CO882-(1-2) — Page 225

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

PLLC.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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America, and all persons authorised by or under any such Act or Ordinance to hold shares in British shipping, shall, on taking the oath of allegi- ance to Her Majesty, her heirs and successors, be deemed to be duly qualified to be owners or part owners of British registered vessels.

We therefore assume that, if this first Ordi-

may nance had purported to give a British registry, it 89. would have contravened the 8th & 9th Vict., cap.i For that statute does not appear to confer on any Colonial Legislature the power to alter its pro-

visions.

But the Attorney-General for the Colony expressly stated (Printed Paper, page 6), that it was in con- templation to grant not a British, but a Colonial, or limited, register.

This appears on the face of the Ordinance, which, by secs. 1 and 6 taken together, declares that an outward trading-ship must be provided with an Imperial Registry; a vessel trading to China with a Colonial Registry; and that the latter may be owned either by a British subject or by a Chinese Crown lessee.

Had then the Hong Kong Legislature (and the Crown confirming its Ordinance) any right to grant Colonial registers of this description ?

The affirmative is inferred from the following premises.

Hong Kong is a conquered colony.

For conquered colonies the Crown legislates by Order in Council, or, concurrently, through the Colonial Legislatures established by the Crown.

I am not aware of any general distinction between the operation of these two modes of legislation. The Crown can, in either way, make laws for conquered colonies, which will be valid, unless in contradiction of Acts of Parliament extending to such colonies. The present Ordinance contradicts (so far as I am aware) no Act of Parliament, the register which it gives is expressly made different from a British register, and confined to particular voyages.

That precedent is in favour of this doctrine, may be inferred, from the case of Mediterranean These, like the Hong Kong register, passes,

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rest on Crown authority; they are granted (as in Hong Kong) to vessels not qualified by Act of Parliament to obtain a British register; and, in one respect, they go further than the Hong Kong Ordi- nance-they are not limited expressly as to the character of the voyage, though in practice, I believe, confined to the Mediterranean. I may add that these passes seem to have given from the beginning the right to carry the "colours usually borne by British subjects."

They were given originally, I believe, as safeguards against the Barbary pirates, under treaties with the piratical States. The first Order in Council regu- lating them was in 1722; and appears to have had in view the abuse theretofore pre-existing by the irregular grant of such passes to parties 'not British subjects." And they have, I believe, been usually granted to vessels owned by British subjects. But in 1819 an Order was passed for Gibraltar, which recites, inter alia, that the purpose of these passes was "to enable any ship or vessel to navigate any sea under the protection of His Majesty," which allows such passes to be given to vessels, not only owned by British-born subjects, but also by other persons resident at Gibraltar for 15 years. This order is annexed.

Here then is the same power which was exercised by the Crown through the Hong Kong Registration Ordinance. A Mediterranean pass thus given, resta just on the same footing as a Hong Kong Colonial register, i.e., prerogative in a conquered Colony.

The British Shipping Registry Act of 1833 (3 & 4 Wm. IV, c. 55, s. 6), and that of 1845 (8 & 9 Vict., c. 89, s. 6) imposed certain restrictions on the grant of Mediterranean passes. But the latter enset- ment was expressly repealed quoad hoc by the Customs Act of 1849 (12 & 13 Vict., c. 90, B. 28), after which the power of granting these passes seems to have rested on prerogative and usage, as before. The existing Orders in Council regulating them passed in 1850, and empower the Governor of Gibraltar and Malta to issue passes "for or in favour of any vessel which is duly registered at Gibraltar, or which belongs to persons actually residing at Gibraltar, and entitled to be owner of