§ MR. BAYLEY (Derbyshire, Chesterfield)To ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, if he will lay upon the Table of the House the terms and conditions of the concessions granted to the Italian Colonial Trading Company and the Victoria Nyanza Agency, respectively for the collection of rubber in the Uganda Protectorate.
(Answered by Lord Camborne.) The text of the concessions has not yet been received. The general terms and conditions were given in the Return laid in Africa, No. 7, 1903. The main conditions of the agreement with the Italian Company are reported by His Majesty's Commissioner to be: that it is for five years; that the permit is held subject to any rights of the natives to forest produce; that the permit carries no rights other than the collection of rubber; that European supervision is to be employed, and only trained collectors allowed to collect rubber; that any labour employed within the area of the permit is to be paid for in rupees, and not in shells or food; that the Company plant 20,000 vines during the period of the permit in areas to be approved by the collector; that at the expiration of the permit the conditions for a fresh permit be considered between the Administration and the Company. 1026 The agreement with the Victoria Nyanza Agency is also for five years, the firm undertaking to plant 14,000 rubber vines during the period of the permit.