"I submit that the perfunctor 43
"return of all convicts as if Hongkong were a Self-
"-Governing Colony, with no particular duty in regard to
"the interests of His Majesty's Government in China can
"scarcely be supported".
With regard to this passage I
venture to submit to Your Lordship that the duties and
responsibilities of a Crown Colony in relation to the
interests of the Empire or of the Consular Jurisdiction of
His Majesty's Government in neighbouring countries are
neither greater nor less than those of a Colony possessing
Self-Government.
The Colony is however justified in
taking measures to protect its own taxpayers from the
imposition of charges which have not received the sanction
of the Legislature, and which in no way concern them, and
in taking also any necessary precautions in the interests
桌
of its own internal peace and good order. To this end both
the China and Korea Order-in-Council, 1904, Section 66 and
the Siam Order-in-Council, 1906, Section 56, reserve to the
prisoners
British Colony to which it is desired to remove/sentenced
by British Consular Courts in China or Siam, the right of
consent to such removal.
3.
The prison accommodation here is
very