479
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
[3]
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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requisition which is not covered by previous approval should continue to be sent to the Secretary of State in the first instance.
But as between the Colonial Government and the Crown Agents, the latter will in future comply with all requisitions which are authorised by the Colonial Governments, and will no longer be required to refer to the Colonial Office for the Secretary of State's instructions, when those requisitions do not indicate that the expenditure has been duly sanctioned.
The only exception to this rule will be when the Crown Agents from immediately preceding correspondence with the Colonial Office have reason to think that it is under the Secretary of State's consideration to suspend or modify the particular work or service in connection with which the articles for which they have received indents are required.
32. The effect of this change will be to reduce the number of references to the Colonial Office in connection with requisitions, to make the Crown Agents as regards their commercial business more directly responsible to the Colonial Governments, and to increase the responsibility of the Colonial Governments to the Secretary of State. The Colonial Governments will be held more fully responsible than heretofore that the standing regulations are strictly carried out, because no responsibility in the matter will be left to the Crown Agents; and Colonial Governors will be expected to enforce the rules and will clearly understand that they must not under any circumstances allow unauthorized expenditure to be incurred.
The present time seems to me to be opportune for making the change, inasmuch as the Crown Agents will shortly be housed in a different building from the Colonial Office, involving more likelihood of delay in case of references from the one office to the other than at present, when both offices are under the same roof.
33. But, turning again to Sir F. Swettenham's despatch, it will be noted that one element in his complaint as to the present position of the Crown Agents is that “the Colonial Government . cannot, even if it desires, direct the Agents to purchase from any particular firm.'
OF
It is true that they cannot insist it.
upon The responsibility of placing orders now If they are to be rests with the Crown Agents, and it must continue to rest there. trusted at all in their capacity of agents to the Colonial Governments, they must be trusted to select the firm who they consider can best carry out a given order, and give the Colony most value for its money. Being on the spot, being constantly engaged in the business of selecting stores of all kinds, and being provided with the best expert advice, they cannot fail to be in a better position to decide from whom to buy than the Colonial Governments can be. The head of a department in a Colony may recommend to the Governor to place an order with a particular firm of whom he has read, with whom he has dealt personally, which is I presume a not uncommon case, whose agent has happened recently to visit the Colony, and, as the matter is within his special scope, the Governor is probably inclined to adopt his recommendation. It is most advisable, if not absolutely necessary, that the recommendation should be checked in this country by agents who are in a position to ascertain, and who are perpetually busied in ascertaining, the merits and demerits of this and that firm, and who moreover, as a general rule, though not in all cases, adopt the safeguard of inviting competitive tenders. As the Crown Agents well put it in their letter of 7th April, 1902, paragraph 8: "The main arguments for the system in force are that we act for many fifty Governments and have means of collecting iftforation which a colonial Government cannot possess, and that notwithstanding the high level of the Colonial services it is humanly certain that irregularities would be invited by a system under which Colonial officers would in effect place orders themselves often at the solicitation of local agents or travellers." To this it may be added that one great advantage of the present system lies in the fact that manufacturers and contractors are aware that, if they do not satisfy the Crown' Agents, they will probably lose the business riot of one colony only but of all for whom the Crown Agents act. They are therefore, it may be presumed, specially concerned to give satisfaction in the execution of the ordere which may be entrusted to them.
*** 34.' f'đo 'not therefore think that it would be to the interest of the Colonies to leave it to the Colonial Governments to decide what firms in the United Kingdom shull supply their stores. But I do not gather that the Crown Agents are in the habit of disregarding the suggestions of the Colonial Govertiments when the latter recommend that a particular firm should be employed. In their letter of the 7th April, 1902, paragraph 72, iz replying to the complaints of the Jamaica Government, the Crown Agents refer to delivery by "a firm, to whom we were directed to give the order by the Colonial' Govern- ment,” and again in the next paragraph they refer to an order given to a "taker hamed
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No. 142.
by the Colonial Government." So also the correspondence, between the Straits Settle- Miscel- ments and the Crown Agents already noticed as to the supply of certain ironwork, in laneous, which the Crown Agents were blamed by the Colonial Government for not having among other things ordered the iron joints from the firm named in the indent, shows P. 134. that the Crown Agents did give the whole order in the first instance to the firm nominated by the Colonial Government; and the Crown Agents state explicitly in their p. 75. letter of 7th April, 1902, paragraph 8, that on the occasions when the head of a depart- ment recommends a purchase of stores from a particular firm "it is only when we have definite reason to believe that we can deal more advantageously elsewhere that we fail to follow the recommendation." I will give instructions that when the Colonial Govern- ments, especially the Governments of the larger Colonies, in their requisitions specify special makers or manufacturers, those firms shall always be asked to tender unless the Crown Agents see good reason to the contrary; and that, when they are not asked to tender, the Crown Agents shall be at pains to fully explain to the Colonial Government why they were not invited. But in giving these instructions I shall only be emphasising what I take to be already the existing practice. Further than the above I am not prepared to go.
35. Sir F. Swettenham, in the despatch to which I am referring, raises the further p. 49. query why a colony should be debarred from sending a direct order to a firm in England," that is to say, he not only thinks that the Crown Agents should purchase from the firms which the Colonial Governments nominate, but also that the Colonial Governments should be at liberty to purchase direct from firms in the United Kingdom without using the Crown Agents at all. Similarly, the Governor of the Falkland Islands p. 136. suggests that the Colonial Governments should be at liberty to purchase certain articles direct from one or other of the Co-operative Societies in this country. This point seems to me to be hardly worth discussing. It is obvious that, if any appreciable number of exceptions are to be allowed to the standing rule that all purchases made by the Colonial Governments in this country must be made through the Crown Agents, the system might as well be abolished. If the system, for reasons which have been given, is worth maintaining, the rule by which all purchases from this country are entrusted to the Crown Agents must be maintained also. It would not be fair, and, moreover, it would lead to endless practical difficulties 'if, for the very purposes for which the Crown Agents have been appointed, the Colonial Governments were to discard their services.
36. Next comes the point raised in Sir H. Goold-Adams's despatch that "the p. 23. Colonies have no power of imposing any penalty upon the Crown Agents for any mistake or negligence on their part in the ordering or despatch of goods." It might be argued that through the Secretary of State they have the power of doing so, and I have recently exercised the power, when I thought it should be exercised, on behalf of the Government of Jamaica. But what seems to be contemplated is that the Colonial Governments should themselves have the power to penalize and exact compensation from the Crown Agents for any serious laches, without requiring the Secretary of State's authority.
quite p. The Crown Agents state in their letter of 30th July, 1902, that they are prepared to accept the principle of making compensation for such mistakes in all cases where ordinary agents would be legally liable"; but if this principle was to be fully carried into practice, it might be necessary to revise the terms on which the business is now transacted.
Subject to this possibility, I am prepared to receive from the Colonial Governments -particulars of any case in which they consider that the interests of their respective Colonies have seriously suffered at the hands of the Crown Agents and to decide whether, and, if so, what compensation shall be paid by the Crown Agents in such cases, but it should be borne in mind that, if a question can be satisfactorily settled by direct correspondence with the Crown Agents, there is no need to invite the intervention of the Secretary of State, and that before a Governor does communicate with the Secretary of State he should examine the facts himself and satisfy himself that such a reference is required. I make this observation because cases have occurred in which complaints have been addressed to me which a little examination would have shown to have little or no foundation, and appeals to the Secretary of State in such cases tend to interrupt the good feeling which should exist between the Crown Agents and their principale.
37. If, however, the Crown Agents are to serve the colonies efficiently and well, if delays and irritating and tedious correspondence are to be avoided, the Colonial Governments must be content to allow to the Crown Agents considerable latitude in
154.
p. 49.
P. 75.
p. 90.