§ MR. SMEATONI beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he is aware that one guinea is annually deducted from the salary of every administrative officer in the Uganda Protectorate as premium of an insurance 1083 against loss in the money transactions of those officers; whether the insurance office to which this premium is paid is the Crown Agent of the Colony; whether in cases of loss of money, notwithstanding the insurance with the Crown Agent, the officers concerned are required to make good the amounts lost; whether this one guinea premium is retained by the Crown Agent, notwithstanding that no loss has occurred; and whether it is intended that this system shall continue.
§ COLONEL SEELYAdministrative officers in Uganda are secured under an agreement with the Law Guarantee and Trust Society, Limited, for £200 each at annual premiums of £1 each. The agreement is to protect the Government against the risk of its being unable to recover from an officer moneys lost by his default, and does not protect the officer from having to make good such moneys. The premiums are paid over to the insurance company, and are not retained by the Crown Agents, who are simply the agents through whom the money is paid to the company by the Protectorate Government. The question of modifying the system of securities now in force in the Crown Colonies and Protectorates is under consideration.