201
Government to undertake the grave responsibility and great expense of dealing with a class of Criminals essentially Chinese, in nine cases out of ten could be satisfactorily disposed of by Chinese authorities having ready access and means of both discovering and compelling the attendance of necessary witnesses. It seems to me an unfair deduction that because the British Government assists that of China in clearing Chinese waters of Pirates, such assistance is not merely unrequited but is to become the cause of serious subsequent expense and inconvenience to this Colony.
I observe that the difficulty of procuring evidence, was foreseen and anticipated in the Duke of Buckingham's despatch, and in his reply to me, His Grace informs me that Her Majesty's Government is actually communicating with that of Peking with a view to making arrangements for the production here of the evidence necessary in such cases.
8. I apprehend that the fact of such negotiations for the transport of witnesses requires a great quantity of additional correspondence with its unavoidable interruptions and delays which would attend the trial of almost all such criminals, together with the double production of the witnesses before the Committing Magistrate in the first place and before the Supreme Court.