No. 9. 
Extract from despatch from the Officer Administering the Govern- 
ment of Sierra Leone to the Secretary of State for the Colonies. 
[Answered by No. 10.] 
GovERNMENT HOUSE, 
FrREETOWN, : 
1st August, 1927. 
SIR, 
In compliance with the instructions contained in your telegram 
of the 27th July,” I have the honour to enclose copies of the 
majority judgmentst (by Mr. Justice Sawrey-Cookson, President, 
and Mr. Justice Aitken) of the Full Court in the case of Rex v. 
Salle Silla, and of the dissentient judgment! of Mr. Justice 
Petrides. 
I have, etc., 
H. C. LUKE, 
Acting Governor. 
Enclosure 1 tn No. 9. 
In THE Furr CourT oF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE COLONY OF 
SIERRA LEONE. 
Rex v. Salla Silla. 
and 
Rex v. M’fa Nonko and others. 
I agree these cases have been consolidated for the purpose of 
appeal and quite briefly the question here involved is: Can a 
run-away slave in the Protectorate Territory of this Colony take 
action against his master who re-takes him and so regains his 
rights of possession in him against the slave’s will? A considera- 
tion of this question naturally involves the wider and main one, 
viz., whether any such status as that of a slave is recognised to any, 
and if so to what extent by the law of this Colony, and to that 
question there can only be one answer. Tt is clearly recognised 
to some extent if only for the reason that freedom from that status 
may be acquired by a certain payment made to the master—under 
section 7 of Cap. 167, which lays it down that every slave within 
the limits of the Protectorate shall, on payment made by him or 
on his behalf to his owner or master of such sum as may be fixed 
by the Governor (not exceeding in the case of an adult four pounds 
and in the case of a child two pounds) be and become to all intents 
and purposes free, and the children thereafter to be born to any 
such person shall be free from their birth. 
* No. 8. 1 Enclosure 1. 1 Enclosure 2,