PUBLIC
RECORD OFFICE
19
C.C
Reference :-
885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
15 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
We have taken the matters submitted to us into our consideration and in bedience to your commands have the honour to
Report-
That (1) In our opinion the grant-in-aid can only be applied to the specific purpose for which it is voted by Parliament, which appears by the letter of Sir Francis Mowatt (1st February, 1902) to Le "to meet the cost of the present admin stration."
(2) Yes.
(o) We do not think there is any obligation on His Majesty's Government to provide for the payment of the claims in question otherwise than out of the revenues of the Transvaal when sufficient for that purpose. The question whether His Majesty's Government ought to provide moneys from other sources so as to meet it once these claims, is one of policy, and, should it be thought desirable to do so, we agree with your view that the payments should be made under an express dis
laimer of liability and as an act of grace.
We have, &c.,
The Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, M.l'..
&c..
&c.,
&c.
R. B. FINLAY. EDWARD CARSON.
10627. S.
No. 136.
(SOUTH AFRICA.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OEFICE.
[Steps to be taken to legalise the detention in a Crown Colony of Rebels sentenced by Military Courts in South Africa to penal servitude in Bermuda.]
Royal Courts of Justice,
SIR,
March 14, 1902. We were honoured with your commande signified to us by Sir Montagu Ommanney in his letter of the 18th ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to lay before us the papers noted in the accompanying list with reference to the case of certain rebels sentenced by Military Courts in South Africa to penal servitude in Bermuda.
That it would be observed that Military Courts established by Lord Kitchener in South Africa had passed sentences of penal servitude and imprisonment upon captured rebols who had been fighting in the Boer forces, and that in view of the representations of the Governor of Bermuda to the effect that he had not proper accommodation for such prisoners, they had been treated in the same manner as prisoners of war.
That in view of the necessity of removing those prisoners from Bermuda, it had been decided that they should be imprisoned in some other Crown Colony, and arrangements were in contemplation for removing them, or some portions of them, to the Seychelles Islands.
That the question thereupon arose, what steps should be taken to legalise their custody, and to prevent the possibility of any of them obtaining their release on Writ of Habeas Corpus or other similar process.
That you were disposed to think that the sentencing of those prisoners to penal servitude in Bermuda was not justified in law, independently of the general question of the validity of Martial Law sentences, inasmuch as without special statutory authority no Court of Law had power to sentence a prisoner to be conlined outside the jurisdiction of the Court, and no Colony had power to pass legislation for the detention of prisoners, or for any other purpose, which was to take effect outside the Colony and its territorial waters.
That it was, however, most important on political grounds that those prisoners should undergo the sentences which had been passed upon them, and accordingly it had been suggested that when they had been removed to another Colony as, for example, the Seychelles Islands, an Ordinance should be passed legalising their detention during the remainder of the terms of their sentences, and Sir Montagut Ommanney was to submit to us the Draft of an Ordinance which it was proposed to enact for that purpose. That it must, however, be borne in mind that those sentences had been imposed by Courts established under Martial Law, that action had been taken in accordance with those sentences, both in the Cape Colony, and in Bermuda, and that the prisoners had been detained in custody upon the high seas during their passage from the Cape to Bermuda, and would be similarly detained during their passage from Berinuda to Seychelles.
That it might, therefore, seem necessary that legislation, in addition to that proposed to be passed by the Legislature of Seychelles, should be passed to validate the action so taken. That Sir Montagu Ommanney was, however,, to point out that the removal of the prisoners would, in all probability, take place while hostilities were still going on.
Sir Montagu Ommanney further stated that it was desirable to avoid legislation by the Imperial Parliament if possible, and,
That he was to request us to take these matters into our consideration, and to advise you
(1.) Whether the Draft Ordinance proposed to be passed by the Legislature of Seychelles was sufficient for its purpose, and if not what amendments should be made theroin?
1
C 19814-3.
25.-1/02, l'k. B. E. & S.