and to this the Governor is willing to accede
of alleged murder, manslaughter,
in
cases
of piracy, burglary, housebreaking and
robbery
with violence, where the Accused has not
been more than
6 months in Hong Kong
& where the depositions are taken before the British Consul who will certify that no compulsion appears to have been
used it"
you will see that Section III of the draft Ordinance of 1889 contained a
provision
to the effect that depositions in China
[GR3114/29]
should be taken as evidence [see on 314 pg] that this was approved of by Lord Knutsford in his Despatch para: 5 on 3114. The clause however met with the strongest opposition from the Unofficial Members
of Council
and
was omitted [see
newspaper Reports & also Sir
W. des Vaux's Despatch
GR176/11.7]
I consider that the proposed safeguard
though not entirely satisfactory
is
sufficiently
warrant their being approved: we
do not want to protect
notorious criminals from
justice,
even Chinese justice; in fact I should
be inclined to go further than the Governor
to add
the following crimes taken from
the
Schedule of the 1889
Ordinance to the list of those in
which depositions taken in China be accepted i.e. Malicious Wounding,
Rape, Abduction, Child Stealing, Kidnapping
Arson & Sinking or Destroying
a
Vessel at
Sea;
I should be disposed to include all
crimes of violence and all that I have
mentioned may be included under
fraud.
Copy of the Governor's Despatch with Sazla in pipe torber routed and say.