CO885-(20-21) — Page 624

PUBLIC RECORD

OFFICE

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C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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be held by, or assigned to, any but British subjects or limited companies British in

character and control.

2. The Secretary of State has approved the Committee's recommendation that in cases, if any, where an all-British clause is deemed desirable, the clause drafted Ey your solicitors and set forth in your letter of the 3rd December last* should be adopted without alteration; but I am to observe that in cases in which this clause is included in concessions the question of the Governor's consent to alterations in the Memorandum or Articles of Association, should, in any contract, be specifically excluded from the operation of the arbitration clause.

3. It is not considered necessary at the present time to consider the question of drafting a standard clause dealing with arbitration.

16367

No. 10.

I am, &c.,

G. V. FIDDES.

COLONIAL OFFICE to CROWN AGENTS.

(Confidential.) GENTLEMEN,

Downing Street, 11th July, 1911. You will learn from the letter from this Department of even datef that Mr. Secretary Harcourt has approved the terms the standard form of British Control Clause drafted by your solicitors for inclusion in certain contracts and concessions granted by Colonial Governments.

2. In continuation of that letter Mr. Harcourt desires me to transmit to you, for your personal information the accompanying copy of a letter, with enclosures, from the India Office showing the attitude adopted by the Government of India in regard to this matter, and I am to request that you will take these papers into consideration in connection with any exceptional case to which the practice of that Government may be thought applicable.

3. You will observe that it is desired that the enclosures to this letter may be treated as confidential.

I am, &c.,

16367

SIR,

No. 11.

COLONIAL OFFICE to INDIA OFFICE.

G. V. FIDDES.

Downing Street, 21 August, 1911. WITH reference to the last paragraph of your letter of the 23rd of February last respecting the adoption of a standard form of British Control Clause in contracts and concessions granted by Colonial Governments, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to state, for the information of the Secretary of State for India, that he has approved of the adoption, in cases where such a clause is deemed desirable, of the clause drafted by the solicitors of the Crown Agents for the Colonies and set forth in their letter of the 3rd of December last,* of which a copy accompanied the letter from this Department of the 27th of January last. He has also decided that cases in which the clause is included in concessions the question of the Governor's consent to alterations in the Memorandum or Articles of Associa- tion should, in any contract, be specifically excluded from the operation of the arbitration clause.

I am, &c.,

H. W. JUST.

• No. 1.

† No. 9.

‡ No. 8.

§ No. 4.

¡No. 2.

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APPENDIX.

SPECIMEN CLAUSES IN CONCESSIONS, &c., PROVIDING FOR (A) LESSEES TO BE BRITISH, AND (B) ARBITRATION.

(A) “LESSEES TO BE BRITISH " CLAUSES.

South Africa.—Charter of the British South Africa Company, October 20th, 1889.

Clause 6. The Company shall always be and remain British in character and domicile, and shall have its principal oflice in Great Britain, and the Company's principal representative in South Africa and the Directors shall always be natural- born British subjects, or persons who have been naturalized as British subjects by or under an Act of Parliament of Our United Kingdom; but this Article shall not disqualify any person nominated a Director by this Our Charter, or any person whose Election as a Director shall have been approved by Our Secretary of State, from acting in that capacity.

Gold Coast.-Concessions Ordinance (N», 14 of 1900). (Revised Edition of Laws.)

Section 21. "No concession with respect to mineral oil shall be granted and no assignment of any such concession shall be made, unless the grantee or assignee shall be a British subject or shall be a firm, syndicate or company which shall at all times he and remain a British Company, registered in Great Britain, or in a British Colony, and having its principal place of business within His Majesty's Dominions, and the chairman of the said Company and all the remaining directors shall at all times be British Subjects, and the Company shall not at any time be or become a corporation directly or indirectly controlled by foreigners or foreign corporations.

(2) In this section the expression foreigner' means any person who is not a British subject, and the expression foreign corporation' means any corporation other than a corporation established under and subject to the laws of some part of His Majesty's dominions and having its principal place of business in those

dominions.

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(3) Every concession and assignment of a concession in respect of mineral oil shall be subject to the approval of the Governor.

"(4) If the grantee of any such concession shall assign the same in whole or in part without the previous consent in writing of the Governor or if the or assignee shall cease to be a British subject, the Governor may thereupon cancel granter "the concession, and in the event of any alteration being made in the articles of association or constitution of a Company holding any such concession, previous "notice thereof shall be given in writing to the Governor who, if in his opinion the said alteration shall be contrary to the cardinal principle that the said company shall be and remain a British company and under British, control. may refuse his consent to such alteration. If and whenever any such alteration shall be made without the written consent of the Governor or if the company shall at any time cease to be a British company or shall become a corporation under foreign control or shall assign such concession in whole or in part without the previous consent in writing of the Governor, the Governor may thereupon cancel the concession,'

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Southern Nigeria.-Mining Regulation (Oil) Ordinance (No. 12 gy' 1907). Section 15. No licence or lease shall be granted under the provisions of this Ordinance to any firm, syndicate, or company which is not British in its control and organisation, and in the case of a company all the directors shall be, and shall at all times continue to be, British subjects, and the company shall be registered in and subject to the laws of some country or place which is part of His Majesty's dominions, or in which His Majesty has jurisdiction.

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