§ MR. THOMAS BAYLEY (Derbyshire, Chesterfield)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will state the amount claimed by the Crowu Agents of the Colonies as commission during the years 1899, 1900, and 1901, and the amount paid them; also the amount claimed by, and paid to, the Colonial Governments as commission for work done by them in respect of the South African War; and, whether the Crown Agents of the Colonies are a company with a charter, or under what powers they are able to claim their commission.
§ MR. J. CHAMBERLAINThe total sum received by the Crown Agents for the Colonies from the Colonial Governments for which they act were for—
| 1899 | £24,635 |
| 1900 | £25,564 |
| 1901 | £80,859 |
§ These payments represent their remuneration for financial and commercial business of various kinds transacted for the Governments of the Colonies, and are in accordance with a fixed scale of charges authorised for the maintenance of the Crown Agents' office. There is, in this case, no question of any amount claimed, or of any allowance or disallowance of claim. I am informed that the only commission claimed and paid at present by any Colonial Government is a sum of £900 8s. 9d. paid to Tasmania. The Crown Agents are not a company, under charter or otherwise, and the nature of their function and organisation will be found described in Parliamentary Paper C. 3075 of 1881.