§ MR. HANBURY (Preston)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the High Commissioner for South Africa receives any, and, if so, what, remuneration from the Imperial Government; is his salary as High Commissioner paid proportionately by the South African Colonies or by one colony alone; and if the Imperial Government pays no portion of his salary as High Commissioner, and it is paid by one colony alone, what are the precedents for such a course?
§ MR. S. BUXTON(1.) Sir Henry Loch receives £1,000 a year personal allowance from Imperial funds. (2.) His salary as High Commissioner is paid from the Cape Revenues alone. (3.) From the first establishment of the High Commissionership at the Cape a salary has been paid by the Cape Colony—formerly £1,000 a year, but since 1889 £3,000 a year. Sir Bartle Frere between 1887 and 1880 received, in addition, £2,000 a year from Imperial funds as salary. The High Commissioner for South East Africa—an office held for short periods by Lord Wolseley and Sir George Colley, and now abolished—was paid £2,000 a year from Imperial funds. There is no precedent for two or more colonies uniting in paying a salary to a High Commissioner. The High Commissioner of Cyprus is paid from Cyprus funds £3,000 a year. The High Commissioner of the Western Pacific is paid a salary of £300 a year from Imperial funds and nothing as such from Colonial funds. Sir Cecil Smith, as High Commissioner of Borneo, was paid no salary.