Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Council of the League of Nations on the administration of the British Cameroons / issued by the Colonial Office.

  • Colonial Office
Date:
[1938]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to the Council of the League of Nations on the administration of the British Cameroons / issued by the Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/178 (page 6)
    Range. In the wet season these inundate large stretches of the country, but for the rest of the year they meander doubtfully across the wide expanse, often losing their identity in chains of pools and marshes and emerging later under other names. Gentle undulations of sandy and lateritic soil sink gradually into the dead level of the Dikwa flats; orchard bush gives place to thorn scrub and thin grassl and these in turn yield to rank jungle, creeks and floating islands where land and water mingle inextric¬ ably on the uncertain shores of Lake Chad. Legislation. 9. All the Nigerian Ordinances enacted in 1938 apply or may be applied to the whole of the Cameroons under British Mandate, except Ordinance No. 5 [Native Lands Acquisition (Amend¬ ment) ], No. 16 [Lagos Town Planning (Amendment) ] and Nos. 23 and 30 [Colony Taxation (Amendment) ]. No. 32 (Local Forces) includes a proviso that natives of the Cameroons under British Mandate may not be enrolled in the territorial battalion thus constituted save for the defence of that Territory. 10. The Cameroons under British Mandate is specifically excluded from the operation of Regulation No. 25 of 1938 made under the Importation of Textiles (Quotas) Ordinance of 1934. 11. Ordinance No. 9 of 1938 is entitled the Cameroons under British Mandate Administration (Amendment) Ordinance. Its object and reasons are as follows: — Owing to some uncertainty as to the boundaries of lands in the Cameroons under British Mandate which were vested in the Public Custodian and have since been demised by him and lands which have been demised by the Governor to various purchasers, a survey has been made and plans have been prepared defining the boundaries of the said lands and also the boundaries of the Native Reserves in the Cameroons established for the development of the economic life of the native inhabitants. These aforesaid plans have been or are to be substituted by agreement for the plans endorsed on the deeds attached to lands demised as aforesaid, and Clause 2 of this Bill excepts the application of the Land and Native Rights Ordinance from those lands described in the deeds shown in the Schedule to this Ordinance, these deeds comprising all deeds where agreements have been made with the purchasers of lands so demised, the pur¬ chasers being compensated by the grant of other land for any land given up in conformance with such agreements. “ Those lands demised by mistake by the Governor are thus exempted from the provisions of the Land and Native Rights Ordinance. Those lands vested by mistake in the Public Custodian are brought under the provisions of the Land and Native Rights Ordinance. Ques¬ tions of title of a similar nature to those provided for by this Bill will no doubt come to light and will have to be validated in a similar way and for that reason Clause 3 provides an additional section to the Cameroons under British Mandate Administration Ordinance, 1925. Clause 2 validates these demises by mistake, which demises were contrary to the Land and Native Rights Ordinance/'