51902/14
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
No. 184.
(WESTERN PACIFIC.)
COLONIAL OFFICE to LAW OFFICERS.
[Constitution of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as a Colony and inclusion therein of Ocean, Fanning and Washington Islands.]
Downing Street, 6th May, 1915.
GENTLEMEN,
I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to advert to the report of your predecessors in office, dated 29th February, 1912,* with respect to the power of the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific to make King's Regulations under the Pacific Order in Council, 1893, in which the opinion was expressed that no such power existed in regard to British settlements.
2. I am to inform you that since the date of that report the native Govern- ments of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands have expressed their desire that these islands should be annexed to His Majesty's dominions, and that it is accordingly proposed to provide for their annexation and for their future administration as a Colony by an Order of His Majesty in Council, the draft of which is enclosed herewith.
3. It is then proposed to annex Ocean Island and Fanning and Washington Islands to the new Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony by a further Order in Council under the Colonial Boundaries Act, 1895 (to be passed after the Order referred to in the preceding paragraph has been passed) so as to withdraw these islands from the purview of the British Settlements Act, 1887 (see definition of "British settlement" in Section 6), and to enable the High Commissioner to legislate for them by Ordinance under Clause VIII. of the proposed Gilbert and Ellice Islands latter Order. A draft of this second Order in Council is also enclosed.
4. When these two Orders in Council have been passed, it is proposed, in view of the report of your predecessors in office already referred to, to validate all King's Regulations passed under the Pacific Order in Council, 1893, which pur- ported to apply to the islands mentioned in the preceding paragraph. It is conceived that such validation might be effected either by means of a third Order in Council or by means of an Ordinance passed under the new Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order in Council. If the latter alternative is adopted Mr. Harcourt would desire to be advised whether it will be sufficient if the Ordinance provides that such King's Regulations shall have effect, and be deemed always to have had effect, as if they were Ordinances passed under the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order in Council, or whether, in order to validate all past action taken under these King's Regulations before the passing of the latter Order, it will be necessary for the Ordinance to provide that they shall be deemed to have had effect as if they were enactments passed by a Legislature duly constituted in accordance with the pro- visions of Section 3 of the British Settlements Act, 1887.
5. With reference to Article VI. of the draft Gilbert and Ellice Islands Order in Council, I am to explain that it is considered very desirable to maintain for the present in the new Colony the legal and administrative machinery already set up in the Islands under the Pacific Order' in Council, 1893. The words "subject to the provisions of this Order" are intended to effect (inter alia) the substitution of legislation by Ordinance under Article VIII. of this Order for legislation by King's Regulations under Article 108 of the Pacific Order in Council, and to emphasize this intention the Pacific Order in Council is made to continue in force in the Colony "as if it were a British settlement," in accordance with the report of your predecessors in office that the power conferred by Article 108 of the Pacific Order in Council is not applicable in the case of British settlements.
Vol. VII, No. 155.
(6343—2.) WŁ. 7—989. 25, 718. D & 8. G.1.