COLONIAL

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

In addition to these three departments,

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