CO129-205 - Public Offices - 1882 — Page 254

O

Gentlemen,

250

Foreign Office,

June 4, 1882.

I AM directed by Earl Granville to request that you will favour him with your opinion on the following point :-

By Article XXI of the Treaty of the 26th June between Great Britain and China,' commonly known as the Treaty of Tien-tsin, it is provided that-

"If criminals, subjects of China, shall take refuge in Hong Kong, or on board the British ships there, they shall, upon due requisition by the Chinese authorities, be searched for, and, on proof of their guilt, be delivered up.

"In like manner, if Chinese offenders take refuge in the houses or on board the vessels of British subjects at the open ports, they shall not be harboured or concealed, but shall be delivered up, on due requisition by the Chinese authorities addressed_to the British Consul."

NOTE. The construction of this Article came under the consideration of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the appeal case of the Attorney-General of Hong Kong Kwok-Asing (5 Law Rep., Priv. Co., 179).

The Extradition Clause above cited is carried out in Hong Kong under Ordinance No. 2 of 1850 and Ordinance No. 2 of 1871.

The first case which attracted public attention to the subject was that of the surrender by the Government of Hong Kong of a fugitive described as the Mo-Wong in 1865, the particulars of which will be found in the Parliamentary Papers sent herewith.

In consequence of the apprehensions entertained that fugitives surrendered to the Chinese authorities might be subjected to torture, it has been the practice of the Government of Hong Kong, in pursuance of instructions from the Secretary of State for the Colonics, to decline to surrender any fugitive under the Treaty unless a promise in writing be previously given by the Viceroy of Canton to Her Majesty's Consul there, that no torture should be applied.

This promise bas invariably been given; and until recently there appeared no reason to believe that it has not been faithfully observed. Rumours, however, have been lately circulated in the public press of Hong Kong to the effect that the promise was habitually disregarded; and in August 1880 Mr. Hewlett, Her Majesty's Consul at Canton, was called on for a Report on the subject, and especially with reference to the case of thirteen prisoners who had been surrendered during the previous year, and who were alleged to have been tortured.

You will perceive from Mr. Hewlett's Report, contained in his despatch No. 14 of the 29th April, 1881, that he entertains the conviction that, "in spite of the Viceroy's explicit promise to the contrary, torture in a horrible form was had recourse to in order to extort a confession from some of the thirteen criminals whom the Hong Kong Government had given up to the Canton authorities." In the meanwhile, a fresh demand had been made by the Viceroy to the Government of Hong Kong for the sur- render of thirteen other fugitives charged with murder, and Consul Hewlett informed

The Law Officers

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