CO885-(13-15) — Page 495

7927.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

תחדז

Reference :-

PLLC.O.885

TIT

14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

;

SIR,

No. 137.

(BRITISH HONDURAS.)

LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Royal Courts of Justice, April 14, 1897. We were honoured with your commands, signified in Mr. Wingfield's letter of the 1st instant, stating that he was directed to submit for our report a question which had arisen as to the jurisdiction of the Courts of British Honduras to inquire into and try a charge of murder of a British subject committed on board a British ship lying at anchor in a bay called Brewers Lagoon, on the coast of Spanish Honduras.

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That the alleged murder took place on the 23rd January 1895, on board the British ship "Lizzie Susan" of Belize, a schooner of 23 tons; that the man who was killed was Charles Young, the master of the "Lizzie Susan a native of Belize, that the man who killed him was Ferdinand Eude who was stated to be a Frenchman engaged in business at Brewers Lagoon, and presumably residing at that place.

That Mr. Wingfield was to enclose copies of depositions, taken before a magistrate of Belize, of witnesses of the occurrence, and a printed statement of the case by the Superintendent of Police in British Honduras.

That Eude disappeared from Brewers Lagoon after the occurrence, and was subsequently discovered at Bluefields in Nicaragua, where he was arrested by the order of the Nicaraguan Government at the request of the British Minister to the Central American Republics, who had applied for his extradition to the Government of British Honduras.

That although there was no extradition treaty between Great Britain and Nicaragua, the Nicaraguan Government were prepared to extradite Eude, and the Governor of British Honduras sent the Superintendent of Police to Bluefields with the documents required by the Nicaraguan authorities, but that in consequence of the documents not having been produced in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, within the time required, Eude was released. That this occurred in May 1896.

That Her Majesty's Minister in Guatemala had recently reported that Eude had again been discovered in Rama City in Nicaragua, and that he had requested the President of that Republic to cause him to be detained until the police officers could be sent from British Honduras to take him over.

That the Governor of British Honduras had transmitted the copy of a report, (enclosed in Mr. Wingfield's letter) by the Colonial Attorney General expressing a doubt whether Brewers Lagoon was a place where an offence committed on board a British ship was within, Admiralty jurisdiction, together with a description of the Lagoon by Charles Morris, who had been in command of Belize schooners.

That apart from the question raised by the Colonial Attorney General it appeared to be questionable whether a foreigner who was not serving on board a British ship was liable in a Colonial Court for an offence committed on board that ship within the territorial jurisdiction of a foreign country, though in a place to which Admiralty jurisdiction extended, in the case of an offence committed on a British ship by a British subject, or by a foreigner serving on board the ship.

That Mr. Wingfield was to request that we would advise you, whether, upon the facts stated in his letter and in the accompanying papers, we were of opinion that if Ferdinand Eude were delivered up by the Nicaraguan Government to the officers of the Government of British Honduras, and brought by them to Belize the Magistrates and Courts of British Honduras, would have jurisdiction under the Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act, 1849 (12 & 13 Vict. c. 96), to enquire into and try the charge brought against him of the murder of Charles Young.

We have taken the matter into our consideration, and, in obedience to your commands, have the honour to

Report-

That we are of opinion that the Magistrates and Courts of British Honduras will have jurisdiction under the Admiralty Offences (Colonial) Act, 1849, to try Ferdinand Eude should he be surrendered to their officers. The only construction which can be

0 $5386.-14. 25.---4/97.

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put upon great ships in this connexion is, that it refers to ocean-going vessels. This the "Lizzie Susan," though a small schooner, was, and we do not think the character of the lagoon or waters in which she was was such as to oust the jurisdiction.

We have, &c.

The Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, M.P.,

&c.

&c.

&c.

RICHARD E. WEBSTER. ROBERT B. FINLAY.

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