“The circular of the Imperial Governor von Liebert, dated 29th April, 1900, explains that:
“‘By the transference to the Empire of the sovereignty, all pretensions to landed property derived from the sovereign rights, real or apparent, of chiefs, sultans, etc., have passed to the Empire. All land which has not been proved to be the private property of an individual, or of a community, is to be considered as the property of the Crown.’
“Under the powers of the regulations of 1895, concessions have been granted in the terms taken, for example, from the acts of the concession for the Urangi Society (1896) and the Gold Syndicate of Usinja (1899):
“‘The Society receives the right to acquire under the prescriptions of the land regulation of 26th November, 1895, a superficies of 100 square kilometres, either by contract with the natives, or by taking provisional possession of vacant lands.’
“In the Cameroons, the south-east portion of which forms part of the zone of liberty of commerce, there exists a regulation of the German Emperor of 15th June, 1896, the first article of which is identical with the first article of the regulation of 26th November, 1895, for German East Africa.
“The Society of the South Cameroons has obtained there, 16th January, 1899, a charter of concession which grants it the property of the domain lands situated between the 12th degree of West longitude, the 4th degree of North latitude, and the political frontiers of the Cameroons to the South and to the East.
“In the French Congo, Article 19 of the order of the Government Commissioner General of 26th September, 1891, decrees:
“‘Waste lands and abandoned lands, to the ownership of which no one can legitimately lay claim, will be considered as belonging to the State and will form part of the colonial domain. They can under that head be alienated or conceded in the terms of the 5th and following articles. Lands considered waste are those which are neither legally occupied nor utilised in reality by any one.’
“Decrees passed in 1899 granted a totality of some forty concessions embracing almost the whole of the French territory.
“In British East Africa, the powers given by the Royal Charter, 3d September, 1888, to the Imperial British East Africa Company, whilst Article 16 forbids it to grant any commercial monopoly, confer upon it the right to ‘concede all lands for a period or in perpetuity, by right of pledging them or otherwise.’