Amulree Report

Extract from the Report of the Royal Commission on Newfoundland, 1933

Note: Commonly known as the Amulree report, it recommended the suspension of self-government and the creation of a Commission of Government to administer the affairs of Newfoundland and Labrador until self-government could, at the request of the people, be restored.

Date: the Seventeenth day of February, 1933.

“We therefore recommend that the Newfoundland Government, recognising that it is impossible for the Island to surmount unaided the unprecedented difficulties that now confront it, should make an immediate appeal for the sympathetic co-operation of Your Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom in the adoption and execution of a joint plan of reconstruction, of which the following would be the main features:–

(a) The existing form of government would be suspended until such time as the Island may become self-supporting again.

(b) A special Commission of Government would be created which would be presided over by His Excellency the Governor, would be vested with full legislative and executive authority, and would take the place of the existing Legislature and Executive Council.

(c) The Commission of Government would be composed of six members, exclusive of the Governor, three of whom would be drawn from Newfoundland and three from the United Kingdom.

(d) The Government Departments in the Island would be divided into six groups. Each group would be placed in the charge of a Member of the Commission of Government, who would be responsible for the efficient working of the Departments in the group, and the Commission would be collectively responsible for the several Departments.

(e) The proceedings of the Commission of Government would be subject to supervisory control by Your Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom, and the Governor-in-Commission would be responsible to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs in the United Kingdom for the good government of the Island.

(f) Your Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom would, for their part, assume general responsibility for the finances of the Island until such time as it may become self-supporting again, and would, in particular, make such arrangements as may be deemed just and practicable with a view to securing to Newfoundland a reduction in the present burden of the public debt.

(g) It would be understood that, as soon as the Island’s difficulties are overcome and the country is again self-supporting, responsible government, on request from the people of Newfoundland, would be restored.”

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This entry was last updated: February 14, 2017