Y.
Enclosure 2.
C. O.
Hon. Colonial Secretary,
There was only one copy.co₤7 te ulignent of the
full court typewritten and that was sent to the Printers who have
not been able to get it printed before today. I attach two prints
but more can be obtained if you require them. The judgment is of
extreme importance and should I think be submitted to His
Majesty's Secretary of State. The grounds for Sotto's discharge are shortly stated in the headnote to the print which was written
by Sir Francis Piggott (in his capacity of Editor of the Hong- -kong Law Reports) who was the Chief Justice in the case.
With regard to the first ground that the
order in Council was not proved in the proceedings before the
Magistrate I will merely observe that (as my name appears in the
print) I was not retained for the Crown and had nothing to do
with the conduct of the case until after the Magistrate had com-
-mitted the prisoner.
The second ground also a technical one was
the imperfect authentication of the papers by the Authorities in
Manila. The full court has laid it down very clearly what the
requirements of our law are and as you will doubtless send them a copy of the judgment, through the Consul-General, it is not like-
-ly that any future fugitive will be able to escape on this
ground.
I now come to the third ground which involves
a question of law and another of fact on both of which it would
seeu desirable to consult the Secretary of State. By Section
17 (1) of the Extradition Act 1870 the requisition for the
surrender of a fugitive criminal who is suspected of being in a
British Possession may be made to the Governor of that British
Possession by any person recognised by that Governor as a Consul-
-General, Consul, or Vice-Consul, or (if the fugitive criminal
has escaped from a Colony or dependency of the foreign state on
behalf of which the requisition is made) as the Governor of such
Colony or dependency.
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