TNAG-0714-FCO40-910-Future-of-the-Dependent-Territories-1978 — Page 33

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(ii)

(iii)

dropped by the Foreign Office in the course of

negotiation (just as the French clain to require those

opting for British nationality to leave the ceded

territory was dropped by them).

In such relatively simple societies the reservation

of native law and custom covered most of what was

But

required for the ordinary indigenous inhabitants. certain cases which arose did.. have a significant

bearing on the safeguards and their sufficiency. First, a plea from the Anglican Diocese of Sierra Leone (the

Los islands being under Sierra Leone administration)

concerning the security of the churches and schools. of

their mission there, fearing that they might be deprived of these, as (they alleged) they had when the mainland of

Senegal was ceded to France in 1882. The CO's concern

was increased by the belief that, under the then French law, religious societies could not hold property.

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Secondly,

a British trading Company which protested to the CO about

the security of its freehold property in the Los Islands

and threatened to claim compensation from HKG for losses incurred through this "breach of faith". Nothing

could be done about these because they come too late

though they could not in fact have come earlier because of

the secrecy of the negotiation with France and also

because, as the CO observed, the treaty contained no

provisions for the rights of British subjects domiciled but not "born" in the territory who did not opt for French citizenship. The 00.emphasized this defect of the treaty and the insufficiency of the 'native law and custom' clause which the FO had thought sufficient for this purpose.

A third cuse of protesto by a substa:bial Lumber of native

Gambian merchants was mainly directed to the fear of a

further cession of territory to Franco consequent on the

treaty's grovisions concerning French access to the

navigable part of the river, and is less rolevant.

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