opinion as to the present validity of the warrant in question. As this apparently was the question specially put to the Acting Attorney General by His Excellency, the Acting Governor, it appears strange that the former should have "purposely refrained from answering" it.
With regard to my remarks, it appears to have been too readily taken for granted, that anything which appeared in a local newspaper was necessarily correct. What I told the Solicitors in the case, was, that His Excellency said "If the warrant is valid the case will have to be proceeded with," and that the Acting Attorney General had said that the warrant was valid.
There is, of course, a difference between "is" and "was", but as the Acting Attorney General's minute was in reply to what I take to have been His Excellency's query as to the present validity of the warrant, I decline to have the responsibility of that question shifted on to my shoulders.
I further feel that any remarks in the action of the Government should not be placed in a false light.
I have the honour to be,
Your most obedient Servant,
Dr. G. Mitchell Smith,
Acting Police Magistrate.