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the Chinese authorities should be asked to serve a writ on a Chinese defendant in China issuing from the Supreme Court in Hongkong. The position I have taken up on this point is confirmed by Mr. Wynsfield himself in the course of the correspondence alluded to. Mr. Mansfield in a letter to the Registrar of the Supreme Court, dated January 29th, 1907, says "As regards the service of writs from your Court, through me by the Chinese Authorities I regret to state that it would be impossible for me to make any request to the Chinese authorities for assistance in such matters. Such a request would inevitably be met with a refusal on the ground that the treaties do not provide for such action and that the Hongkong Courts have no jurisdiction over Chinese living in China”.
This is the contention I have endeavoured to maintain throughout this correspondence and I venture to think that Mr. Mansfield's expression of opinion, of which I was not aware when I first formulated my views, goes some way towards justifying the attitude I have felt it my duty to adopt