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245
from the French Consul at Hong
Kong to the Colonial Secretary.
Your Excellency will see from
these documents that the Registrar
General is sure that no warrant
was issued, and that in this opin-
ion he is supported by the recol-
lection of the Assistant Registrar General, although they both admit
that a Blank form of warrant inay
have been shown to the Consul
with a view of ascertaining whe-
ther he could make use of it.
But I desire to invite Your Excellency's attention to the fact that the form of Warrant which ac- companies these Papers, merely authorizes the person to whom it 18 addressed to search for and bring before the Registrar General "any woman or girl" who 18 or may
be liable to be dealt with under the provisions of the ordinance referred to in the form of Warrant;
whereas Your Excellency's Note refers to the Warrant as having
been issued for the arrest of the
man who was alleged to have abducted
the girl.
The French Consul corro-
borates the statements of the
Registrar General in all parti- culars but that as to whether a
warrant had actually been made
out, and he moreover, in his letter to the Colonial Secretary refers to the subject of enquiry
as being one regarding the condi-
tions under which "recherches
auraient été operes en vue de
retrouver une jeune fille Chi- noise" &c., and does not make any
reference to the 1ssue of a
warrant for the arrest of the
person accused of abducting her.
Her Majesty's Government have
therefore reason to hope that the
complaint which you were directed
by the French Government to make was founded on a misapprehension.
I have the honour to re-
quest that Your Excellency will
submit these observations together
with the inclosed papers to the
French Government and eventually
return the latter.
The