R
45376.
No. 77A.
(GENERAL.)
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
885
15 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
FOREIGN OFFICE TO LAW OFFICERS.
[Harbour Dues in Guernsey. Position of London and South- Western and Great Western
GENTLEMEN,
Railways.]
Foreign Office,
March 7, 1901.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you, by direction of the Marquess of Lansdowne, the papers noted in the accompanying list with regard to a Petition of the States of the Island of Guernsey, praying for His Majesty's sanction and ratification of a reduction of harbour dues in respect of vessels belonging to the London and South-Western Railway and Great Western Railway Companies.
By an Order in Council of the 5th July, 1865, an alteration of the tariff of dues payable by vessels entering the harbours of the island was sanctioned by repealing the 3rd Article of the Tariff of Dues sanctioned by the Order in Council of the 17th December, 1860, by substituting for it the provisions set forth in the Schedule (A) annexed to the said Order, and at the same time by authorizing the levying of the dues set forth in the said Schedule in lieu of the Article so repealed.
Under Article 2 of the said Schedule every vessel of sixty or more tons entering. one of the harbours of the island and transacting business there without, however, staying a full tide, is chargeable with a duty of 8d. per ton-the same to include under certain conditions the return voyage to Guernsey.
The General Managers of the two railways above mentioned have, however, addressed the President of the States of the island, drawing attention on behalf of their respective Companies to the very onerous nature of the dues and charges imposed by the harbour authorities at Guernsey, and asking for a modification of the present tolls.
As the result of this application, the States have petitioned the Crown to sanction in favour of vessels belonging to the London and South-Western Railway Company and Great Western Railway Company doing a regular service with the island a reduc- tion from 8d, to 4d. per ton of the said dues, so long as the service in return for which it is proposed to reduce them is effectively maintained.
Lord Lansdowne having been requested to favour the Lord President of the Council with any observations which his Lordship might desire to offer upon the Peti- tion, informed His Grace that it would be contrary to the provisions of many existing Treaties of Commerce and Navigation to remit the harbour dues in favour of British vessels unless such remission were in similar circumstances equally extended to vessels of the countries with which those Treaties had been concluded; and that the practice in the United Kingdom has been for many years not to discriminate in this respect between British and foreign vessels.
As the Lord President understands the Petition, however, the proposal of the States of Guernsey is not to discriminate between British and foreign vessels, but between the vessels of the London and South-Western and Great Western Railway Companies, and all other vessels British and foreign. The arrangement seems to His Grace to be in the nature of a subsidy in respect of services rendered, and he presumes that from the point of view of the Treaty obligations of Great Britain to foreign States there would be no objection to a direct subsidy.
The Parliamentary papers which accompany this letter contain samples of the various clauses under which national treatment is secured by international convention to the shipping of certain foreign countries.
There does not appear to be any Treaty stipulation which would prevent the grant of a subsidy to a particular line or lines of vessels for special services without the simultaneous extension of the same advantage to foreign ships similarly engaged; but Lord Landsowne is disposed to think that exemption from, or abatement of, harbour or
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