Ox 0 M10
Pekking,
20 June 1869.
Her Majesty's Minister Sir Rutherford Alcock, KCB.
Governer to Su Richard Graves Mac Donnell, CB.
Chinese Immigrants to Peru.
Correspondence with the Prince of Kung respecting treatment of - Suggestions for checking Emigration -
Enclosure Mr. 1 in Governor Sir Richard Graves Mac Donnell's Dispatch N. 76 of 31st July 1869
C. 5.0. N. 1919.
Opinion 522
(Copy) of the Hon'ble Julian Pauncefote, Attorney General of Hong Kong
The Chinese Government may, if they please, declare the shipping of Coolies from Chinese Ports under contracts otherwise to be Piracy.
It is an offence punishable as Piracy and may enforce such a Law in their own Courts against their own Subjects. But such a Law cannot of course go beyond that, and they would have no right to seize on the high seas any Chinese Immigrant Ship sailing under a foreign flag, the offence being created and made punishable only by the Municipal Laws of China and not being the offence of Piracy jure gentium.