§ MR. ANDERSONasked the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies, Whether Her Majesty's Government in designating certain officers as—
Crown Agents for the Colonies, and giving them an establishment in the Colonial Office, mean the public to understand that these officers are servants of the Crown,and that Her Majesty's Government is responsible for their actions; whether he is aware that these Crown agents, on the prestige of the position thus accorded to them, issue loans and make contracts for the Colonies, and have done so for the Cape Colony; whether he is also aware that they claim a right to enforce these contracts in our law courts, but in a claim against them they ignore our courts, and refer aggrieved parties to the Colonial courts; and, whether it is the fact that a Colonial Government is not a corporation that can be sued otherwise than by a "Petition of Right," and that as regards the Cape Government that remedy is excluded by the circumstance that the Cape Parliament never passed an Act authorizing such Petition of Right?
MR. GRANT DUFFSir, my reply to my hon. Friend's first Question must be in the negative. The Crown agents have, no doubt, in the interests of public convenience, an establishment close to the Colonial Office; but they are the servants of the Colonial Governments, paid from Colonial, not Imperial, funds, nor is Her Majesty's Government in any way responsible for their actions. In reply to my hon. Friend's second Question, I have to say that I am quite aware that they issue, and have long issued, loans for Colonial Governments. In reply to his third Question, I have to say that, like the rest of Her Majesty's subjects, the Crown agents have no power to ignore the Courts of this country. Perhaps my hon. Friend will kindly postpone his fourth Question.