CO129-475 - Governor Sir Stubbs & Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1922 [5-7] — Page 480

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Objects and Reasons.

1. The general object of this bill is set out in the title and preamble.

2. The bill is necessary because it has been decided to follow here the policy which has already been adopted in various other parts of the Empire of prohibiting the carrying on of missionary work within our territory by persons of former enemy nationality. During the war temporary arrangements were made for supervising and carrying on certain parts of the work formerly carried on here by the German missions, but some permanent arrangement is now necessary. The property formerly belonging to the German missions is at present vested in the Custodian of Enemy Property under the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Ordinance, 1919, Ordi- nance No. 11 of 1919, (see Notification No. 288 which was published in the Gazette of the 27th June, 1919).

3. The bill proposes to create a corporation to whom all the German mission property is to be transferred and by whom it is to be administered. The corpora- tion will consist of 5 persons, and the power of appoint- ing successors to the first members of the corporation is vested in the Governor, the intention being that all members of the corporation shall be of the Protestant faith.

4. Clause 3 of the bill sete out in what is more or less common form the general powers of the corporation with regard to the holding, acquisition and disposal of property. These powers will of course be exercisable only for the purposes of the trusts under which the property will be held.

5. Clause 4 of the bill vests in the corporation all the leasehold property formerly vested in the German missions or in trustees for those missions. Movable property and cash balances at present held by the Custodian will be transferred to the corporation under an order of the Governor made uuder the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Ordinance, 1919.

6. In the case of some of the property involved the beneficial ownership is not entirely clear at the moment, but the beneficial interests will be respected so far as possible when they are ascertained. The effect of clause 4, taken in conjunction with the rest of the bill, will merely be to vest the legal interest in the leasehold property in the corporation. A similar remark will ipply to the property handed over by the Custodian.

7. Clause 5 of the bill deals with the trusts under which the German mission property is to be held. In the first draft of this bill an attempt was made to set out the truste of each particular portion of leasehold property, but it was found to involve a great amount of detail, and difficulty was experienced in several cases in ascertaining the exact trusts or objects to which the property was intended to be applied by the German mission in question. In some cases, for example, it appeared probable that the property belonged bene- ficially to the members of a congregation, and not to the German mission itself. This explains the general and somewhat vague form in which sub-clause (1) of clause 5 is drafted, but it will be noticed that the general intention of that sub-clause is to use any parti- cular property only for the purpose of carrying on some part of the work formerly carried on by the particular mission to whom the property formerly belonged.

8. Sub-clause (2) of clause 5 subjects to the same truate as the leasehold property any property handed over by the Custodian, and in this case also the property will be earnarked for the work of the mission to which it formerly belonged.

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