38
NO. 1904
HONGKONG.
VIOLATION OF BRITISH TERRITORY: DES VOEUX ROAD MURDER, 1903. (HUNG TSUN-FUK CASE.)
Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.
I.
(From Governor Sir Henry Blake to the Secretary of State.)
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG, 18th June, 1903.
SIR,--With reference to any Despatch of 30th April,* I have the honour to transmit a copy of a Memorandum* giving an epitome of the information and evidence in the possession of the Government. There is reason to believe that HUNG TSUN KWEI was a prominent member of the conspiracy of which the Chinese Authorities received the first intimation from this Government. This man left Hongkong on the 31st March. A reward had been offered for his capture, dead or alive, and for the purpose of obtaining this reward a Cantonese bad character named CHEUNG C'HO TING appears to have conceived the crime of enticing to Hongkong a friend in Canton, who bore a likeness to HUNG TSUN KWEL the conspirator, and there murdering him and returning the body to Canton as that of HUNG TSUN KWEI and claiming the reward. The Memorandum shows the inanner in which this scheme was carried out. The action of the Chinese Gunboat leaves no doubt that by some authority the Gunboat was engaged on the service of conveying a kidnapped prisoner, or a murdered body from Hongkong, and there is evidence of the direct complicity of Admiral Ho in the violation of British territory.
I have, &c.,
HENRY A. BLAKE,
Governor, &c.
II.
(From the Officer Administering the Government to His Majesty's Minister, Peking.)
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 20th April, 1904.
SIR,--With reference to Your Excellency's letter of the 1st of January and to previous correspondence,* I have the honour to inform you that the murderer of the victim whose body was substituted for that of HUNG TSUN-FUK has been duly brought to trial at Canton.
2. His Majesty's Consul General there has communicated to me a memoran- dum of conditions of settlement of this case signed by the Viceroy's Foreign Secretary and himself, and I have the honour to inform Your Excellency that these terins are acceptable to this Government.
I have, &c.,
* Not printed.
F. H. MAY,
Officer Administering the Government.