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I considered that, as the death had occurred on
board a British ship in alleged suspicious circumstancos,
presumably in hinese territorial waters, it was my duty
to hold an enquiry. As the Portuguese matchman Noronha, an
employs on the articles of the ship, voluntarily surrendered
himself as being the person accused of having caused the
passmeer'e death, I endeavoured to find out if there wore
sufficient grounds for charging hin with a criminal
offence in connection with the man's death. I came to the
conclusion that there were not.
Pad it been otherwise I should have communicated the
charme against the accused to his own Consul, in this Cube
the Consul-General for Portugal, with the request that he
would exercise jurisdiction. I acted on the principle that
the charge being of a criminal nature, such as manslaughter,
and not one, such as insubordination, affecting the dia-
cipling of the ship, it would, under ordinary circumstezicus,
be dealt with by the officials of the country in whose
territory the case occurred
in this instance China.
But foreimers in bina being exempt from Thinese juris-
diction, owing to extra-territoriality, a case of this
kind