CO885-(15-16) — Page 390

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hamill

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PC.O.885

SIB

No. 14.

(SOUTH AFRICA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

[Modus Vivendi with Portugal, 1901-Legal interpretation of Article 4.] Royal Courts of Justice,

August 11, 1905. We were honoured with your commands signified to us by Mr. Antrobus in his letter of the 28th July last, stating that he was directed by you to transmit to us the copy of a telegram from the High Commissioner for South Africa requesting that our advice might be taken as to the proper legal interpretation of Article 4 of the Modus Vivendi of 1901, made between the High Commissioner for South Africa and the Governor-General of Mozambique, which would be found printed on pages 189-190 of the enclosed Blue Book. The object of that Article was to re-establish the differentiation of railway rates in favour of Delagoa Bay as against Durban and the Cape ports which existed before the war at a time when the through rates from Delagoa Bay were lower than those from Durban and East London, which rates in their turn were lower than those from Port Elizabeth or Cape Town. That we would observe that the High Commissioner did not correctly quote the terms of Article 4 of the Modus Vivendi, the obligation implied in which, if any, would be not to increase the local rates from the Cape and Natal border to Johannesburg but to reduce the local rates from the Portuguese border.

That he was to request us to take these papers into our consideration and report whether, in our opinion if the Cape or Natal were to reduce their local rates from the coast to the borders of the Orange River Colony or Transvaal with a view to enabling goods to be rebooked, the Central South African Railways would, if the Portuguese demanded it, be under a legal obligation to so increase the local rates from the Cape or Natal border to Johannesburg, or so to reduce the rates from the Portuguese border to Johannesburg as to preserve the existing differentiation between the cost of bringing goods from Delagoa Bay and the cost of bringing them from the British ports.

We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your commands, have the honour to

Report-

That in our opinion, in the event of the reductions suggested being made, the Transvaal Government would under Article 4 of the Agreement of December 18th, 1901, be under an obligation to concur with the Portuguese Government in modi- fying the tariffs on the Lourenço-Marques-Johannesburg line so as to preserve the existing relation. The necessity for such a modification on this line would be obviated if the rates from the Cape and Natal frontiers to Johannesburg were raised so as to preserve the existing relation between the rates on the routes respectively.

We have, &c.,

R. B. FINLAY. EDWARD CARSON.

The Right Honourable

Alfred Lyttelton, M.P.,

&c..

&C..

&c.

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