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May properly insist on the strict fulfilment of the guarantee given by Sir R. Alcock by Prince Kung in 1866.
It will, therefore, be my duty, in obedience to the above instructions, to confine myself, henceforth, to conveying to the Government of Hong Kong any requisition for the rendition of Chinese Criminals that the Viceroy may address to me, and as long as the Viceroy's despatch contains the stereotyped phrase "as usual no torture will be employed", so long, I presume, must I forward His Excellency's requisitions without adverse comment or criticism.
It will no longer be open to me to remark, as I have heretofore, on the inadequacy of the guarantee not to torture with which such despatches are, always, as a matter of form, concluded.
Before being called upon to take action in a case of this sort, I deem it advisable to bring to the notice of His Excellency the Administrator the enclosed copy of a confidential dispatch on the Extradition question, which some time ago I found in the archives of this Consulate.
This despatch was addressed by Mr. Secretary ...
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