The mechanism of the classical colour reaction between chromate and carbazide has been studied in solution from various physicochcmical points of view. It has been established from spectral identity that the same red-violet compound is produced in the 3 different reaction systems, chromate-carbazidc, chromate-carbazone and chromous-carbazonc. This leads to the conclusion that tlie chromate-carbazidc reaction is a composite one involving preliminary oxidation followed subsequently by complex formation. Moreover, the actual constituents involved in the reaction have been identified as Cr+2 on the one hand and carbazone on the other, giving rise to an intensely coloured inner complex compound. The inner complex nature of the coloured product was gauged independently from migration studies and from extraction of the coloured compound by non-polar solvents. © 1954.