5358
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR HIS MAJEST STATIONERY OFFICE,
BY DARLING & SON. LTD., 34-40, BACON STREET, E.
1903.
No. 178.
-Cocos ISLANDS.)
(STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
[Questions connected with the government of the Cocos or Keeling Islands.]
Royal Courts of Justice,
SIR,
February 7, 1903. We were honoured with your commands, signified to us by Mr. Lucas in his letter of the 27th of January last, stating that he was directed by you to lay before us a Despatch, No. 1, of the 1st January, from the Governor of the Straits Settle- ments, together with the enclosures, and to request us to take these documents into our consideration with a view to reporting upon the questions already submitted
to us.
That with regard to the last paragraph but one of the Chief Justice's judgment, he was to refer us to paragraphs 9 and 10 of his letter of the 7th January last, and to submit that if the Letters Patent of the 1st of February, 1886, were valid, i.e., if the powers of the Crown were properly and legally delegated thereby, any rule which could be laid down by His Majesty in Council under section 4 of the British Settlements Act, 1887, could be laid down with equal propriety by Regulations made in pursuance of the Letters Patent.
We have taken these documents into our consideration, and in obedience to your commands have the honour to
Report-
That these further papers do not affect our former Report* of even date.
We agree with the Chief Justice in thinking that the Letters Patent would be ultra vires if the Cocos Islands were acquired by settlement.
We also agree with him that the Letters Patent of 1886 gave no power to confer jurisdiction upon Courts outside the Cocos Islands, but we do not agree with him that jurisdiction in such a case could in any of the ways he suggests be conferred on the Courts of the Straits Settlements.
The Right Honourable
Joseph Chamberlain, M.P.,
&c., &c., &c.
• No./77.
3 W 2737 2/01 & s
3
13687
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We have, &c..
R. B. FINLAY. EDWARD CARSON.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
mmimmimC.O. 885
15 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO