need not be & pressed" -
4 Chanda
The inhabitants of
I 5 The high seas in the
neighbourhood of Hong Kong
and the waters adjoining and within three miles of
The Chinese Coast, are day by day
not unfrequently
Irene of fregmen piratical
committed by them upon Chinese outrigns, of which generally
These crimes and often
A
attended with murder of
the
individuals, sometimes of these
& the
Crew & passengers numbering
and many of twenty
or More.
The perpetrators of such Offences have been from time to
time apprehended in the colony, and when the locality of the
crime is proved to have been
More
then three miles from The nearest Chinese territory, What The Supreme Court
has been in the habit of
hearing
Matter
and determining the
Charge as a case
of piracy
jure gentium. If the
Subjects residing within,
442
locality appears to be within
[Chinese]
limit, the Court
has dismissed the case for want of jurisdiction.
6. It has also happened
that junks captured by
on the high seas from Chinese privateers, and property taken
Colonial
and with articles the property by privateers from junks
Chinese resident in the Colony and taken,
He
high seas, have been brought
into Colonial waters
and
Found
in the colony,
Such cases the persons in
possession have been judged
A
Under Ordinance 1 of 1865.
section by and it is
of
The
Greatest importance to the Colony that some such power should exist to check the prevalence of
10 | 76-IT & S 2454)