HC Deb 07 December 1926 vol 200 cc1911-2
76. Mr. W. BAKER

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether, seeing that the Order in Council of 1925, which gave elective representation to Sierra Leone and Nigeria, conferred a more restrictive measure of representation on the Gold Coast, and that this differentiation is a blow to the Federal Union of Native States, he will recondsider the whole question, with a view to adopting a larger measure of elective representation in the Gold Coast?

The SECRETARY of STATE for the COLONIES (Mr. Amery)

The several Constitutions recently set up in Nigeria, the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone, and inure particularly the extent to which and the machinery by which the principle of elective representation was introduced, were devised with a view to meeting the differing circumstances of the three Colonies, and it appears to me premature to reconsider the new Gold Coast Constitution in any important point until experience has been gained of its working. I may add that I do not understand the allusion to the Federal Union of Native States. Such an organisation does not exist in West Africa.