§ MR. J. D. WHITE (Dumbartonshire)To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether, before the feuing of a portion of the Bass Rock in 1900 by the Northern Lights Commissioners from Sir Walter Dalrymple at an annual feu duty of £40, any public authority had any rights in respect of the use of the Bass Rock for prison purposes, or in any other way; and, if so, whether, in arranging that feu duty, the value of such rights was taken into account.
(Answered by Mr. Lloyd-George.) I am informed by the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses that, so far as they are aware, no public authority possesses rights in respect of the use of the Bass Rock "for prison purposes." The Commissioners state that the title in their favour is a feu charter conveying a full feudal right of property, and contains a clause binding the disponer or superior in "absolute warrandice," but, excepting from such warrandice, "the rights reserved to the Crown in the titles to the said Island of the Bass," these rights being the rights to fortify and garrison 682 the island reserved in the Crown Charter to Sir Hugh Dalrymple in 1707. The Commissioners ascertained from the War Office in 1899 that these Crown rights would not be affected by the proposed lighthouse. They state that the value of the Crown rights were duly considered when adjusting terms for the acquisition of the ground.