§ MR. REESI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, having regard to the fact that the produce of the British Central Africa Protectorate is only allowed to enter the Transvaal Colony free of duty in return for permission to recruit native labour in the Protectorate for the Transvaal mines, and to the fact that owing to the mortality of such natives engaged in the mines the stoppage of such recruiting in the Protectorate is anticipated, the Colonial Office can arrange that the produce of the Protectorate shall continue to enter the Transvaal Colony free of duty; and whether the Colonial Office will consider the desirability of including the British Central Africa Protectorate in the projected South African Customs Union, so as to ensure the permanent free interchange of produce and merchandise between the Protectorate, the Transvaal, and other South African Colonies in order to the development of the said Protectorate.
§ MR. CHURCHILLI hope that it will be possible to arrange that the present free importation shall continue. The necessary provision has been retained in the draft Customs Convention. By the General Act of the Conference of Berlin, and a Declaration of 2nd July, 1890, made under the General Act of the Brussels Conference, it is not permitted in the British Central Africa Protectorate to impose an import duty higher than 10 per cent, ad valorem. So long, therefore, as Great Britain remains a party to these Acts, and the South African Union Tariff exceeds 10 per cent, ad valorem, it is impossible to include the Protectorate in the South African Customs Union.