CO129-032 - Sir Bonham - 1850 [1-4] — Page 165

2.

"

in Article IX that : If lawless natives

"China having

"

"

committed crimes ov

of

offeners

against their Government, shall

to

Hongkong

flee

or to the English ships of

- war or English merchant ships for refuge,

" they shall, if discovered by the English officers, be handed over at once to the Chinese Officers for trial and punishment; or if "before such discovery

be made by the English officers, it should be ascertained

or

suspected

" by the officers of the Government of China.

have

whither such Criminals and offenders fled, proper English Officer, in order that the

a communication shall be made to the

"

said- Criminals and

offenders may be rigidly

"searched for, seized, and, on proof or admission

of their quilt, delivered up ." No regular

system has however

as

1 yet been laid down

prescribing the mode in which this

engagement shall be carried out, and on

a recent occasion it

was

intimated to me

1

1.

I

161

Writ

that it was not impossible that a

Habeas Corpus might be applied for to

"the Supreme Court to liberate certain Pirates who had been brought to this Colony

and

whom having been applied for by the Chinese authorities, I intended to hand

over to them,

I in consequenced conenbted the

consulted the Legislative Council as to the best mode of proceeding

future

ing in

vases, so that the act of rondition:

on the part of the Executive Government-

might not : be

·

legal point

- questionable in a & from want of form, when it was

of view from

agreed

that it would be advisable to set the

question at rect by legal enactment .

"

3.

The Ordinance, which I now

transmit was in consequence-

consequence- drawn desir and passed; and as it appears to be analogous, as far as local circumstances and the differences in the Traties will

admit, with the Act. 8 and

cap. 120,

G

Victoria

I trust - Your Lordship will