§ SIR J. JARDINE (Roxburghshire)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies what course the Colonial Office, or the authorities of the Colony of Sierra Leone, have taken or intend to take with regard to the twenty concessions from paramount native chiefs and others extending over 4,000 miles, as stated in the prospectus of the British West Africa Produce Company, under the name of Sir Frederick Cardew, therein described as a former governor; whether any correspondence as regards those concessions took place between the said company or the original owners of these concessions and the Colonial Office or the Government of Sierra Leone; whether an antecedent sanction of that Government or the Colonial Office is usually applied for in such matters to make such concessions valid; and whether the doubts as to the validity of these particular concessions entertained by the legal advisors of the Colonial Office had been expressed at the time when the paramount chiefs sold the concessions or when the prospectus of the British West Africa Produce Company, Limited, was issued to the, public in Great Britain.
§ MR. CHURCHILLIn February, 1905, Mr. E. Brunner, the then holder of these concessions, wrote to the Secretary 1022 of State asking that certain amendments, favourable to the interpretation of the concessions, might be made in the law of Sierra Leone, and that certificates of their validity in regard to agricultural rights might be granted. The late Secretary of State for the Colonies replied that he was unable to comply with this request. There has been no other correspondence between the Colonial Office and the concessionaires. Lord Elgin has no information of any correspondence having passed between the concessionaires and the Colonial Government; but it appears that in October, 1904, an application was made to the Concessions Court of Sierra Leone to have the concessions declared valid by that Court, which however, was withdrawn without any pronouncement being made by the Court upon them. Concessions purporting to grant rights in or over land, minerals, precious stones, timber, rubber, or other products of the soil, require the validation of the Concessions Court of the colony, but not the sanction of the Governor or of the Colonial Office. No opinion had been given on these concessions by the legal advisers of the Secretary of State at the time when the chief sold them or when the prospectus of the company named was issued. The Governor of Sierra Leone will, as I stated in reply to a former Question on this subject, be instructed to watch the operations, if any, of the company, with a view to preventing any illegalities or abuses.