§ Mr. ORMSBY-GOREasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether any progress has been made during the last three months regarding the establishment of civil courts, the appointment of a controller of mines and the promulgation of a mining law, and the reorganisation of the land department in Tanganyika Territory; when the terms of the mandate for Tanganyika Territory are likely to be presented to the League of Nations: whether the document pertaining to land matters were hidden by the late German administration and have not yet been handed over; whether any new grants of freehold land have been made to non-natives of the territory since 1st January, 1920; whether the land law of Tanganyika Territory will be assimilated to that of Nigeria; whether most of the officials now employed by the Colonial Office in Tanganyika territory are only temporarily appointed; and when the 1992W staffing of Government Departments in that territory will be placed on a more regular and permanent basis?
§ Lieut.-Colonel AMERYThe Chief Justice and Puisne Judges have been selected and the Courts will shortly be established. The draft of a mining law has been approved and the organisation of a land and mines department is in progress. The head of the department has been appointed. The position as regards the mandate is, I understand, still as stated in the Prime Minister's reply to the hon. Member on the 22nd of July last. Arrangements have been made, in co-operation with the German Government for the recovery of certain documents which were concealed by their authorities in the Territory. No such grants of land have been made. No immediate change in the land law is in contemplation, but the experience of adjoining, as well as of remote African territories, will naturally be carefully considered before any changes are made. The staff of the Government Departments may now be said to be on a permanent basis. Out of over 100 administrative posts, only three are at present filled by temporary holders.