§ MR. O'DOHERTYTo ask the Post-I master General, as representing the Secretary of State for the Colonies, whether the 1 per cent. which the Crown Agents were authorised to make on all supplies and materials shipped by them for the construction of the Uganda Railway, went to form a pension fund for the said agents and the other officials in the office; and, if not, to what expenses of the office was this percentage credited.
(Answered by Mr. Austen Chamberlain, for the Secretary of State for the Colonies.) The commission of 1 per cent. charged by the Crown Agents on the Uganda Railway supplies is credited, as received, to the Agents' Office Fund, like any other charges made against Colonial 7 Governments. From that fund are defrayed all the expenses of the Crown Agents' Office, and any annual balance to the credit of that fund is available for the increase of the reserve fund, which has been accumulated, as explained in the Secretary of State's Circular of 31st December 1863 (printed in C. 3075 of 1889), for certain purposes, including the provision of retiring pensions for the Crown Agents and their staff.