CO885-(15-16) — Page 535

4

19th August, 1907.

18th October, 1907, with draft despatch to

4. High Commissioner to Colonial Office. 5. Colonial Office to Foreign Office.

High Commissioner.

6. Foreign Office to Colonial Office.

7. Africa Order in Council, 1889.

3rd December, 1907.

8. Colonial Prisoners Removal (South Africa) Order in Council, 1896.

9. Rhodesia Order in Council, 1898.

10. Barotziland-North-Western Rhodesia Order in Council, 1899.

11. Southern Rhodesia Ordinance 5, 1905.

12. Cape Act 6 of 1884.

13. Natal Act 15 of 1905.

14. Transvaal Ordinance 36 of 1904.

15. Orange River Colony Ordinance 17 of 1904.

37387

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference

APLIC.O.885

No. 102.

(GAMBIA.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

[Jurisdiction of His Majesty in the district of Kantora.]

Royal Courts of Justice, MY LORD,

13th October, 1908. We were honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified to us in Mr. Bertram Cox's letter of the 17th August last, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a copy of a memorandum by Mr. W. R. Townsend, Chief Magistrate of the Gambia, submitting certain questions as to the extent of His Majesty's jurisdiction in the district of Kantora in the Protectorate of the Gambia in accordance with Section 4 of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890, together with copies of the Colonial Ordinances to which reference was made by Mr. Townsend.

That as regarded the first question submitted by the Chief Magistrate, viz.. "Does His Majesty possess jurisdiction in the district of Kantora," Mr. Bertram Cox was to say that it appeared from the local records that on the 23rd of May, 1900, the late Mr. C. Sitwell, then a Travelling Commissioner in the Protectorate of the Gambia, entered, by direction of Sir R. Llewelyn, then Governor, into an agreement with Manjang Sannian, the King elect of Kantora, on behalf of the people of Kantora, by which it was provided that, in return for the sum of £20 paid annually to Manjang Sannian, all monies collected in Kantora should at the King's death become the property of the Government of the Gambia; that the King should remain loyal and obey all the laws of the Government of the Gambia, and that if the agreement should be cancelled owing to the King's fault, the country would be treated in the same way as it would be treated at his death.

That after accepting this agreement Manjang Sannian took the oath of allegiance. That it would, therefore, appear that, from the 23rd May, 1900, at least, Her Majesty had jurisdiction over Kantora; and that Mr. Townsend's first question should, therefore, be answered in the affirmative.

That as regards Mr. Townsend's second question, viz., whether if His Majesty had jurisdiction in the district of Kantora such jurisdiction extended to the enact- ment of the provisions of the Protectorate Public Lands Ordinance, 1896, your Lordship had learnt from the Governor of the Gambia that owing to the generally disturbed condition of affairs in the Protectorate no action of an executive or administrative character, or of a supervising or controlling nature, from which rights or jurisdiction could have been implied, were taken in the territory of Kantora prior to April, 1901. And that it, therefore, appeared to admit of considerable doubt whether His Majesty's jurisdiction could in any case have been held to extend to the enactment of the provisions of the Protectorate Public Lands Ordinance, 1896, so far as the territory of Kantora was concerned. That it was true that Her late Majesty's Order in Council of the 23rd of November, 1893, provided in para- graph 1 that it should be lawful for the Legislative Council for the time being of the Colony of the Gambia, by Ordinance or Ordinances, to exercise and provide for giving effect to all such jurisdiction as Her Majesty might at any time before or after the passing of that Order in Council have required in the said territories adjacent to the Colony of the Gambia. But that the Law Officers of the Crown, in a report dated the 21st October, 1899,* advised that an Order in Council which conferred power by Ordinance to give effect to such power and jurisdiction on Her Majesty might before or after the Order in Council have acquired in the territories adjacent to the Colony of the Gold Coast, did not authorise the Legislature of that Colony to legislate in advance for future Protectorates since Her Majesty must have acquired the power over the territories before the Colonial Legislature could provide for its exercise. That as, therefore, Her Majesty would appear to have had no juris- diction in the territory of Kantora prior to the 23rd May, 1900, the Protectorate Public Lands Ordinance, 1896, which was passed under the authority of the Order in Council of the 23rd November, 1893, would appear to be incapable of application to the territory of Kantora, and that His Majesty's jurisdiction would seem to

25 W1 23 11/08 DS 5 33918

* No. 235 in Vol. V.

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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