6
7 540
above Port, declines to acknowledge the sufficiency of a telegram for the apprehension and detention of a prisoner.
It is important to the Government of Hongkong that the law upon this subject should be authoritatively declared,
The opinion of the Law Officers is therefore requested-
1. Whether a telegram conveying
information of the commission of a felony by a particular person is in Law sufficient to justify a police officer or other person in apprehending and detaining the person named :- Would it be sufficient
if the person named were only- suspected of being the offender. 2. Would such a telegram be sufficient
justification if the offence
misdemeanour.
When Walter Jackson.
were
wad
apprehended it transpired that he
was an American citizen. Mr Seward,
as a
the American Consul General at Shanghae, accordingly claimed him
national but through the American Consul at HongHong intimated to the Government that he would consider a formal application for Jackson's rendition and meanwhile would hold him under arrest.
It was then uncertain whether the