ค
7501.
No. 772.
(NEW SOUTH Wales.)
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE,
MY LORD,
We are honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Lord Enfield's
Temple, July 18, 1872. letter of the 13th instant, stating that with reference to our various reports on the question of the recognition of the de facto Government established in the Fiji Islands, he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the draft of a letter which your Lordship caused to be addressed to the Colonial Office on the subject, together with a letter which had been received from that department in reply, and he was to request that we would favour your Lordship with our opinion on the question raised by the Colonial Office, namely, whether beyond the limits of the New State, British subjects, so long as it was not duly recognised, could be accepted as citizens of it, and exempted from British jurisdiction for acts done or engagements entered into with them.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That, in our opinion, British subjects beyond the limits of the New State not yet duly recognised should not be accepted as citizens of the New State, nor should they be held exempted from British jurisdiction for acts done by them on British territory, or on board ships which ought to be navigated under the British flag.
Nor should they be held exempted from British jurisdiction for engagements entered into with them in cases where the validity or construction of such engagements would properly and in ordinary course be triable before a British tribunal.
The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G.,
&c.
&c.
&c.
We have, &c. (Signed)
J. D. COLERIDGE.
G. JESSEL.
J. PARKER DEANE.
o 16378-411,
95.-5/60.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :-
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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