Miscellaneous. No. 21.
Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.
CONFIDENTIAL.
Apprehension of Offenders.
TUTT
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :-
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
THIS Bill has two objects. The first is to cure & defect in the Act 6 & 7 Vict., c. 34, for the apprehension of offenders. That Act enables a Magistrate in a Colony or in Great Britain to commit an offender to prisou, there to remain until he can be sent back to the place where his offence was committed. But in the case of an offence committed upon the high seas, it is evident that this power is useless.
In the case of the "Satsuma" mutineers which lately occurred, one of the mutineers was found in Melbourne, one in Shanghae, who was sent to Hong Kong, and one was caught in England. The last has been put on his trial, but the Colonial Office is advised that the other two cannot be sent home for trial, as they might have been if the crime had been committed, for example, in the Thames; but that, being within the jurisdiction of Courts competent to try them, the witnesses must be sent out to them, which practically enables them to get off free. As this difficulty arises from a ship not being a place within Her Majesty's dominions, to which the offender can be sent for trial, I propose to allow
the Secretary of State to select the place most con- venient for trying such offenders, and to enable them to be sent for trial to such place.
The second object of the Bill is to enable offenders escaping from one part of Her Majesty's dominions to another to be arrested, by telegram, and sent home for trial. This would be convenient but not absolutely necessary, as offenders may be arrested now by a constable upon receipt of a tele- gram, but the arrest in such case is only on suspicion, and the prisoner must be detained until a warrant, accompanied by depositions, comes out for his apprehension. But if a prisoner may be committed in a Colony to take his trial at home upon the
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receipt of authenticated copies of the depositions, as is the case now, I do not see why the depositions should not be authenticated by being transmitted to the Governor by telegraph, accompanied by a despatch in some cypher to be selected for the purpose, which would be as good an authentication as that now in use. It would be necessary to tele- graph out the depositions, as the Magistrate could not commit upon the warrant alone, but must have something in the nature of evidence to go upon.
Care should be taken that this Act does not weaken the power of a constable to arrest upon the "reasonable suspicion " raised by receipt of a tele- gram in the ordinary way, and if the Government draughtsman thinks proper, words might be inserted to guard against this.
November 21, 1874.
'W. R. M.