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12178.

PUBLIC RECORD

OFFICE

C.O. 885

Reference :-

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

MY LORD,

No. 874.

(STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

We are honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Herbert's

Temple, November 17, 1873. letter of the 10th instant, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a copy of a letter and enclosure from the War Office, relative to the refusal of the Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements to issue an order for the intermediate custody of a soldier sentenced by court martial to penal servitude.

That looking to the tenour of the 418th section of the Colonial Regulations, your Lordship was of opinion that Chief Justice Sidgreaves was justified in hesitating to sign an order which recited that directions had been given by the Secretary of State, the fact being that no such directions had been given.

That your Lordship in those circumstances proposed to give directions in a general form in a circular to be communicated to all judges, and to alter the form in the Colonial Regulations, with a view of meeting the case,

That as the form in the regulations was settled by the Law Officers of the Crown, he (Mr. Herbert) was to transmit to us for consideration a copy of the proposed directions and alterations in the form, and he (Mr. Herbert) was to request us to inform your Lordship whether, in our opinion, they were sufficient for the purpose for which it was proposed they should be issued.

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

Report

That there seems to us to be serious objections to the directions proposed to be issued by the Secretary of State, and to the recital proposed to be introduced into the order to be made by the Colonial Judge.

The 19th section of the Mutiny Act appears to intend that the place at least of permanent custody is to be appointed by the Governor of the Colony in obedience to directions to be received from the Secretary of State. This is, mutatis mutandis, the course pointed out by the Acts regulating the custody of such prisoners at home, 5 Geo. IV. c. 84, 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3.

It would, as it seems to us, be contrary both to the analogy of the home regulations and to the policy of the 19th section of the Mutiny Act, that the judge should appoint the place of intermediate custody.

Farther, the difficulty felt by Chief Justice Sidgreaves that no intimation had been given him of a fit place for intermediate custody would not be removed or cleared up by the direction proposed now to be issued.

We suggest to your Lordship that the direction should be given by the Secretary of State to the Governors of the Colonies to appoint places for the intermediate custody of offenders of this description, and the Governors would then intimate to the judges what places they, the Governors, had appointed.

There would then be no occasion to alter the substance of the recital in the judge's order, but it might be slightly amended in order to suit the directions of the Secretary of State.

The Right Hon. the Earl Kimberley,

&c.

&c.

&c.

We have, &c.

(Signed)

J. D. COLERIDGE. HENRY JAMES.

U 14978.855.

25.--5/86,

J