§ MR. ALFRED DAVIESI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in view of the fact that the British South Africa Company has delayed in forwarding to the Colonial Office their yearly accounts and estimates, and in presenting their annual accounts at their annual meeting of shareholders, will he state what is the penalty for such delay, and what action, if any, he purposes taking; and whether he has received 425 any communication to the effect that the remainder of the financial statement of revenue and expenditure to 31st March, 1899, and the whole statement to the 31st March, 1900, will be in the hands of Members previous to the 10th August.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAIN(1) The Charter does not provide a specific penalty for failure to comply with Clause 17, under which accounts and estimates are required to be furnished. (2) The financial statement of revenue and expenditure in Southern Rhodesia for the year ending 31st March, 1900, should, I am informed, be received in the course of the next two weeks, having already appeared in the Southern Rhodesia Gazette. I am in communication with the company with regard to the remaining accounts of administrative revenue and expenditure.
§ MR. ALFRED DAVIESWhat was the result of the inquiries made in March last in regard to these accounts?
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThat the financial statement will be received in the course of the next two weeks.