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the
" is at all times difficult, but this difficulty is increased by delay of three days that must necessarily arise in communicating with Canton instead of Kowloon. The difficulty, moreover, is one to which the Hong Kong Police are only subject, having been given no similar instructions. Should a crime be committed on the Chinese side of the boundary, and the offenders escape to this side, the mandarin calls simply and immediately upon me. I am bound to assist him under "Ordinance 2 of 1850 - An ordinance to provide for the more effectual carrying out of the Treaties between Great Britain and China in respect to Chinese subjects in the Colony of Hong Kong."
To recapitulate the numerous cases wherein the ends of justice have been hindered or defeated through this cause would occupy too much of H.E.'s time. I will therefore only refer to one or two instances. A few days since, two European convicts escaped from a working party. They were traced to British Kowloon. They crossed the boundary and were attacked by some Chinese, who compelled them to return. They were at once arrested by a Sergeant of Police. They had been observed there, but could not be arrested. According to my instructions, had these convicts not been attacked and compelled to return to British jurisdiction, an interval of at least three days must have elapsed before I could have obtained any cooperation from the Chinese Mandarin at Kowloon, notwithstanding that the escaped convicts were at one time within view of the British Police.
As a second instance, I would beg to recall to H.E.'s recollection the feud that existed between the Halha villages last June. At this time, there were two bodies of about 200 men each drawn up.