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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PELLIC.O. 885

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

No. 512.

(ST. CHRISTOPHER.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

MY LORD,

Temple, June 9, 1868. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 15th ultimo, stating that he was directed to transmit to us a letter from the Colonial Office, enclosing copies of a correspondence received from the Governor-in- Chief of the Leeward Islands, respecting a question which had arisen between the Lieu- tenant-Governor of St. Kitts and the Governor of Guadeloupe, in regard to the extra- dition of Albert Gumba, accused of having committed larceny and forgery in St. Kitts, but whom the Governor of Guadeloupe declines to surrender unless it can be proved by the parties applying for the extradition that Gumbs is not a French subject, the Governor maintaining that under the Extradition Treaty between this country and France neither France nor England can be required to surrender their own subjects, and Mr. Hammond was pleased to request that we would furnish your Lordship with our opinion upon the case, and as to the answer which should be returned to the Colonial Office.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to

Report

That assuming Albert Gumbs to be, as he is alleged by the Governor of Guadeloupe to be, a Frenchman, we think that upon the true and fair interpretation of the treaty he ought to be delivered up, more especially if it be true that by the laws of Guade loupe the culprit cannot be punished there, a statement, however, we are disposed to think may not be accurate, at all events, if French law generally prevails in Guadeloupe.

It has never, we believe, been decided in that country that where a crime (within an Extradition Treaty) is committed here, and the offender flies to his own country, and is there punishable for the offence, that the treaty applies, and France has already con- tended that the treaty does not require her to give up her own subjects, and in the case of the Baron de Vidal in 1861 refused extradition to this country.

We think that when a crime within the treaty has been committed by a person resi- dent in the country demanding his extradition he should be considered prima facie the subject of the country so demanding him, and that (assuming that his nationality can be set up as a ground for refusing his extradition) such nationality should be established by the country insisting upon it as a ground for so refusing extradition.

Probably your Lordship will think that the question now raised, if Gumbs is proved to be a French subject, should be discussed by the Home Government with the French Government, and that in the meantime, if his extradition be still refused on the ground that he is a French subject, the Lieutenant-Governor of St. Kitts should be instructed not to press his demand until he receives further instructions from the Home Govern-

We have, &c.

ment.

The Right Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P.

(Signed)

J. B. KARSLAKE. WM. BALIOL BRETT. TRAVERS TWISS.

α 14276,-298. 25-5/84.

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