CO885-9 — Page 29

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

། ། ། ། ། ། wwinnmimic.O. 885

>

Sir,

APPENDIX.

Law Officers to Colonial Office.

Royal Courts of Justice, March 19, 1904. WE were honoured with your commands signified in Mr. H. Bertram Cox's letter of the 24th ultimo, stating that he was directed by you to request the favour of our report on certain questions which had arisen with regard to the application of "The Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870," to certain paris of His Majesty's dominio s.

That the 3rd section of that Act (33 & 34 Vict., cap. 90) provided that the Act should be proclaimed in every Colony by the Covernor thereof as soon as might be after he received notice of the Act, and should come into operation in that British possession on the day of such Proclamation.

That the Act when passed was sent out to the Governors of the British Colonies then in existence and was duly proclaimed and brought into operation, but that at various dates, since that time new possessions had been acquired by cession or by conquest, and that the question had now arisen how far, if at all, the Act had been brought into operation in those Colon es.

That the British possessions to which Mr. Bertram Cox was to call our attention were Fiji, Ashanti, the Transvaal, the Orange River Colony, Griquafand West, Bechuanaland, Zululand, and Basutoland.

That Fiji was acquired by cession from the Chiefs and people of the islands on the 10th October, 1879, and was erected into a separate Colony by letters patent, dated the 2nd January, 1875.

That The Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870," did not seem ever to have been proclaimed in Fiji, but that by section 26 of "The Supreme Court Ordinance, 1875," passed in tint Colony, it was provided that the common law, the rules of equity, and the Statutes of general application which were in force on the 2nd January, 1875. should be in force in the Colony.

That you assumed that the Foreign Enlistment Act, which applied to all of His Majesty's subjects, was a Statute of general application within the meaning of the Ordinance, and that, therefore, that Act might be considered as being in force in Fiji, notwithstanding that it had not been formally proclaimed there, as prescribed by section 3 of that Act.

That Ashanti was annexed to, and became part of, His Majesty's dominions under an Order in Council of the 26th September, 1901.

That no Proclamation under the Foreign Enlistment Act bad been made within Ashanti, and that it was presumed that a Proclamation should be at once issued, unless, having regard to the length of time which had elapsed since the date of annexation, it was desirable to extend that Act to Ashanti by the passing of an Ordinance under the provisions of section 7 of that Order in Council.

That the Transvaal was annexed on the 1st September, 1900, and the Orange River Colony on the 24th May, 1900.

That a

telegram was sent to Lord Milner on the 19th February last, instructing him to proclaim the Foreign Enlistment Act in both Colonies, if that step had not already been taken, but that there would be no difficulty in passing an Ordinance in each of those Colonies should we consider that the steps already taken were insufficient.

That Griqualand West was annexed to the Cape Colony by Act 39 of 1877, which came into operation on the 15th August, 1879.

That by a Proclamation dated the 28th September, 1870, the Foreign Enlistment Act was proclaimed in the Cape Colony, and that Mr. Cox was to inquire whether-under the Act of 1877, which annexed Griqualand West to the Cape Colony-the Foreign Enlistment Act came into effect within the Province of Griqualand West, or whether legislation was necessary.

That the province of British Bechuanaland was annexed to Cape Colony by Act 41 of 1895, and that it was presumed that the provisions of section 2 of that Act brought the provisions of the Foreign Enlistment Act, which were-as already pointed out—at that time in force in the Cape Colony, into operation within British Bechuanaland.

That Zululand was annexed to Natal under the operation of letters patent of the 1st December, 1897, and the Zululand Annexation Act. That Mr. Cox was to refer us to the Acts of the Colony collected under the title "Zululand" in the third volume of the Consolidated Statutes of Natal, and that he was to request us to report whether, under the provisions of thos Acts, the Foreign Enlistment Act was in force within the province of Zululand.

That Basutoland was annexed to the Cape Colony by an Act of the Colonial Legislature No. 12 of 1871, but that it was provided by that Act that it should not be subject to the general law of the Cape Colony.

That by Act No. 34 of 1888, which was assented to by an Order in Council, Basutoland was lisannexed from the Cape Colony and put under the direct control of the High Commissioner for South Africa, who was empowered to make laws by Proclamation.

That no Proclamation bringing into force the Foreign Enlistment Act had apparently ever been passed, and that Mr. Cox was to inquire whether a Proclamation should be passed in

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