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Subsequently, in November 1840 Admiral Elliot resigned his command of the fleet apparently due to ill health and, it seems, Captain Elliot became the sole plenipotentiary. Although Commodore Sir Gordon Bremer took over the command it appears that he was not appointed joint plenipotentiary until March 1841, when Lord Palmerston advised both Elliots (3.3.1841) of the appointment ("to act in case Admiral G. Elliot should be required to leave through illness"). This would explain why Bremer is described only as "Commander-in-Chief" in the "proclamation" of 1.2.1841 to which he was a party.
It would assist us considerably in assessing the legal standing of the Elliot proclamations if we were able to locate the commissions presumably in the form of Full Powers - given initially to the Elliots and, later, also to Bremer. We do not appear to have copies of the relevant documents in Hong Kong and I would be most grateful for your assistance in first, determining where such documents are kept and, secondly, to whom we should address a request for copies.
For your information, I note that the Plaintiff's Solicitors have yet to settle with Counsel the list of documents which they wish to have included in the record. We expect to have a conference within the next two weeks on the subject but anticipate that the finalisation of cases is some time off. We shall advise you of the contents thereof in due course.
In the meantime, I would be most grateful for whatever assistance you can render on the "proclamations" referred to above.
RAO/gl
Yours faithfully,
Shoune
(R. A. Osborne)
Senior Crown Counsel