CO885-(20-21) — Page 692

Not

ft

Miscellaneous

Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.

No. 269.

Confidential.

Report of the Concessions Committee with regard to the system of dealing with Concessions in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

21 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

i

Terms of Reference.

At the Fourteenth Meeting of 1911, held on Tuesday, the 28th November, the Committee considered :-

(a) The possibility of drawing up, for the considera- tion of the Secretary of State, a memorandum laying down general principles for the guidance of Governors in dealing with Concessions; and (b) The advisability of altering the existing system.

Report,

Committee.

The Concessions and Railways Committee was one of Genesis the four Standing Departmental Committees which were of the established in connection with the reorganisation of the staff of the Colonial Office in the

year 1907. The Com- mittees were set up because (in the words of the letter to the Treasury of the 15th August, 1907) the Secretary of State "had been much impressed with the want of co-ordination and concerted investigation in dealing with certain very important questions which at present con- stantly arise in the various Departments of the Office;' and they were designed (further letter to the Treasury of the 16th September, 1907) "to deal with important business questions in a more systematic and matured manner than at present."

"

functions.

2. The constitution and functions of the Committee Constitu- (when originally established) are set out in the prints tion and Miscellaneous Nos. 214 and 216; but in 1910 a rearrange- ment was made as shewn in the Office Minute dated the 14th November. That Minute also shows the procedure adopted in referring matters to the Committee, which, however, now meets on fixed days except when a special meeting is necessary. It may be added that the Dominions Division is invited to send a representative to meetings at which matters of possible interest to Fiji and the Western Pacific are to be discussed.

3. Concessions may be divided into two classes: (a) those Classifica- which relate to the possession and use of the land and its tion of con- natural products, whether vegetable or mineral-forest cessions. concessions, agricultural concessions (plantations), and mines; (b) those in which the grant of land is merely subsidiary to the grant of the sole right to supply some service or commodity of general utility, e.g., transport, light, In some cases the two classes may be joined in

or water.

one concession-thus the right to build a railway may be,

or appear to be, of negative value, unless it is coupled with an extensive grant of land neighbouring the route of the proposed railway.

(32941-4) Wt. 37176-G 189. 60. 9/12, D & 8.

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