2741.
I
SIR,
No. 126.
(STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Royal Courts of Justice, February 3, 1897.
We were honoured with your commands signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 25th ultimo stating that, with reference to our report of the 12th August 1896,* respecting the proposed extradition between the Straits Settlements and Kedah of fugitive coolie contract labourers, he was directed to transmit to us a copy of a despatch which you had addressed to the Governor of the Colony, and of a subsequent letter (with its enclosures) from the Foreign Office on the subject. That a copy of the Siam Order in Council was also enclosed.
That it would be seen that a difficulty had arisen in applying the procedure advised in our report, inasmuch as the assistant legal adviser to the Siamese Government had given an opinion that, by the law of Siam, the breach of labour contracts was not a criminal offence, but produced only civil consequences. That Her Majesty's Chargé l'Affaires proposed to meet this difficulty by omitting from the draft regulations prepared by the Attorney General of the Straits the words which limit the operation of the Order to such breaches of contract as would be an offence against the laws of Siam; but that the Marquess of Salisbury was of opinion, in which you concurred, that it was objectionable in principle to make what, according to the local law or custom, was apparently a mere breach of civil contract an offence against the Order in Council punishable criminally; and that it appeared also to be at least doubtful whether the Fugitive Offenders Act could be applied to the case of an act which, though made an offence against the Order in Council, was not an offence punishable by the general law of Siam.
That Mr. Wingfield was, therefore, to request that we would be so good as to take the
papers into our consideration and advise you whether any, and if so, what, further steps could properly be taken to obtain the object in view.
We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your commands, have the honour to
Report-
That, according to the opinion that has now been obtained as to the law in force in Kedah, it is clearly impossible to deal with the surrender of fugitive labourers by way of Extradition Treaty. As such labourers have committed no offence against the law of Kedah their surrender is not a matter which can be dealt with by machinery which is applicable only to criminals.
The difficulty which this opinion as to the law of Kedah raises in the way of making a new regulation such as suggested, depends, in our opinion, rather on questions of policy than of law.
We do not think that the power to make regulations is so limited by Article 84 of the Order in Council that no act could be made a crime which is not a crime by the law of Kedah. If it is deemed necessary for the enforcement of any local law or custom in the case of British subjects that any infraction should be constituted a criminal offence, we think that such a regulation might be made, although the act in question would not be a criminal offence by the law of Kedah. In other words the regulation may, we think, provide machinery differing altogether from that of the local law for the purpose of carrying it out; and we think that there is power to make a regulation constituting a breach of a labour contract a criminal offence, if this be deemed necessary, in the case of British subjects, for the proper enforcement of the obligations imposed by, the local law upon the labourer under such a contract.
We further think that the operation of the Fugitive Offenders Act, Part II. is not confined to the case of acts which are crimes by the local law, as well as by the laws in force in the British courts in the country.
Where Her Majesty has jurisdiction in foreign parts the Act may be applied, and a person subject to the jurisdiction of the British court there may be dealt with under the Act if he has committed a crime according to the law of the British court.
O 95386.-4.
25.-2/97.
• No. 115.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :-
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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