Enclosure to to im Governor in Richard G. June Donnell's Deiß: No 857 of 24
1870.
January
THE CHINA MAIL.
HONGKONG, SATUrday, Jan. 22, 1870.
MEMORIAL OF THE HONGKONG COMMUNITY.
To the Right Honorable
THE EARL OF Clarendon, K.G.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs. The Humble Memorial of the Inhabitants of the Colony of Hongkong,
SHEWETH;
Introductory.---1. That on the 3rd day of January instant, at a Public Meeting of this Community, called to take into consideration the convention for the revision of the Treaty of Tientsin recently signed by Sir Rutherford Alcock, Her Majesty's Minister to China, it was unanimously resolved that measures should be taken to remonstrate against the ratification of the convention by Her most Gracious Majesty, in so far as certain articles thereof, more peculiarly affecting the welfare and prosperity of this Colony and its Community, are concerned.
2. Your Memorialists now, in pursuance of such resolution, beg to state the reasons which appear to them to render it not only inexpedient, but highly injudicious, that the Convention shall be ratified, so far as regards those clauses which they believe to be injurious in their tendency or effect to the prosperity of the Colony and its trade, and almost certain materially to diminish the Revenue now accruing to the Crown from the Colony and they trust that Your Lordship will take them into your serious consideration, before advising Her Majesty to ratify any provisions which this Community unanimously consider as most prejudicial, not only to their own interests, but to the larger interests involved in placing the relations between Great Britain and China upon a satisfactory footing.
Special Interests of Memorialists, -3: Your Memorialists, while craving Your Lordship's best consideration of the despatch addressed to you by the Chamber of Commerce of this Colony, would point out that, as Colonists, they represent interests which, though in the main identified with those represented by the Chamber of Commerce, sometimes cease to be perfectly identical with the latter, and which are, by some of the clauses of the convention, more particularly affected than is the trade with China as a whole; and Your Memorialists believe that it is quite possible not only to maintain and preserve existing rights affecting trade, but also to extend and develop general commercial interests in China, without sacrificing or prejudicing this Colony in order to attain those ends.
Clauses of Convention commented on. --~1. The clauses of the Convention which, in the opinion of Your Memorialists, more immediately concern and affect their interests, are the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th,
5. Of these by far the most important is the 2nd clause, under which the Chinese Government will claim to place a Consul at Hongkong; and Your Memorialists propose to state, firstly, why they conceive the Government of China have no shadow of reason to claim such a concession, and, secondly, why it is that the granting of such a privilege will be injurious to their interests; and in this connection they would respectfully urge that, if they can satisfy Your Lordship that the right of the Chinese Government to such a concession is untenable, or even doubtful, Your Lordship will be bound to give great weight to the deliberate conviction of a whole Community, as to the doing so being fraught with great peril to the only interests at stake,-their own.
International Usage as regards appointment of Consuls-6. Your Memorialists would first ask Your Lordship to consider the question of the usage, for it is usage and not a right, with regard to one Power allowing another Power with which it is in amity to place Consuls in its Ports.
This privilege of placing Consuls, or "National Agents," at places in the territory of another nation, is accorded to all Nations who recognize and act upon the principles of Public Law, and are in unrestricted commercial communion and intercourse with each other, and who grant the same or reciprocal privileges. By unrestricted it is not meant that the trade is not subjected to certain imposts, or restrictions, of a purely fiscal or protective character, or to limitations as to "contraband" traffic, but that the right to go into and travel through a country, and to reside anywhere in its territory is never prohibited, and where the capital, products, and manufactures of another country are allowed (subject to revenue or protective imposts or restrictions) free ingress and transit to every mart in its dominions. This general rule applies not only to all Christian and Civilized Countries, but also to other nations where, for divers reasons, it has been thought right to insist upon a preservation to Great Britain of ex-territorial jurisdiction over its subjects resident or commorant within the dominions of the other Power, as for example, Turkey and other Countries bordering on the Mediterranean. If this then be, as Your Memorialists believe, the rule and the reason for granting this privilege, it is necessary to see whether China complies with the requirements exacted from every other Power with whom Great Britain is in Treaty, before Exequatur is granted to its Consuls; and if she does not, is there any reason why she should be made an exception?
Earl Clarendon's Opinion to Sir George Bonham.7. On this head Your Memorialists would refer to the admirable exposition of the status of China as a nation, appearing in Your Lordship's despatch of 24th June 1863 to Sir George Bonham (covering H M's. Order in Council of 13th June 1863), p. 3. "In ordinary cases of British Subjects resorting to a foreign country, their persons and property are entrusted to the protection of the Laws and Institutions of the country to which they resort, in the full assurance that those Laws will be duly administered, and that the Institutions of such country, although they may differ from those of England, are substantially in harmony with the general principles of jurisprudence recognized amongst Christian Communities. But the case is different as regards China; and there the British Crown has found it necessary to require that British Subjects shall be entirely exempted from the jurisdiction of the local Tribunals ;"--a description that all residents in China feel to be singularly expressive of the position of this Nation, and which has frequently been affirmed by successive Ministers in China, including Sir R. Alcock.
Opinion of Law Officers of the Crown. --8. Your Memorialists would also refer Your Lordship to an opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, given upon a question as to certain seizures for breach of the blockade of the Canton River during the War of 1856-57, involving a right of the highest and gravest kind known to Public Law, or required by the comity of nations, viz: The right to have such seizures adjudicated upon by a duly-constituted Prize Tribunal and a formal condemnation as lawful Prize, before the property in vessels and their cargoes can be divested out of the original owners.
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Enclosure to to im Governor in Richard G. June Donnell's Deiß: No 857 of 24
1870.
January
THE CHINA MAIL.
HONGKONG, SATUrday, Jan. 22, 1870.
MEMORIAL OF THE HONGKONG COMMUNITY.
To the Right Honorable
THE EARL OF Clarendon, K.G.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary
of State for Foreign Affairs. The Humble Memorial of the Inhabitants of the Colony of Hongkong,
SHEWETH;
Introductory.---1. That on the 3rd day of January instant, at a Public Meeting of this Community, called to take into consi- deration the convention for the revision of the Treaty of Tientsin recently signed by Sir Rutherford Alcock, Her Majesty's Mi- nister to China, it was unanimously re- solved that measures should be taken to remonstrate against the ratification of the convention by Her most Gracious Majesty, in so far as certain articles thereof, more peculiarly affecting the welfare and prospe rity of this Colony and its Community, are concerned.
2. Your Memorialists now, in pursuance of such resolution, beg to state the reasonK which appear to them to render it not only inexpedient, but highly injudicions, that the Convention shall be ratified, so far as regards those clauses which they believe to be injuri ous in their tendency or effect to the pro- sperity of the Colony and its trade, and almost certain materially to diminish the Revenue now accruing to the Crown from the Colony and they trust that Your Lordship will take them into your serions consideration, before advising Her Majesty to ratify any provisions which this Com- munity unanimously consider as must prejudicial, not only to their own interests, but to the larger interests involved in placing the relations between Great Britain and China upoo a satisfactory footing.
Special Interests of Memorialists, -3: Your Memorialists, while craving Your Lordship's best consideration of the despatch addressed to you by the Chamber of Commerce of this Colony, would point out that, as Colonists, they represent interests which, though in the main identified with those represented by the Chamber of Commerce, sometimes cease to be perfectly identical with the latter, and which are, by some of the clauses of the convention, more parti- cularly affected than is the trade with China as a whole; and Your Memorialists believe that it is quite possible not only to maintain and preserve existing rights affect ing trade, but also to extend and develop general commercial interests in China, with- out sacrificing or prejudicing this Colony in order to attain those ends.
Clauses of Convention commented on. --~1. The clauses of the Convention which, in the opinion of Your Memorialists, more imme diately concern and affect their interests, are the 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th,
5. Of these by far the most important is the 2nd clause, under which the Chinese Government will claim to place a Consul at Hongkong; and Your Memorialists propose to state, firstly, why they conceive the Government of China have no shadow of reason to claim auch a concession, and, secondly, why it is that the granting of such a privilege will be injurious to their interests; and in this connection they would respectfully urge that, if they can satisfy Your Lordship that the right of the Chinese Government to such a concession is unten- able, or even doubtful, Your Lordship will be bound to give great weight to the delibe- rate conviction of a whole Community, as to the doing so being fraught with great peril to the only interests at stake,-their
own.
International Usage as regards appoint- ment of Consuls-6. Your Memorialists would first ask Your Lordship to consider the question of the usage, for it is usage and not a right, with regard to one Power allowing another Power with which it is in amity to place Consuls in its Ports.
Thie privilege of placing Consuls, or **National Agents," at places in the territory of an- other nation, is accorded to all Nations who recognize and act upon the principles of Public Law, and are in unrestricted dom- mercial communion and intercourse with each other, and who grant the same or re- ciprocal privileges. By unrestricted it is not meant that the trade is not subjected to certain imposts, or restrictions, of a purely fiscal or protective character, or to limitations as to "contraband" traffic, but that the right to go into and travel through a country, and to reside anywhere in its territory is never prohibited, and where the capital, products, and manufactures of an- other country are allowed (subject to re- venue or protective imposts or restrictions) free ingress and transit to every mart in its dominions. This general rule applies not only to all Christian and Civilized Coun- tries, but also to other nations where, for divers reasons, it has been thought right to insist upon a preservation to Great Britain of ex-territorial jurisdiction over its sub- jetta resident or commorant within the dominions of the other Power, as for ex- ample, Turkey and other Countries border- ing on the Mediterranean. If this then be, as Your Memorialists believe, the rule and the reason for granting this privilege, it is necessary to see whether China complies with the requirements exacted from every other Power with whom Great Britain is in Treaty, before Exequatur is granted to its Consuls; and if she does not, is there any reason why she should be made an excep tion?
Earl Clarendon's Opinion to Sir George Bonham.7. On this head Your Memori- alists would refer to the admirable exposition of the status of China as a nation, appearing in Your Lordship's despatch of 24th Juve 1803 to Sir George Bonham (covering H M's. Order in Council of 13th June 1863), p. 3. "In ordinary cases of British Subjects resorting to a foreign country, their persons and property are entrusted to the protection of the Laws and Institutions of the country to which they resort, iu the full assurance that those Laws will be duly administered, and that the Institutions of such country, although they may differ from those of Eng- land, are substantially in harmony with the general principles of jurisprudence recognized amongst Christian Communities. But the case is different as regards China; and there the British Crown has found it necessary to require that British Subjects shall be entirely exempted from the juris- diction of the local Tribunals ;"--a descrip- tion that all residents in China feel to be singularly expressive of the position of this Natiou, and which has frequently been affirmed by successive Ministers in China, including Sir R. Alcook.
Opinion of Law Officers of the Crown. --8. Your Memorialists would also refer Your Lordship to an opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown, given upon a question as to certain seizures for breach of the blockade of the Canton River during the War of 1856-57, involving a right of the highest and gravest kind known to Public Law, or re- quired by the comity of nations, via: The right to have such seizures adjudicated up- on by a duly-constitued Prize Tribunal and a formal condemnation as lawful Prize, be fore the property in vessels and their cargoes can be divested out of the original owners.
In 2.477/70
270
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