Mative Medical Disabilities in West Africa.

WE are sorry to read, in a recent debate in the Legislative Council of the colony, the discouraging reply of the Governor of Sierra Leone to the advocates for the admission of qualified native doctors to the West African Medical Staff. Mr. Shorunkeh-Sawyerr complained that the Government rule "to exclude from the West African Medical Staff all Sierra Leone natives, however intelligent and capable, is retrograde as a step, unhealthy as a policy and unsound as a principle." The speaker pointed to the good work done by Dr. Awunor Renner, in charge of the Medical Department of the Colony, and to the fine record of Dr. Campbell, a native who has been fourteen years in the Government Medical Service, and asked if there was any hindrance but their colour to their inclusion in the West African Medical Staff. He added:

"If practice in England has become lucrative, do not press medical men to come out to this colony; give a chance to those who are local and who, of course, do not expect to get practice in England. If any native proves himself fit, give him a chance to aspire to be admitted to this oligarchic circle of the West African Medical Staff. When you consider that the population of natives of the colony and the protectorate is over one million, and only eleven hundred persons are non-natives, is it to be suggested that it is not desirable that some facility should be afforded, so that some of these natives may train themselves for attendance on the bulk of the population?

Mr. Sawyerr asked that at any rate the Fourth Class of the Staff might be reserved for Africans, even if the first classes must be reserved for Europeans, and claimed justification for asking the Government to give them the "crumbs for the present."

Other speakers supported the proposal, which seems to us wholly reasonable and indeed modest, and it is disappointing to find that the Governor only said that he would be prepared to recommend fully qualified native medical men for employment, but that the decision not to admit them to the West African Medical Staff was beyond his control, and he saw no advantage in asking the Secretary of State to reconsider it.

This disability is one which has long been keenly felt by educated natives of the West African colonies, and it has been pointed out that the Government policy has become less rather than more liberal in the matter. It is not denied that there are many trained native doctors, fully qualified to fill official posts; the reason for excluding them from the medical staff is the wholly unworthy one of racial prejudice.

We were glad to notice the far more favourable attitude of the Governor of the Gold Coast, when the matter was brought up in the Legislative Council

of that Colony last year. Sir Hugh Clifford said he had formed a definite opinion on the subject, and was in correspondence with Mr. Harcourt, who had shown a sympathetic attitude in the matter.

Our Society brought this question before the Colonial Office last year, and feels that it is one which must not be allowed to drop.

The Judicial System of Nigeria.—-II.1

BY W. H. STOKER, K.C.

(Late a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Southern Nigeria.)

But further than this, Sir Frederick Lugard's scheme also includes as a further "reform" the establishment of Native courts, presided over by natives alone, with a plenary jurisdiction as regards natives in cases of murder and serious felonies, and without any of the safeguards as regards appeal and automatic appeal to the Supreme Court which have hitherto been. regarded as so essential in the case of the existing Native courts of Southern Nigeria. These new Native courts are to be presided over by native chiefs who have hitherto been members of the existing Native Courts, and whose ideas of the principles of justice, and whose knowledge of the rules of evidence, have heretofore been considered so deficient as to require the presidency, whenever practicable, on these Courts of a District Commissioner, or Assistant District Commissioner, and the constant watching and supervision of all by the Supreme Court Judges. The literature of the monthly returns. from these Courts is eloquent as regards the need for such watching and supervision, and this is scarcely to be wondered at seeing that the District Commissioners themselves, as already seen, were without adequate legal training. Again, it will be asked, by what process had these native chiefs, estimable and highly intelligent men as in many cases they were, suddenly blossomed into the qualifications necessary for them to be entrusted with the trial according to British principles of cases of murder and of serious felonies? It is true that in cases of murder the Governor is to have certain revisory powers. But here again we have the Executive taking upon itself functions which can only be adequately performed by trained and qualified professional Judges. Apart entirely from the question of the legal qualification of a Governor to perform such. functions, the method of allowing cases to be tried by a tribunal which is to be subject to ex post facto supervision or revision cannot be regarded as satisfactory. It is most important that trials of serious cases, involving the death penalty, should be conducted before a tribunal qualified to try them and properly decide on the admissibility 1 The first part of this article appeared in the January issue

or sufficiency of evidence. The system of giving plenary powers to unqualified tribunals such as existed in Northern Nigeria and relying on subsequent supervision and revision to cure and remedy mistakes and miscarriages cannot be regarded as satisfactory, and it appears to the writer that the efforts of the Aborigines Protection Society towards securing a real reform in the direction of extending the judicial system of Southern Nigeria to Northern Nigeria were well conceived. And it is greatly to be regretted that these efforts did not receive the attention and consideration they deserved.

It is difficult to conceive how the substitution proposed of the new system for the old can properly be described in the words of the text of Sir Edwin Speed's Memorandum as a "reform of the judicial system of Southern Nigeria." Turning now to the arguments of Sir Edwin Speed's Memorandum, and the opening passages thereof, that "the Supreme Court System "has been tried in the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, and has in my "opinion proved a failure, that if the bringing to the African of English "justice is one of the most valuable assets to him, then the system stands "condemned, for that is exactly what it has failed to do," the writer will endeavour to see how Sir Edwin Speed proves this sweeping statement. Firstly, Sir Edwin Speed says that "it is impossible without a very large 'addition to the judicial establishment to hold Assizes in more than "a limited number of places, which involves the hearing of cases at long distances from the scene of action and at infrequent intervals," that "the result is that not only are prisoners kept for long periods awaiting trial, but that cases frequently break down owing to the absence of witnesses," and that "a considerable portion of crime thus goes un"punished, and a further considerable proportion is inadequately punished "in order to avoid committal for trial, or is remitted to native courts and "tried without much reference to the principles of English justice." It is almost impossible to forbear smiling at this concluding portion, since it involves a grave reflection by Sir Edwin Speed on the Native Courts which it is part of Sir Frederick Lugard's proposal to invest with plenary powers in cases of murder and serious felonies. The case as made out by Sir Edwin Speed against the existing judicial system of Southern Nigeria appears to be mainly that the judicial establishment was insufficient to hold Assizes in more than a limited number of places and at long distances from the scene of action and at infrequent intervals. As regards this the remedy rests with the administration. During my late tenure of office

as a Judge in Southern Nigeria the judicial establishment was, as regards Supreme Court Judges, persistently kept undermanned by the administration, and this in spite of representations constantly made by the Chief Justice and Judges and notwithstanding the very large revenue derived from court fees in civil cases. At one time the Judges had succeeded in

bringing home to the Executive the need for keeping two Judges permanently stationed in the then Eastern Province. The result was that for short and very intermittent periods this need was met, partly by acting. Judges, but only after a time to be permanently neglected. The real remedy was to increase the number of permanent Judges. Notwithstanding this neglect, although civil cases fell in some arrear, the Assizes for criminal cases were regularly held at the places and times prescribed by law, and as often as is contemplated by the new Supreme Court ordinance. The Judges made a point of holding Assizes at as many places as possible on the circuit, and generally in almost every district. This was, however, made the subject of criticism and objection by the Executive, on the somewhat flimsy ground that certain Provincial Commissioners had remarked on the long periods of absence on circuit of the Judges from their headquarters. It is difficult to understand upon what evidence Sir Edwin Speed bases his assertion as to the infrequency of Assizes and the non-hearing of cases in the districts in which they arose. Certainly not from personal experience. Then again as regards his statement that cases frequently broke down through the absence of witnesses, my personal experience and that of the other Judges has been, and has frequently been expressed, that this has arisen mainly from the hasty and untrained way in which the preliminary investigations have been conducted. Cases, including those of murder, have been sent on for trial relying on depositions containing evidence which has turned out to be hearsay, on insufficiently certified statements of the accused (which therefore could not be put in evidence), and with consequent insufficiency in the original evidence. The result has been that prosecuting officers have been obliged to save acquittals for want of evidence by entering nolle prosequi during the trials. The prisoner has been discharged and re-arrested outside the court, and has then had to be brought up again for a fresh preliminary investigation by the District Commissioner prior to re-committal for trial. Witnesses, who ought in the first instance to have been found and called, had meanwhile become difficult to trace. Witnesses already called had to attend again at fresh preliminary investigations, and in many instances, no doubt failing to comprehend the reason for this, have been averse to again giving up their time to matters which should and could have been settled if the evidence of other necessary witnesses had been taken in the first instance by properly qualified Magistrates. Yet some of these very District Commissioners, excellent men in their proper sphere of administration, are to become fully fledged Judges of Provincial Courts, and as such are to constitute final tribunals for the trial of murder and serious felonies.

The above really constitutes the sum total of Sir Edwin Speed's objections to the late Supreme Court of Southern Nigeria. Referring now to Sir Edwin Speed's arguments in favour of the new system and of the

Provincial Courts, observation can scarcely be diverted from his statement that "the power of transfer from the Provincial Court must not be ignored," and that "this is likely to be exercised freely for many years," and that he has "little hesitation in saying that the Supreme Court Judges will try at "least as many criminal cases in the future as they have done in the past." Practically this amounts to a statement that for many years the Provincial Courts will exist mainly on paper. If so, it will be asked, why are they to be established at all? This assertion can, however, scarcely be taken as symbolical of the real intentions of the Government as regards the Provincial Courts.

An essential portion of the Provincial Court scheme is the exclusion from audience therein of lawyers. Sir Edwin Speed in his Memorandum. defends this proposed exclusion. The gist of his defence is that the Egba, Oyo, and Ibadan native authorities were some years ago against the audience of lawyers in the Courts to be established within their territories. He also cites the objection to such audience of political and judicial officers with experience of districts recently brought under control. So far as judicial officers are concerned this statement can certainly not be said to apply to the Judges of the Supreme Court. The objections would rather seem to emanate from District Commissioners without legal training, who feel embarrassed by the presence, to use the words of Sir Edwin Speed, "of counsel taking part in the proceedings having higher professional "qualifications than the Bench." This, Sir Edwin Speed says, "is not fair to "the latter, as tending to impair its authority and destroy public confidence "in its decisions." The objection amounts to this, that rather than inconvenience unprofessional or lay tribunals they should be allowed to conduct their proceedings without reference to the rules of evidence. Can anything emphasize more strongly than this the objections to the proposed Provincial Courts? It is scarcely necessary to labour this point, since the conclusion must be obvious even to the lay mind. Again, the Provincial Courts are apparently considered good enough for natives only. Cases in which non-natives or the Government are concerned are to be tried in the Supreme Court; but the native African is only to have "British justice brought to him by the lay Provincial Courts, and by them educated in its principles. A good deal might here be said as regards the new Supreme Court which, with the powers over and in it reserved to the Executive, is generally on a lower plane than is safe or desirable; but space does not extend to detailed criticism in this article.

To summarise, Sir Frederick Lugard's proposals constitute a retrograde step, striking a distinctly lower average for the judicial system of the amalgamated Nigerias.