395
further empowered such officers to issue warrants
for their arrest upon complaint on oath, and upon
due proof of the desertion to order them to be con-
veyed on board their respective ships.
These provisions were repealed by the Imperial
Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, but substantially re-
enacted in Section 238 of that Act, and the Order
in Council made under the Act of 1852 was kept in
force by Section 745, Sub-section 18, of the Act of
1894.
The assistance Mica snould "be p ovided by low*
throughout. Her Majesty's
Dominions for Consuls of
the Foreign powers with whom Her Majesty has entered
into treaties on the subject is therefore that de-
fined in Section 238 of the Imperial Merchant Ship-
ping Act, 1894, and whatever additional or different
1rovisions may be deemed expedient by the Hongkong
authorities in the case of deserters from British
ships, their Ordinance should, so for as regards
foreign
foreign desertors, be brought into entire conformity
with section 238 of the imperial Act. Section 20
of the Hongkong Ordinance should therefore be amend-
ed in this sense.
It is clearly the intention of the Imperial Act
that if the aid of the judicial Officers is invoked
by a foreign Consul the judicial Officer is required
to aid the Consul in apprehending a deserter upon
ths responsibility of the Consul, and he may for that
purpose issue a warrant for the man's arrest, but
the further power to order aim to be taken back to
his snip is only to be exercised if the judicial of-
ficer is satisfied upon due proof, of the desertion".
(Intd.)
W.M.
31/7/98.