The Governor General having given a promise that no torture would be used in the trial of the prisoners, they would have been, in the ordinary course, given up to the Consul long since, but that Mr Hewlett officially informed the Hongkong Government that the Consul-General's promise would not be kept and that torture would certainly be used. Furthermore, Mr Stewart asserts that the promise given by the late Governor-General Lin Kwan Yik in 1879 (when during his absence in Japan thirteen Chinese prisoners were sent to Canton) was not kept, and that torture was undoubtedly applied to those prisoners during their trial.
It occurred to me that in this kind of matter it might be well for the Consul to state frankly to the Governor General whatever grounds he had for informing me that the guarantee given by the Governor General was worthless; but Mr Stewart has declined to do this. He simply confined himself to making his statement in his official capacity as Consul to the Hongkong Government, which he must have known would prevent them from giving up the prisoners.