§ 35. Mr. TOUCHEasked what compensating benefits, beyond a rental of £100 a year, the Colony of Sierra Leone will receive in respect of the closing of an extensive area to competitive trading in the purchase of the fruit of the oil palm con sequent on the extensive monopoly granted to Messrs. Lever Brothers, Limited?
Mr. HARCOURTIf the hon. Member would examine the Ordinance he would see that the area in question is not closed to competitive trading, as every native will be able to sell and every trader to buy fruit within the area on exactly the same conditions as before the grant. The advantage to the Colony lies in the fact that Messrs. Lever can only obtain the necessary fruit for their factory by giving a better price for it, which they hope that 596 their improved methods for dealing with the product will enable them to do.
§ Mr. TOUCHEIs the right hon. Gentleman's interpretation of the effect of the Ordinance borne out by commercial opinion? Has he, for example, obtained the opinion of any of the Chambers of Commerce?
Mr. HARCOURTThe deputations I have received from Chambers of Commerce have never raised this point.
§ 36. Mr. TOUCHEasked whether any consideration is payable by Messrs. Lever Brothers, Limited, for the promise of the first refusal of rights to be granted over the area of their concession in the Sierra Leone Protectorate, estimated at 311 square miles, after the expiration of the first lease; and why this promise is allowed to rest on the correspondence and is not included in the legal instrument granting the concession?
Mr. HARCOURTIt was thought better not to bind the Government down to grant Messrs. Lever a renewal of the licence by inserting any condition in the document. The position resulting from the correspondence is that at the end of twenty-one years the Government will have a perfectly free hand as to whether they shall renew the licence, and, if so, on what terms. But having decided to renew it and the terms on which it shall be renewed, the Government is bound to offer a licence on those terms to Messrs. Lever before treating with other parties.
§ 37. Mr. TOUCHEasked whether it is contrary to the policy of the Government to allow natives of the Gold Coast Colony similar rights to those granted to Europeans; and if the Palm Oil Ordinance was drawn with a view, amongst other objects, to enable the Governor to grant licences excluding natives from using machinery for breaking palm kernels and to interfere in other ways with the freedom of trade of the natives in their own country?
Mr. HARCOURTA perusal of the Ordinance as printed in Cd. 6512 will show that natives are equally entitled with Europeans to obtain licences under it; and, further, that licences will not include the exclusive right, of erecting machinery for cracking palm kernels.
§ Mr. TOUCHEDoes the right hon. Gentleman recollect his letter to the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce of 14th December, in which he refused to make this reservation in favour of the natives?
§ 38. Mr. TOUCHEasked, having regard to the repeated statement of Messrs. Lever Brothers, Limited, when justifying their application for the protection of certain exclusive rights over a large area in Southern Nigeria in connection with the palm-oil industry, that the enterprise would involve a large capital outlay, what capital sum they are required to spend by virtue of the concession; and whether it is calculated that such expenditure will suffice to erect depericarping machinery capable of dealing with produce proportionate to the area reserved to them?
Mr. HARCOURTAs regards the application for a concession in Southern Nigeria, negotiations have not yet proceeded so far as the discussion of a particular sum, but the hon. Member may be sure that the point raised in the latter part of his question will not be overlooked.
§ 39. Mr. TOUCHEasked what is as nearly as possible the total aggregate number of square miles included in the areas in the Protectorate of Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria, and the Gold Coast Colony, collectively, over which Messrs. Lever Brothers, Limited, and the associated firm of W. B. Maclver and Company, Limited, have been granted or promised certain exclusive rights in connection with the palm oil industry?
Mr. HARCOURTThe hon. Member will see from the published Papers that Messrs. Lever have applied for areas of approximately 310 square miles in each of the three Colonies of Sierra Leone, the Gold coast, and Southern Nigeria. None of these concessions has yet been completed.
§ Mr. TOUCHEHave they applied for another 300 square miles, making approximately 1,200 in all?
Mr. HARCOURTI think so in one Colony, but I should not like to bind myself. I am only speaking from recollection.
§ 40. Mr. TOUCHEasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies what steps he took to satisfy himself that the lease of so much as twenty acres to Messrs. Lever Brothers, occupying an area on both sides of the Sierra Leone Railway, at a rent of £3 an acre, was necessary for the erection of mills for the extraction of oil from the pericarp of palm fruit, having regard to 598 the accommodation usually required for palm oil factories; can he say how many acres the buildings which Messrs. Lever are required to erect will cover; and why sites were granted on both sides of the Government railway?
Mr. HARCOURTThe rent was the usual one for sites in that district. Messrs. Lever submitted a plan showing generally how they proposed to utilise the site, and I saw no reason to regard the amount as excessive.
§ Mr. TOUCHEWill the right hon. Gentleman reply to the last part of the question: why sites were granted on both sides of the Government railway? Would not that give Messrs. Lever a great advantage over other traders in being able to straddle across the railway in this way?
Mr. HARCOURTI do not think it gives them any special advantage. The holding was given on advice from the locality, and certainly not by any notion of my own. I have no reason to think it gives them any special advantage which is not ordinarily given to traders desiring facilities.
§ 43. Mr. TOUCHEasked whether a yearly rent of 10s. represents the full consideration payable by Lever Brothers, Limited, for the privilege of access across the Sierra Leone Government Railway with any vehicles and control over the gates, and the right to carry pipes and construct watercourses under the railway?