§ 62. Mr. IRVINGasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if he is aware that recent re-adjustments of native territory have resulted in the addition of over one million acres to the property of the commercial branch of the Chartered Company of British South Africa; whether the land to be surrendered by the natives includes a belt running through the Sabi Native Reserve, twelve miles wide, appropriated for purposes of railway construction; and whether His Majesty's Government will agree to the appointment of a commission to re-consider matters upon which the Southern Rhodesian Commission and the local native department have failed to agree?
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYUnder the decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which is printed as an appendix to Cmd. 547, the ownership of the land referred to in the first part of the question is vested in the Crown and not in the British South Africa Company. The answer to the second part of the question is in the affirmative, and to the third part in the negative. The hon. Member will observe from the Parliamentary paper to which I have already 410 referred that the recommendations of the Commission were generally acceptable to the Native Department.