§ 51. Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Prime Minister whether, under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, the only mandatory territories which are to be open to the free and equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of all members of the League are Togoland, Cameroons, and Tanganyika territory; and whether, in all other mandatory territories, the mandatory Power has power to restrict the trade and export of produce of the territory to the use of its own nationals?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWIt is only in the fifth paragraph of Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations that "equal opportunities for the trade and commerce of other members of the League" are expressly provided for. The territories to which this provision applies are those which formerly constituted German East Africa, the Cameroons and Togoland. In the case of the former German Colonies, which, under the sixth paragraph of Article 22 are to be administered "under the laws of the mandatory as integral portions of its territory," the provision of equal opportunities for trade and commerce will be a matter for the discretion of the mandatory.
§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREWhat about the ex-Ottoman territories, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWI should like my hon. Friend to put down a question for next week.
§ Captain W. BENNCannot the right hon. Gentleman say what is the policy of the Government; is it to have the open door or not for the mandated territories?
§ Mr. BONAR LAWHas my hon. and gallant Friend by any chance read the Treaty? If so, he will have seen that As regards German South Africa, the reason for this distinction in the mandate was that it is impossible to treat it except as part of South Africa as a whole.