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This being the case, I think these prisoners should have been given up to the Chinese Government.
In reply, I would ask you to be so good as to inform His Excellency the Governor that I must respectfully decline to give any opinion whatever on the point to which His Excellency has seen fit to refer to me. To do so would be to exceed the limits of my functions, in this and similar cases, which appear to me to be confined to conveying to the Government of Yongtong the application of His Excellency the Viceroy for the surrender of certain Chinese who are accused of having committed a crime in Chinese territory, and to making known to His Excellency the Governor what I believe to be the value of the Viceroy's undertaking not to torture the Hongkong Chinese criminals given up by arrangement.
I have, &c.,
(signed)
A. R. Hewlett
Consul.