CO885-(10-11) — Page 858

13375.

No. 678.

(SIERRA LEONE.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

MY LORD,

Temple, December 14, 1870. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Otway's letter of the 9th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a letter from the Colonial Office, enclosing the draft of a Bill as amended by us extending British jurisdiction to crimes and offences committed in the neighbourhood of the several British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa (not being British territory) against British subjects or against persons domiciled within any of those settlements.

That it seems to have been the intention of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to limit the operation of this Bill to crimes and offences committed by persons not subjects of any civilised Power, and Mr. Otway was pleased to request that we would be good enough to inform your Lordship of our reasons for omitting this restriction, as it would appear that the alteration would involve the trial and punishment by a British court of a subject or citizen of any foreign State domiciled in the place where there is no civilized government.

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

Report

That the ground on which the proposed extension of British jurisdiction rests is that of necessity, the necessity of protecting life and property in districts where there is no law, and where offenders could not be tried and punished at all, unless tried and punished by British courts. This necessity appeared to us to extend to the punish- ment of civilised as well as uncivilised criminals, and we thought that the object of extending our jurisdiction would be in a great degree defeated if it became known that a civilised man was permitted to do with impunity that which was punished as a crime in a savage.

We further considered the inconvenience which would arise if it were an available plea on the part of a criminal that he was a citizen of a civilised State, a plea which would lead the courts into inquiries as to what countries are civilised and what are not, and into questions, often very embarrassing, of citizenship and domicile. On the whole it seemed to us hardly worth while to extend our jurisdiction over certain territories, unless that jurisdiction comprised all persons within them; we feel, however, that this is mainly a question of policy to be determined by Her Majesty's Government.

We have, &c. (Signed)

R. P. COLLIER. J. D. COLERIDGE.

TRAVERS TWISS.

Earl Granville.

&c.

&c.

0 16978.-141.

95.-5/86.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TIFIC.O. 885

11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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