Hongkong Companies.
C. O.
45145 618
RECE
(Red 23 EC 05
The Hongkong Authorities hold that no action can
be taken in the colonial courts against the "Hankow
Daily Times", registered as a Hongkong Company, for
seditious or other libels published by it in China and
that its registration cannot be dealt with in conse-
quence of such offences. The company's members and
employés are held to be justiciable by the authorities
of their own nationality only. The result may be
that the company, its American chief shareholder and
managing director and its Chinese editor are all under
separate jurisdiction and laws and an offence by the
one law may not be punishable by one or other of the
other laws, though to the Chinese authorities and the
general public the whole concern continues to appear
to be under British protection. It would seem only
Just that a Hongkong Company doing business entirely
beyond the bounds of the colony should on proof of the
conviction of its directorate on a criminal charge be
removed from the register.