CO885-(25-26) — Page 369

351

TPEE

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

mc.o.

Reference :-

885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

1st Column.

Description of land.

15. Piece of land situate at

Williams Street, Lagos, Nigeria, described in and conveyed by the relative instrument specified in the second column of this Schedule.

186

2nd Colunin.

Instruments and date and Registration No., &c., thereof. T. H. Winkelmann to J. W. Jackel & Company, dated 3rd March, 1910, and registered as No. 46 at page 190 of Vol. 62 of the Regis- ter of Deeds kept in the Registry Office, Lagos, Nigeria.

3rd Column.

Grantee.

Woermann

Linie.

The Schedule is not quite complete; there are one or two other properties to be included.

Enclosure 3 in No. 163. MEMORANDum.

R. F. I.

Draft Ordinance to make further provision with regard to the disposal of Enemy

Property.

1. On 1st August Mr. Burrowes sent to the Colonial Office a draft of an Ordinance which he desired should be enacted in connexion with the sale of enemy property in Nigeria. I understand that Mr. Burrowes's draft was not approved, and the Governor-General has requested me to submit other proposals to meet the difficulties which will arise on the sale of immovable property belonging or believed to belong to enemies.

2. The purposes of the legislation required are:-

(a) To enable the Receiver to sell all immovable property belonging to, or believed to belong to, an enemy firm the business of which is being wound up.

(b) To vest in a purchaser such estate or interest in the property as the enemy firm is believed to have held on 19th November, 1914 (the date on which they were prohibited from carrying on business in Nigeria), free from all encumbrances.

(c) To extinguish every estate or interest of the firm or of any enemy subject, enemy corporation, or corporation under enemy control in the property sold, whether identical with the estate or interest sold or not.

(d) To extinguish any estate or interest of any other person in the property

which is inconsistent with the estate or interest sold.

(e) To provide for the payment out of the proceeds of the sale of :-

(1) The amount of any charge upon the property created before 15th

November, 1914.

(2) Compensation for any estate or interest in the property sold which was held immediately before 19th November, 1914, by any person or corporation (not being an enemy subject or an enemy corpora- tion) and which has been extinguished by reason of the sale by the Receiver.

(f) To enable the Receiver to deal with the proceeds of the sale (after deduct- ing payments made under (e) ) in the like manner as other assets of the firm in his hands.

3. I attach the draft of an Ordinance which is designed to give effect to the note on questions which require special above purposes, together with a consideration.

4. I have inserted provisions Sections 8 and 9 and the Schedule to give effect These to the proposals contained in the Colonial Office circular of 1st August. Sections and the Schedule should be omitted from the Ordinance unless the Secretary of State has notified his decision that they should be adopted.

5. With regard to the main provisions of the Ordinance I would have provided in the draft that no immovable property should be sold by the Receiver until after (say) three months' notice of the intention to sell such property, in order to give persons claiming to hold any interest in the property an opportunity to prove their interest; but if it is intended that the sale advertised for 31st October is to be held this provision cannot be made.

R. M. COMBE.

26th August, 1916.

187

Enclosure 4 in No. 163.

NOTES ON THE DRAFT OF THE ENEMY PROPERTY (DISPOSAL) Ordinance, 1916.

Section 2-(1) The definition of "corporation under enemy control" is taken from the conditions of sale of a prize ship.

(2) The term 'enemy_subject" is defined so as to include a person who is in fact an enemy subject and also a person who is deemed to be an enemy under an Act of Parliament, etc. It will be observed that in the Colonial Office despatch of 1st August reference is made to an enemy subject" and not to an "enemy as in the form enclosed with that circular.

22

"

(3) The term "enemy corporation" has not as yet been defined for the purposes of any Nigerian Ordinance, and I have no Imperial statutes with me to refer to. Section 3.-It would seem that it is necessary to vest in the Receiver all property reputed to belong to a firm. The Receiver and his legal adviser are satisfied that the term "reputed" will cover all property which the Receiver proposes to sell and with regard to which the title of the firm is not evident on the documents in the Receiver's possession.

Section 4.-Appears to be a necessary provision.

Section 5-See paragraph 2 of the accompanying memorandum.

(1) As to paragraphs (e) and (f). As they stand no compensation or payment will be made out of the proceeds of the sale to an enemy corporation, but will be made to a corporation under enemy control subject to the consent of the Governor. I am not sure that it is necessary to provide for any payment to be made to a company under enemy control.

(2) Paragraph (d) would seem to be necessary.

Section 6, Section 7, Sections 8 and 9, and the Schedule.-Query whether six months might not be substituted for three months. The Receiver is anxious that this provision should be made. See paragraph 4 of the accompanying memorandum. If the provisions are to remain I presume that the Secretary of State will give instruc- tions as to the number of years from the termination of the War which shall be inserted in Section 9 and the Bond in the Schedule.

With regard to Sub-section (2) of Section 8, it is submitted that if a property is purchased on behalf of an enemy both the property and the purchase money should be forfeited. The property should be forfeited to the Crown, but as to the disposal of the purchase money I am in some doubt. When the property is bought on behalf of the original owners they should be penalized by the loss of the purchase money, but when the original owner is not a party to the breach of the section the purchase money should be paid to the Receiver as part of the assets of the firm.

R. M. COMBE. 26th August, 1916.

49768

SIR,

No. 164.

COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE. [Copy to Board of Trade, 22nd December, 1916. L.F.]

Downing Street, 22nd December, 1916. I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Long to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of 16th October enclosing copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Havre, and of your letter of 26th October,t from which it is observed:--

(a) That the Belgian Government have definitely inquired upon what prin- ciples occupied territories are being administered by His Majesty's Government; and (b) That the French Government have proposed the holding of a conference to consider questions of this nature.

2.

I am to request that you will be so good as to inform Mr. Secretary Balfour that Mr. Long has caused a careful examination to be made of all the records available in this Office as to the measures adopted for dealing with the private properties of enemy subjects in the territories occupied by His Majesty's forces, and that he is satisfied that no measures have been taken which can properly offer the German Government ground for any increased severity in the

* 49484.

| 51488.