36824
144
No. 91.
UGANDA.
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Received October 19, 1907.)
[Copy to Acting Commissioner, No. 279, and to the Director of Military Operations, October 23, 1907. L.F.]
[Answered 29 October, 1907.
37722: not printed.]
Foreign Office, October 18, 1907.
SIR,
I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, 34389, of the 1st instant,* respecting the measurement of the arc of the 30th meridian, and to state, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the memorandum by the Director of Military Operations therein enclosed was duly forwarded to His Majesty's Minister at Brussels.
A copy of a despatch from Sir A. Hardinge, reporting a discussion with Monsieur de Cuvelier on the suggestion put forward in that memorandum, is enclosed, to be laid before the Earl of Elgin.
I am to state that Sir E. Grey proposes, with the concurrence of the Earl of Elgin, to give the two assurances asked for by Monsieur de Cuvelier in the fourth paragraph of Sir A: Hardinge's despatch.
I am, &c.,
W. LANGLEY.
Enclosure in No. 91.
145
Congo Government understood, in the first place, that the political work of the Commission would not be retarded by that of the measurement of the arc, although after the completion of the former, the various officers employed on it might assist and supplement the labours of the astronomers. In the second place it must be understood that the Boundary Commissioners would determine the true position, geographically speaking, of the 30th meridian, and that no subsequent observations by the astronomers engaged in measuring the arc could be appealed to as throwing fresh light on this question or enabling it to be reopened. In support of this position he appealed to the engagement proposed in paragraph 6 of Major-General Ewart's report, a copy of which, enclosed in your despatch, No. 69, Africa, of the 4th ultimo, formed the basis of my last note to him on the subject; and he added that unless this engagement was adhered to in the sense which he attached to it, he felt some doubt as to the utility of any participation by the Congo Government in the con- templated measurement of the arc.
Although I presume that His Majesty's Government are on this point in agree- ment with Monsieur de Cuvelier, I thought it best to say nothing which could commit you, and I therefore confined myself to observing that the possibilities suggested by him were new to me, and that I would prefer, before expressing any opinion with regard to them, to refer to you for your further instructions.
Sir Edward Grey, Bart., M.P.,
&c.,
&c., &c.
35943
I have, &c.,
ARTHUR H. HARDINGE.
L
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
'य
Reference :-
C.O.885
18 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
(No. 137. Africa.)
SIR,
Brussels, October 11, 1907. I HAVE addressed a note to the Congo Government embodying the proposals respecting the measurement of the arc of the 30th meridian, contained in your despatch, No. 77, of the 7th instant, but I have thought it advisable, as time presses, to discuss them verbally with Monsieur de Cuvelier.. I accordingly read to him this morning a translation of Major-General Ewart's memorandum on the subject.
He stopped me when I came to paragraph 3, where it is stated that the measure- ment "will greatly strengthen the accuracy of the geographical work of the Mission," and he asked what this expression meant. If the results of the measurement strengthened the work of the Commission, it could be equally assumed that they might conceivably weaken it. Should they agree with those obtained by the Boundary Commissioners, they would, no doubt, confirm the accuracy of the work done by the latter; but suppose they disagreed with them? I asked if he thought it possible or likely that the two sets of mathematical calculations would yield different results, and he said that he believed that in matters astronomical this contingency might arise; in other words, that absolute truth in every detail could not always be reached by astronomical calculations. It was evident to me that he suspected an intention on our part to try to correct results unfavourable to us of the delimitation by the Boundary Commissioners by appealing to divergent results obtained by the astronomers, and he asked me if I was prepared to undertake that no such divergence would be appealed to on our side as weakening or invalidating the value of the delimitation by the Boundary Commissioners.
I said that my instructions hardly authorised me to give such an undertaking, but that I had never anticipated that the work of what he called the "political" Commission would yield results likely to be modified by that of the scientific Commission. In my view the two Commissions were both scientific ones, and I thought it my duty to remind him of the reservations which His Majesty's Govern- ment had made as to the bearing of the delimitation on the interpretation of the Anglo-Congolese Agreement of May, 1894. I would, however, report to you the question which he had put to me.
On the other points mentioned in Major-General Ewart's Memorandum, Monsieur de Cuvelier had no observations to offer. He said, however, that he should like, before finally replying to me, to study my note at leisure. At the present stage of the proceedings he would merely wish to impress on me that the
• No. 88.
SIR,
No. 92.
UGANDA.
COLONIAL OFFICE to TREASURY.
[Answered by No. 108.]
Downing Street, October 19, 1907. AM directed by the Earl of Elgin to transmit to you, to be laid before the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, the accompanying copy of a report* on the Survey Department of Uganda by Major E. H. Hills, R.E., C.M.G., who was appointed by his Lordship to inspect the survey departments of certain Colonies and Protectorates. Copies of a despatcht from the Acting Commissioner and a lettert from the Commissioner, who has recently been in this country on leave, are also enclosed.
2. Lord Elgin desires in particular to draw their Lordships' attention to the slowness of the progress which is being made in the execution of the topo- graphical survey of the Kingdom of Uganda and to the difficulty which is experienced in the conduct of the cadastral survey of native estates under the Uganda Agreement owing to the necessity of withdrawing members of the staff for other work.
3. With regard to the first point, Lord Elgin is of opinion that it is necessary to make arrangements for accelerating the topographical survey with a view to obtaining within a reasonable time a suitable map for administrative and military purposes, and a memorandum, § of which a copy is enclosed, has been prepared at his request by Major Hills and Major C. F. Close, R.E., C.M.G., the head of the Topographical Section of the General Staff, War Office, showing how this object might be secured.
4. It is proposed that a survey party of Royal Engineers should proceed to Uganda to carry out the topographical work at an estimated cost of £12,661 in three years. The proposal involves a considerable increase in the annual expendi- ture on surveys for the period in question, but would result in an ultimate saving on the topographical survey of £10,000.
5. With regard to the second point referred to in the second paragraph of this letter, Lord Elgin would propose to transfer three of the four members of the present staff who would be released under the new scheme for the execution of the
• No. 38.
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t No. 65.
‡ No. 83.
§ No. 90.
T
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