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COLONIAL OFFICE

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 715 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COLONIAL See also:

OFFICE , the See also:department of the See also:administration of the See also:United See also:Kingdom which deals with questions affecting the various colonial possessions of the See also:British See also:crown. The department as it now exists is of comparatively See also:modern creation, dating only from 1854. The affairs of the See also:English colonies began to assume importance at the Restoration, and were at first entrusted to a See also:committee of the privy See also:council, but afterwards transferred to a See also:commission created by letters patent. From 1672 to 1675 the council for See also:trade was combined with this commission, but in the latter See also:year the colonies were again placed under the See also:control of the privy council. This arrangement continued until 1695, when a See also:Board of Trade and Plantations was created; its See also:duty, however, was confined to See also:collecting See also:information and giving advice_when required. The actual executive See also:work was performed by the secretary of See also:state for the See also:southern department, who was assisted, from 1768 to 1782, by a secretary of state for the colonies. Both the Board of Trade and Plantations and the additional secretary were abolished in 1782, and the executive business wholly given over to the See also:home office. In 1794 a third secretary of state was reappointed, and in 18or this secretary was designated as secretary of state for See also:war and the colonies. In 1854 the two offices were separated, and a distinct office of secretary of state for the colonies created. The secretary of state for the colonies is the See also:official See also:medium of communication with colonial governments; he has certain administrative duties respecting crown colonies, and has a right of advising the See also:veto of an See also:act of a colonial legislature—this veto, however, is never exercised in the See also:case of purely See also:local statutes. He is assisted by a permanent and a See also:parliamentary under-secretary and a considerable clerical See also:staff. As reorganized in 1907 the colonial office consists of three See also:chief departments: (1) the Dominions Department, dealing with the affairs of the self-governing over-See also:sea dominions of the British crown, and of certain other possessions geographically connected with those dominions; (2) the Colonial Department, dealing with the affairs of crown colonies and protectorates; (3) the See also:General Department, dealing with legal, See also:financial and other general business.

In addition to these three departments, See also:

standing committees exist to take a collective view of such matters as contracts, concessions, See also:mineral and other leases, and patronage.

End of Article: COLONIAL OFFICE

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