12911.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
mmmmmC.O. 885
ALMITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
11 P
ECORD OFFICE, LONDON
SIR,
No. 540.
(Hong Kong.)
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Foreign Office, November 20, 1868.
I AM directed by Lord Stanley to request that you will acquaint the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, with reference to your letter of the 28th of August, that, having consulted the Law Officers of the Crown, his Lordship concurs in the instruction which his Grace proposes to address to the Governor of Hong Kong respecting the trial at Hong Kong of pirates captured by British ships and brought to the island, to the effect that pirates captured by British ships and brought to Hong Kong should not be surrendered to the Chinese authorities but should be tried by the courts of Hong Kong and according to British law.
The Law Officers had at the same time before them a letter from the Admiralty, of Sept. 3,1888. which I enclose a copy. They are of opinion, however, that whatever may have been the construction of the earlier treaty and regulations as to the proper place for trial of Chinese pirates captured in Chinese waters, the language of the new treaty does not require that Chinese subjects, captured as pirates in Chinese waters by British cruisers, shall be surrendered in order that they may be tried by the Chinese courts. Such offenders would prima facie be triable as pirates in any competent court, and might therefore be tried at Hong Kong in the competent court there.
Sir Rutherford Alcock will be instructed to ascertain whether the Chinese Govern- ment would be disposed to co-operate in the trial of such prisoners by promoting the production of evidence, and by taking charge of prisoners before trial, thus giving effect to the 53rd Article of the Treaty of Tientsin; but as regards the carrying out sentences of death or imprisonment awarded by the Colonial tribunals, the Law Officers consider that the execution of such sentences ought not to be delegated to Chinese authorities even if they were disposed to undertake such an office.
I am to add that Lord Stanley also concurs in the proposed instructions to Sir R. Macdonnell on the other points to which they apply.
The Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office.
(Signed)
I am,
&o. E. HAMMOND.
0 16278-556. 25 --5/86.