LAND TENURE AND COLONIZATION 79 



zones, should suffice to persuade the natives that they saw the beginning of 

 a system which httle by httle would cause them to be entirely despoiled 

 of their property in land. 



On the other hand in the districts inhabited by Mussulman and Pagan 

 tribes relatively vast territories could be subtracted from the domain held 

 in common usufruct, for reasons already given, without seriously disturb- 

 ing the rights or interests of the native tribes, who moreover populated these 

 districts somewhat sparsely. The mistake in the decrees which formed a 

 State domain was that they almost gave sanctity to the principle that a de- 

 claration of authority is necessary in order to establish the State's superior 

 right to lands ; whereas in Abyssinian law the sovereign or any tenant of 

 the sovereign, that is the giiltegna, can dispose of any lands not resti. Thus 

 these decrees limited instead of extending the State's superior power, 

 giving rise to the belief that it concerned only lands which had been declared 

 part of the domain. 



Thus this state of affairs caused in the colony much discontent which 

 had to be eliminated if the population were to be pacified. Two measures 

 might lead to this. A decree repeating those promulgated to form a State 

 domain might be issued, the rights acquired by grantees being safeguarded, 

 a serious step which might injure the government's prestige. Alternatively 

 they might be modified so that they would become ineffective where they 

 were held to be counter to the rights of the population and dangerous to 

 public authority. 



The modification to which the colony's government had recourse was 

 as follows. Article 14 of the law of 24 May 1903 had provided that Acts 

 prior to this law in date should not be enforced if they had not been includ- 

 ed in the collection of Acts of Public Authority to be issued within two 

 years, a term afterwards prorogued so that this collection was approved only 

 by the royal decree of 30 December 1909. In this collection thirty decrees 

 creating the State domain were not included, because they were not thought 

 consistent with the land organization approved by the royal decree of 31 Jan- 

 uary 1909 or because they ran manifestly counter to the rights of the popu- 

 lation. The decrees creating domain land which remained in force are 

 applicable only to an area of no more than 15,500 hectares, admitting of 

 cultivation, and to 200,000 hectares which were decreed in the first place 

 to be attached to the State. 



We come thus to the royal decree of 31 January 1909 which fixed 

 the land organization of the colony of Erythrea (i). 



A. — Placing of lands at the State's Full Disposal 



The measure of placing lands at the vState's full disposal is identified 

 with the jurisdictory regulation of land, and was necessary to the introduc- 

 tion of a regime of agricultural grants according to precise and definite 

 criteria. 



(i) Supplement to the Bollettiiw Ufficiale ddla Colonia Eritrea, 25 July 1909, No. 28. 



