MANDATORY’S POWER

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 58, 3 December 1923, Page 7

MANDATORY’S POWER

IMPORTANT JUDGMENT SOVEREIGNTY OF SOUTH AFRICA UPHELD CONVICTION FOR TREASON SUSTAINED The south African Government, as the holder of the mandate over south-west Africa; has been declared a soverign power, against which treason could be committed, and the conviction of cne of the leaders of fhe Bonclelswartz revolt in 1922 on a charge of high treason has been upheld. By Telegraph—Pbess Association. Copyright. Durban, Novemlier 30. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court has delivered an important judgment affecting the legality of a mandatory power under the Treaty of Versailles, arising from an appeal against the conviction of Jacobus Christian, one of the leaders of the Bondelswarta revolt in 1922, on a charge of high treason. The question at issue was whether a niandatory Government was a soverign power against which treason could be committed. The Court quoted the precedents of the lonian Islands and tho. Transvaal llepublic. Although in both cases the sovereignty was considerably curtailed by the British protectorate and suzerainty respectively, their subjects were liable to action for treason. The Court held that tho Government of South-west Africa was not sovereign and independent, but that the sovereignty formerly residing hi the German Government must now. reside in the Union Government, as a madatory, and that tho Union is a Sovereign Power, being a signatory to the Versailles Treaty, and a member of tho League of Nations. The appeal was dismissed. —Reuter.