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8669.

No. 12.

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER for CANADA to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received May 21, 1894.)

Victoria Chambers, 17, Victoria Street, London, S.W.,

May 18, 1894.

SIR,

I BEG to transmit to you, herewith, for the information of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, a copy of a letter I bave received from Mr. Skene, the Hon. Secretary of the Vancouver Board of Trade, covering a copy of a resolution adopted by the Council of the Board with regard to the efforts that are now being made to promote closer trade relations between the different parts of the Empire.

I am, &c.

(Signed) CHARLES TUPPER.

Enclosure in No. 12.

8984.

SIR,

No. 14.

THE ACTING AGENT-GENERAL FOR SOUTH AUSTRALIA to

COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received May 28, 1894.)

[Answered by No. 23.]

Victoria Chambers, 15, Victoria Street,

Westminster, London, May 24, 1894.

I HAVE the honour to inform you that I have been appointed to represent the South Australian Government at the Ottawa Conference, one of the subjects for dis- cussion at which will be the proposed Pacific cable.

I should feel greatly obliged if you would inform me whether surveys have been made

and soundings taken along the proposed line from Canada to Australia advocated by Mr. Sandford Fleming

As I shall be leaving for Canada about the 8th June, I should esteem it a favour if the information could be supplied to me before that date.

I have, &c. (Signed) T. PLAYFORD,

VANCOUVER BOARD OF TRADE, BOARD ROOM, No. 15, LEFEVRE BLOCK.

Vancouver, B.C., April 18, 1894. SIR,

I HAVE the honour to transmit to you by request of the Council of the Vancouver Board of Trade copy of a resolution passed this day by that body and to request that you may be pleased to bring the same to the notice of the proper authorities.

8585.

Acting Agent-General.

188

To the Hon. Sir C. Tupper, K.C.B.

Resolved,

have, &c. (Signed) WM. SKENE,

Hon. Sec.

SIR,

Resolution annexed.

"That the Council of the Vancouver Board of Trade view with satisfaction the efforts now being made in London towards the promotion of closer trade relations between the different parts of the British Empire and consider the following three points of pressing importance for the future welfare of Canada viz.,

--

"1. The granting of an Imperial subsidy to the proposed improved Atlantic service. "2. That the Imperial Government joins with the Colonies in guaranteeing interest on a limited sum for the construction of a Pacific cable.

"3. That the Imperial Government take steps towards removing the obstacles which at present exist to the establishment of reciprocal trade relations between the different parts of the British Empire."

8776.

No. 13.

SIR W. G. CAMERON (Cape COLONY) to the MARQUESS OF RIPON.

(Received May 21, 1894.)

TELEGRAPHIC.

Ottawa Conference: Hofmeyr also appointed delegate.

No. 15.

COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.

Downing Street, May 24, 1894.

I AM directed by the Marquess of Ripon to state that he has no observations to offer in respect to the draft case for the Law Officers upon the meaning of the 15th Article of the Belgian Treaty of July 23rd, 1862, which was transmitted in your letter of the 17th instant, but as the case does not seem to exhaust the subject, I am to ask that the following sentence may be added to the last paragraph but one in the draft letter to the Law Officers, viz. :-" Whether, also assuming the words Articles of British origin,' to "include the produce of any part of Her Majesty's Dominions it is open to Belgium (or any other nation claiming most-favoured-nation treatment), to demand the full "benefit of that reading, notwithstanding the more restricted words in the French text: *** produits originaires de la Grande Bretagne.'

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2. Lord Ripon understands that there is no legal obstacle to prevent the Cape (for instance), with the approval of Her Majesty's Government, from entering into preferential Customs arrangements with Canada; or to prevent the Australian Colonies from entering into similar arrangements with Canada or the Cape, if Parliament should be willing to remove the statutory restrictions which at present bind the Australian Colonies. So that no practical question can arise under the Treaty with Belgium, unless, after pre- ferential arrangements have been made between two or more colonies, that country or some other foreign country claiming the benefit of that Treaty, should assert a right to receive equal treatment with the preferred Colonies.

3. It seems to Lord Ripon that a Treaty admitting foreigners to benefits of this nature would be a restriction of the sovereign right of Her Majesty to regulate as she pleases the fiscal arrangements between different portions of the Empire; and that the case comes within the rule that any restriction of such right must be effected in a clear and distinct manner. (Hall, 3rd edn., p. 338.) So that it would seem to follow that any ambiguity in the English text would operate against the foreigner, and that the more restricted words in the French text, which Belgium herself prepared, would negative any assertion of right by a foreign nation to receive equal treatment with British Colonies.

4. Lord Ripon would be glad if this letter were added to the case, and I am to request that the matter may be laid before the Law Officers as soon as possible, for a Conference of the principal Colonies, at which Her Majesty's Government is to be represented, is to

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assemble at Ottawa on the 21st of June, to discuss this very question among others, and it is important that the opinion of the Law Officers should be obtained without delay.

I am, &c. (Signed)

8747.

No. 16.

JOHN BRAMSTON.

THE MARQUESS OF RIPON to the EARL OF ABERDEEN. (No. 138.)

Downing Street, May 24, 1894.

MY LORD,

I HAVE the honour to acquaint you, for the information of your Ministers, that I have been informed, by the Officer Administering the Government of the Cape Colony that his Ministers have appointed the Hon. Sir John De Villiers, K.C.M.G., Chief Justice of the Colony and President of the Legislative Council, Sir Charles Mills, K.C.M.G., C.B., Agent-General for the Colony in London, and Mr. J. H. Hofmeyr, a member of the House of Assembly to represent the Colony at the forthcoming Inter- colonial Conference at Ottawa.

9139.

No. 17.

I bave, &c. (Signed)

RIPON.

THE MARQUESS OF RIPON to the EARL OF ABERDEEN.

TELEGRAPHIC.

(Sent May 28, 1894.)

HAPPY to inform you that Lord Jersey has consented to attend Ottawa Conference next month, on behalf of Her Majesty's Government.

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the impression that the majority of the Australasian and North American Colonies would be represented, and that the Cape Government had decided to send two delegates.

Since this conversation I have seen the Dalziel and Reuter telegrams from Melbourne, published in the "Times" of the 17th instant, under the heading "The Powers and Samoa," which had doubtless been repeated to the Berlin Foreign Office, and explain Dr. Kayser's anxiety as to the Ottawa Conference programme.

It has since struck me that Dr. Kayser's anxiety to learn whether the Cape Govern- ment intend to take part in a colonial conference at which the Samoan question is a possible subject of discussion, may have something to do with Walfisch Bay--ever a Naboth's vineyard in the eyes of the German colonial party.

I have, &c. (Signed)

The Earl of Kimberley, K.G.

&c.

9142.

&c.

&c.

No. 19.

MARTIN GOSSELIN.

SIR H. W. NORMAN (QUEENSLAND) to the MARquess of riPON.

(Received May 29, 1894.) (No. 33.)

Government House, Brisbane, April 16, 1894.

MY LORD MARQUESS,

I HAVE the honour to report, for your information, that in compliance with a request received from his Excellency the Governor-General of Canada, the Government of Queensland have appointed the following gentlemen to be delegates to represent this Colony at a conference to be held at Ottawa on the 21st June next to consider the question of promoting telegraphic communication and more extended trade relations between the Dominion of Canada and the Australasian Colonies. The Honourable Andrew Joseph Thynne, member of the Executive and Legislative Councils, and the Honourable William Forrest, member of the Legislative Council.

I have, &c.

(Signed) H. W. NORMAN.

9187.

No. 18.

9302.

SIR,

FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE. (Received May 29, 1894.)

[Answered by No. 28.]

Foreign Office, May 28, 1894.

I AM directed by the Earl of Kimberley to transmit to you, for any observations which the Marquess of Ripon may wish to offer, copy.of a Despatch from Her Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Berlin, reporting that inquiries had been made by the German Foreign Office with regard to the discussion of Samoan affairs at the Inter-Colonial Conference at Ottawa.

I am, &c.

(Signed)

H. PERCY ANDERSON.

Enclosure in No. 18.

No. 20.

THE LEEDS IMPERIAL FEDERATION LEAGUE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

(Received May 30, 1894.)

MY LORD MARQUESS,

[Answered by No. 32.]

看看

Mercury" Office, Leeds, May 29, 1894,

I HAVE the honour to forward to your Lordship, at the direction of the Com- mittee of the Leeds Imperial Federation League, a resolution passed unanimously at a meeting of that Committee_yesterday, on the subject of the maritime defence of the empire and the approaching Inter-Imperial Conference at Ottawa.

(Signed)

I have, &c.

TALBOT BAINES

(for the Hon. Secretary, Leeds Imperial Federation League).

(No. 93.)

MY LORD,

Berlin, May 22, 1894. any

information

DR. KAYSER asked me a few days ago whether I could give him as to the programme to be submitted to the Inter-colonial Conference at Ottawa. I said I had received no official information on the subject, but that I believed one of the principal matters to be discussed was the Pacific cable question.

He then inquired which Colonies were to be represented at the conference, and especially whether the Cape Colony would send a delegate. I replied that I was under

Enclosure in No. 20.

RESOLUTION of the Committee of the Leeds Imperial Federation League on the Ottawa Inter-Imperial Conference and the Maritime Defence of the Empire.

The following resolution was unanimously passed at a specially-convened meeting of the Committee of the Leeds Imperial Federation League on May 28th, 1894, Čol.

0 89844.