HC Deb 14 October 1908 vol 194 cc299-300
MR. WEDGWOOD

I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has boon called to a scheme propounded by the Land Officer of Uganda whereby leading natives are to be allowed to dispose of a percentage of the natives' land to white settlers; has such a scheme been sanctioned; who receives the money paid for the land; and why is a totally different theory as to native rights to land and the power of individual natives to alienate land to whites held in the East Coast from that held in the West Coast Colonies.

COLONEL SEELY

The Secretary of State is not aware of the existence of any such scheme as that to which my hon. friend refers. He has on the contrary recently approved of a law by which natives of the Uganda Kingdom are forbidden to alienate land to non-natives without the consent not only of the Governor, but also of the Lukiko, or Native Council. The total quantity of native land permanently alienated since 1900 is 29½ acres only.

MR. WEDGWOOD

Why is it the natives in East Africa can alienate land to whites whereas they are not allowed to do so in West Africa?

COLONEL SEELY

I think the Answer I have given covers the point raised by my hon. friend.

MR. WEDGWOOD

I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, in view of the instructions issued by the Colonial Office to the East African Protectorate declaring that lands shall only be leased to whites at revisable rents and not permanently alienated, and in view of the fact that a similar policy has now been adopted by the German Government in their Colonies, he can see his way to stop the granting by the Government of freehold to whites in Uganda.

COLONEL SEELY

Applications to purchase the freehold of land in Uganda have hitherto been so infrequent that it has not been thought necessary to restrict the grant of such applications except by laying down that the assent of the Secretary of State must be obtained to any grant involving the alienation of more than 1,000 acres. The Secretary of State will be happy to consider the suggestion made by my hon. friend.

*MR. REES

May I ask whether the Colonial Office contemplates a policy which postulates the disqualification of white men?

COLONEL SEELY

The words of the supplementary Question are so long that I can hardly understand them.