CO885-(11-13) — Page 29

11043.

No. 735.

(NEW SOUTH WALES.)

LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.

EXTRACT from the Report of the Law Officers on the case of the “Challenge.”

October 31, 1871.

We have the honour to

Report

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

गय muni muhimi C.O. 885

That it appears to us that Consul March did his duty, and no more than his duty, in seizing the "Challenge" and endeavouring to obtain her condemnation, and the punish- ment of her captain and officers for breaches of the law against glave trading, and that so far as he requires it he should be supported by Her Majesty's Government.

With regard to the conduct of the Earl of Belmore it was very difficult for him to disregard the clear and elaborate opinion given him by the Attorney General for the Colony. We think his determination is a matter to be regretted, but one which entails no blame upon the Governor himself who acted upon his Law Officers' advice. The Attorney General of the Colony thought that evidence of kidnapping natives and treating them as they were treated in this case, was no evidence of an intention to deal with them as slaves. Questions of intention are no doubt questions on which different minds may come to different conclusions, and we will say no more than that we should not have come to the same conclusion as the Attorney General for New South Wales. But this is not a matter for which the Earl of Belmore can be considered responsible.

With respect to the conduct of the officers of the "Blanche," it appears to us to have been in all respects worthy of approbation, and that it will be proper for Her Majesty's Government at all events to hold them harmless for any loss or expenses they may incur in case of an action being successfully prosecuted against them by the owners of the "Challenge" for doing what seems to us to have been their duty.

We venture to add that this with other cases on which your Lordship has done us the honour to consult us, seems to show the great importance of some interference on the part of the Legislature of this country to protect the victims of kidnapping captains, and to stop the growth of a slave trade in the Pacifio, carried on chiefly by British subjects, and in the supposed interests of British settlers.

We have, &c. (Signed)

R. P. COLLIER.

J. D. COLERIDGE. TRAVERS TWISS.

0 36278-410

25.-5/86.

11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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