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the reciprocal enforcement of Judgments. A special arrangement already exists with regard to extradition of criminals from this Colony to Macao (see Ordinance No. 1 of 1881); Reciprocity in this matter being, I presume, ensured by the general Extradition Treaty between Great Britain and Portugal.
4.
The case for redress is very simple: I have gone into it at great length in my memorandum with regard to Canton, and it is unnecessary to do more here than to state it very briefly. In explaining it, I am compelled to refer to Chinese debtors, because they are the most perverse offenders in the matter: but the remedy is equally necessary in the case of Europeans who escape payment of their judgment debts by retiring to Macao.
5.
The Colony of Hongkong literally swarms with Chinese of all classes, traders and non-traders, moneyed gentry and professional men, who come and go freely, who enter into commercial transactions, borrow and lend money, incur obligations of all kinds, without having the slightest tie to keep them in the Colony when it is convenient for them to depart. A very small proportion of them are domiciled in the Colony; a large number of the respectable and responsible Chinese undoubtedly own leasehold property here, but the question does not affect them. The difficulty arises with regard to the greater proportion of the Chinese population who possess only moveable property, and who either keep the bulk of it out of the Colony, or remove it when trouble in the shape of a losing law suit looms in the distance. Our Courts are open to them, and they consume a considerable amount of judicial time. Yet when judgment goes against them the Bailiff finds nothing on which execution can issue. The position of Hongkong in this respect is almost pitiable, with Canton on the one hand and Macao on the other. It cannot redound to the credit of the Supreme Court of the Colony in the eyes of the Chinese that its Judgments can be so easily evaded. The Chinaman has a faculty
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