CO129-346 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1908 [1-3] — Page 40

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(clause 17) refers clearly to the Board of Trade Registra-

-tion under the Merchant Shipping Act). There were thus

two classes of "Registration" which may be conveniently

described as "Board of Trade Registration", and "Inland

Registration". A further confusion was introduced by the

condition prescribed by Regulation 2 (of the 1898 Regula-

-tions) which introduced a further "Customs House Registra-

-tion" for fiscal purposes. These Inland Wators Regulations

are not, however, really applicable to the matter at issue

since the term "Inland Waters" is defined as in the 4th. --

Article of the Chefoo Convention and includes all territori-

-al coast waters. In fact the Mackay Treaty says that such

registered steamers may not ply between inland places

without special permission, and the Regulations say that

no unregistered steamer may ply inland.

What is required therefore is

that Regulations solely applicable to launches of small

tonnage which ply exclusively in bona fide rivers and are

not sea-going vessels should be framed with the object of

enabling such vessels to be properly registered and

authorised to fly the flag. The first obvious difficulty is

to find a means of restricting the scope of such Regula-

-tions to vessels only plying on rivers, in order that

they