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(3) If our answer to question (1) was in the affirmative, whether the draft Order-in-Council above mentioned was fit and proper for the purpose?
We have taken the papers into our consideration, and, în obedience to Your Lordship's commands, have the honour to
Report
1. That, having regard to the grant of Responsible Government to the Trans- vaal and Orange River Colony, His Majesty no longer has power by Order-in-Council to amend the Orders-in-Council relating to the Inter-Colonial Council.
2. We think that the difficulty mentioned in Mr. Just's letter can be adequately met by means of agreement between the two Colonies followed by legislation giving effect to such agreement on the part of their respective Legislatures.
The Right Honourable
The Earl of Elgin, K.G.,
&c., &c., &c.
}
We have, &c.,
JOHN L. WALTON. W.'S. ROBSON.
25575
No. 79.
(WESTERN PACIFIC: NEW HEBRIDES.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
[Anglo-French Agreement Bill.]
Royal Courts of Justice,
July 18, 1907. MY. LORD,
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified to us in Mr. Bertram Cox's letter of the 17th June last, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the draft of a Bill for carrying into effect a Convention between His Majesty and the President of the French Republic relating to the New Hebrides, and for that purpose to amend the Pacific Islanders Protection Act, 1872, with respect to the carrying of native labourers on British ships, together with a memorandum on the Bill by the Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury.
That Mr. Bertram Cox was also to enclose copies of the Anglo-French Conven- tion of the 20th October, 1906, respecting the New Hebrides, and of a printed memo- randum explaining in greater detail the reasons for Section 2 of the draft Bill.
That our attention was particularly directed to the question mentioned in the first paragraph of the memorandum by the Parliamentary Counsel with regard to the difficulty that an Act of Parliament could not confer jurisdiction over foreigners in a foreign country.
That with reference to that paragraph 'Mr. Bertram Cox was to explain that in the New Hebrides there had been so far no concession of jurisdiction to His Majesty by the natives or native chiefs either by treaty, grant, usage, or sufferance. and that until authority was asserted over them, as it would be when the provisions of the Convention were put into force, it could not be said that His Majesty had any powers over them they being foreigners in a foreign country. That that difficulty was, of course, merely temporary.
That Mr. Bertram Cox was to request us to take the matter into our considera- tion and report:-
(a) Whether the draft Bill was sufficient for its purpose?
(b) In particular whether the first section of the Bill was properly framed
and adequate?
(c) Generally.
We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your Lordship's commands, have the honour to
Report-
That we think the draft Bill is, in the circumstances of this case, sufficient for its purpose, but we see no reason why Clause 1 should not be worded so as explicitly
to confirm the Treaty.
We agree that His Majesty has power to make treaties which are binding without the assent of Parliament, but the Crown cannot by treaty acquire new rights against its own subjects, and where a treaty purports to give the Crown such rights outside its dominions, either the treaty must be confirmed by Parliament or it must be shown that such an extension of jurisdiction has been already authorised by Statute.
In the present case we think the powers to be exercised by the Crown are not in excess of what it is already authorised to do by the Statutes hereafter mentioned. and further, we think that on a fair construction of the draft as it stands, the effect is to confirm the provisions of the treaty so as to make them binding on British subjects in the same way as statutory law, though the confirmation would perhaps be clearer if the Convention were scheduled in the ordinary way.
By Section 6 of the Pacific Islanders Protection Act, 1875, His Majesty is authorised to exercise jurisdiction over British subjects in those islands as if such jurisdiction had been acquired by cession or conquest.
A similar provision is made in general terms by Section 2 of the Foreign
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