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No. 150.

GOLD COAST.

THE ACTING GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(No. 545.) SIR,

(Received 22nd July, 1915.)

Government House, Accra, 5th July, 1915. In continuation of my despatch No. 442, of the 27th May, I have the honour to transmit, herewith, a report by Mr. O. Mitchell, Controlling Officer under Ordinance No. 22 of 1914, on the control and disposal of enemy property on the Gold Coast from the 24th November, 1914, up to the present time.

2. Mr. Mitchell (whose substantive appointment, as you are aware, is Assistant Comptroller of Customs) has carried out the intricate and unusual duties assigned to him with marked ability, tact, and thoroughness, and his lucid report shows that the affairs of the enemy firms in this Colony have been wound up in a manner which appears likely to prove satisfactory alike to the firms and their creditors. I enclose a copy of a letter which I have received from some of the leading German merchants, in which they express their appreciation of Mr. Mitchell's unfailing courtesy and consideration.

I have personally examined the books and papers in which Mr. Mitchell has recorded the details regarding the liquidation of each firm, and can testify to the arduous character of the work involved, which has indeed occupied Mr. Mitchell's whole time, including hours usually devoted to recreation, for the past seven months. I am asking the Executive Council to agree to the payment to him of an honorarium of £100 under Section 8 of Ordinance No. 22 of 1914, in recogni- tion of the specially valuable service he has rendered, and I trust that this will meet with your approval.

3. Mr. Mitchell's report is, I think, self-explanatory, and calls for little com- ment from me. It shows that in most cases the assets of the firms which have been wound up are amply sufficient to meet all claims, the total balance of realized assets being £96,302 15s. 1d., and the total claims only amounting to £32,224 0s. 4d., including about £18,000 in dispute.

In paragraphs 22-24 Mr. Mitchell deals with the claims of British firms, and it will be noted that in eleven instances, covering £6,666 38. 5d., the British claims. have been admitted or proven. Mr. Mitchell adds a word of warning that the nationality of the claimants should be investigated before payment of the claims. As to such payments, I am awaiting the further communication promised in para- graph 2 of Mr. Harcourt's despatch No. 22, of the 26th March.t

4. Mr. Mitchell has set down (paragraph 13) the cost of Government control at some £230, which represents the wages of a clerk and the travelling expenses of the controlling officers and the enemy prisoners. In a subsequent communica- tion, however, a copy of which I annex, he has submitted a schedule of gratuities which he recommends should be granted to the officers who helped him in the work. These proposals will be brought before the Executive Council under Section 8 of the ordinance. I think that the proposals as regards officers who assisted in their spare time may well be accepted, but, personally, I am not satisfied that those officers who were seconded from their ordinary duties for this work are entitled to Their any special remuneration with the exception of Mr. Mitchell himself. duties were somewhat irksome but they were not arduous. On the other hand, I am certainly of the opinion that the salaries of such officers should be charged against the firms: they have been calculated at about £650. Adding this to the £230 above mentioned, and adding, say, £250 for gratuities (to include £100 for Mr. Mitchell) the total expenses would come to about £1,130, which is only just over one per cent. of the realized assets, irrespective of debts still said to be due. think you will agree that the liquidation is thus proved to have been effected in a creditably economical manner.

* 28099.

+ 13689.

I

5. Mr. Mitchell is now proceeding on leave, but he has left all the documents in charge of Mr. Archer, Comptroller of Customs, who will now be appointed Controller. In the meantime, Mr. Mitchell will be available for consultation in England.

I have, &c.,

A. R. SLATER,

Acting Governor. P.S. Since writing the above despatch I have to-day received your despatch No. 427, of the 10th June,* containing instructions as to the disposal of the assets. The liquidation will now be completed in accordance with those instructions.

5th July, 1915.

Enclosure in No. 150.

A. R. S.

SIR,

Victoriaborg, Accra, 28th June, 1915. I HAVE the honour to report as follows on the control and disposal of enemy property on the Gold Coast Colony from 24th November, 1914, up to the present day.

2. At the outset His Excellency the Governor kindly allowed me to retain the services of twenty-seven interned employees of the enemy firms to be dealt with, and with these, and the help of a variable number of European officers who volunteered to help me at such times as they could be spared by their Departments (often not easily spared), the work was commenced on 24th November. The general plan followed was for the European officers to conduct the enemy prisoners from the internment camps to and from their places of business, to see that while selling off their goods they had no communication with anybody except on business, and that they paid the proceeds of all sales to the special account that had been opened at the Bank of British West Africa.

3. It soon became apparent, however, that this method of working could not continue for any length of time. It was not desirable to retain such a large number of prisoners, and, with the best will in the world, the volunteers could not remain away from their ordinary duties for an unlimited period, and consequently it was necessary to hasten matters. The agent of each enemy firm was given, therefore, a certain very limited time within which to dispose of his stock, after which, as he was told, he could either store the remainder at his firm's risk and expense under bis own and Government locks, or have it sold by public auction. This had the effect of pushing on the sales at a very rapid rate, and by 11th January practically all the enemy merchandise in the Colony had been either sold or locked up for safe keeping.

4. The sales by auction, I fear, proved quite a failure when it came to selling on a large scale. In every case they were slower than sales by private treaty, fetched poorer prices, and in many places they were quite impracticable, owing to the absence of purchasers with ready money. All the same, the auctioneer, useless though he was at his own work, proved exceedingly useful as a stimulus to the agents of the enemy firms to dispose of their goods rapidly and so dispense with his help.

5. On 11th January the bulk of the enemy prisoners employed were deported, and nearly all the volunteers, who must have been rather tired of their disagreeable and uninteresting duties, returned to their various departments.

6. The work, however, was far from complete. Much merchandise had been stored during the first rush with the intention of so letting it remain until the end of the War. Then came the period of waiting for the claims against enemy firms to come in, the time for which was prolonged up to 30th April, with a further indefinite postponement of the date on which claims could be paid. Eventually, with the help of the ten enemy prisoners, each the chief agent of his firm, who had been allowed to remain in the Colony to assist me with the investigation of claims, I managed to dispose of practically everything that was left over. These latter sales were made gradually, and mostly in large lots, to the representatives of British merchant firms in the neighbourhood.

7. It is unnecessary, I think, to explain further the system adopted. The smoothness and rapidity with which it enabled me to dispose of over £101,000 worth of goods, in one hundred and twenty-nine different stores scattered throughout the

* No. 149.

TULLU

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O

Reference :-

885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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