243
the receipt of your letter of the 21st ultimo
Commr
(6693 1901/1902), in which attention was called to
Wahai Wei
the fact that the Governor of Shantung was prepared
to agree to the suggestion that a British official
should be present at the trial of any Chinese criminal
who had been handed over by the authorities of the
leased territory at Wei-hai-Wel, but only on condi-
tion of the arrangement being reciprocal; and Mr.
Secretary Chamberlain enquired whether Lord Lansdowne
saw any objection on political grounds to accepting
that condition.
The reason for requiring the presence of a
British official at the trial of a Chinaman handed
over to Chinese jurisdiction, whether at Hongkong
or Wei-Hai-Wei, is the necessity of seeing that
the offender is not subjected to torture or other
brutal punishment. It is clearly unnecessary that
a Chinese official should be allowed to attend the
trial of a Chinese offender by one of His Majesty's
Courts for any such purpose. In the correspondence
between General Dorward and the Governor of Shantung,
copies