479
ARB
obtaining a prima facie case for extradition the Canton
Government only applies for extradition in cases of very
serious crime. The result in practice is that the Magistrate
whose powers are in all other cases strictly circumscribed
and who remands important cases for trial in the Supreme
Court knows that in all extradition cases his recommendation
to the Governor for extradition (on the grounds that a prima
facie case has been made out) is tantamount to a sentence of
九 death. It is a curious and interesting testimony to the case
with which these cases have been conducted, that the Chinese
Government while lately restricting the Provincial Courts
from inflicting the death penalty without prior review of the
case by the Peking Authorities in all cases except those in
which the Criminal was caught in flagrante delicto, added to
this last class all prisoners extradited from Hongkong. If,
however, it were understood and practically demonstrated
of in hadilice
that extradition of prisoners would not necessarily be
decapitated, and application were made for the extradition of
persons accused of some of the lesser crimes set out in
schedule 1 of Ordinance 7 of 1889 while the Hongkong Magis-
-trate was assured that they would be punished by a lesser
penalty