2
agreements which are to be entered into with the rulers of the States will constitute in each case a submission to Imperial jurisdiction sufficient to enable the applica- tion of the Act to be made. In this view of the situation the supplementary local legislation in each State will only be necessary for two purposes:
(1) Formally to adopt the Imperial Act, so that everything done under it within the jurisdiction of the State should be done under cover of the State's own statute law; .
(2) By way of machinery to translate expressions in the Imperial Act into the necessary equivalents for the purpose of local application:
6. It appears to Mr. Harcourt that if the assumption upon which the above procedure is based and the local Enactment in the form in which it was submitted for your consideration are not correct, there must be considerable doubt whether the procedure advised in the report of your predecessors to which reference has been made can legally be carried out at all. Mr. Harcourt would be glad if
you would
take the above observations into consideration, and consider whether you cannot, in the light of what has been stated, accept, as legally sufficient, the draft Enactment in the simplified form in which it was submitted to you in the letter of the 25th March, 1914.
I am, &c..
H. J. READ.
for the Under-Secretary of State.
408.
REPORT.
The criticism which we ventured to make in our report of the 15th July last* was directed to the form of the draft Enactment. If, however, it is thought satis- factory to legislate in this form, it is quite possible to do so in such a way as to make the Enactment legally sufficient. We think, however, that in any case the Enact- ment should contain an express statement that the Imperial Act is applied to the Federated Malay States, and that this should not be left to be inferred from the somewhat curious phraseology to which we previously called attention. We sug- gest, therefore, that in Section 2 of the draft Enactment some words should be added after the definition of " the Imperial Act." The following paragraph will indicate the general sense of our suggestion, but, of course, the precise language to be employed is a matter to be determined by those responsible for drafting the Enact -
ment :-
The Imperial Act means the Act passed in the 44th and 45th years of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, Chapter 69, shortly cited as 'The Fugitive Offenders Act, 1881,' as amended by (here insert reference to the Imperial Act amending Section 36 of the principal Act), and, save where a contrary intention appears in this Enactment, the Imperial Act shall apply in all respects to the Federated Malay States as if expressly enacted by the Rulers thereof, and shall be deemed to come into force in the Federated Malay States upon the same date as this Enactment. When used in refer- ence to the Federated Malay States' the Imperial Act' means that Act as so applied, to such States.
Then the red ink amendment from “ and when used "to" Malay States "should be omitted.
With this modification the draft Enactment appears to be capable of being construed in the sense desired, though we still entertain the views which we previ- ously expressed as to the anomalous form of such an Enactment, and are not aware that anything in the reports of our predecessors suggested it.
JOHN SIMON.
STANLEY O. BUCKMASTER.
• Law Officers' Opinions, Vol. VII, No. 175.
Law Officers' Department.
31st December, 1914.
سائسسالسا
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE - REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO