural or other products of the United States, which in view of the free introduction of such sugar, inolasses, coffee, tea and hides into the United States he might deem to be reciprocally unequal and unreasonable, he should have the power and it should be his duty to suspend by proclamation to that effect the provisions of the Act relating to the free introduction of such molasses, coffee, tea, and hides, the production of such country for such time as he should deem just, and in such case and during such suspension, duties should be levied, collected upon sugar, molasses, coffee, tea and hides, the product of, or exported from, such designated country, as the rates specified in that Section.
That in December 1891, after negotiations conducted by Her Majesty's Minister at Washington, with the assistance of delegates representing certain West Indian Colonies (including the Leeward Islands) whose tariffs were considered by the United States. Government to be" reciprocally unequal and unreasonable," and the Secretary of State of the United States, an arrangement was made between. Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the United States which was embodied in a note from Sir Julian Pauncefote of 24th of December 1891, and a note from Mr. Blaine of See Parlia- the 29th of December 1891.
mentary
1892.
That the purport of this arrangement was, that the Colonies in question would Paper amend their tariffs by certain remissions and alterations of duties set forth in certain C. 6680 of Schedules annexed to Sir J. Pauncefoto's note, and that these remissions and altera- tions would be accepted by the President of the United States, as a due reciprocity for the action of the Congress of the United States as set forth in Section 3 of the Tariff Act.
That on receipt of telegraphic information that the proposed 'alterations of the tariffs had been enacted by the Colonial Legislatures, the President of the United States has issued the proclamation a copy of which would be found on pages 108 and 109 of the Parliamentary Paper C. 6680 of 1892.
That the legislature of the Island of Antigua, one of those forming the Colony of the Leeward Islands, each of which has a separate tariff, after passing in January 1892 a Tariff Act giving effect to the remissions and alterations of import duties specified in Sir. J. Pauncefote's note of 24th December 1891 had, in March 1892, enacted an Act the short title of which was "The Trade Act, 1892."
That in a letter of the 16th of June 1892, the Government of the United States, had expressed their view that the Antigua Trade Tax Act, 1892 infringed the provisions of the arrangement, and requested that it might be modified so as to obviate such infraction. That Her Majesty's Government did not feel that this contention could be disputed, and that instructions were given for the repeal or amendment of the Act in question.
That an Act had since been passed by the Legislature of Antigua the short title of which was
"The Package Act of 1893" by which the Trade Tax Act of 1892 was repealed and other provisions were enacted in lieu thereof.
That by this Act a Package Tax was imposed on every package of goods imported into Antigua (with certain specified exceptions) based upon the cubic contents of the package and the proceeds of the tax were specially appropriated to the "maintenance, upkeep and improvement of all Harbour Works, Waterways, and Watercourses."
That it would be observed that this Act differed from the Trade Tax Act, 1892 in that the monies raised under it were specifically assigned to the maintenance and improvement of harbour works, waterways and watercourses and in this connexion
79571.-19 25.-5/94.