CO129-216 - Governor Sir Bowen - 1884 [5-6] — Page 134

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3.

In explanation of the

above minute of Council and of General Sargent's Memorandum attached to it, I would observe, that

and

at first, an

on a

prima facie view

of the ease, the Excentive Council

were inclined to advise compliance with the demand for extradition. But it

LUZJ

of course, our duty before taking final and irrevocable action in a matter of such grave international importance and in which the lives

eleven men overe at stake, to

to give

Your

full attention to the counter-

statements

Sw

statements and evidence adduced in

favour of the prisoners, and to the alligation's advanced by Bishop i Raimendi and others that this was

a case

of a quarrel between two

rival Chinese clans or

factions, and that it should be regarded us of a

a criminal.

political rather than

of a nature. The motives and proceedings

of myself and of the Executive Council are fully stated in my..~

despatch 1: 358 of 1883, to which I 1978 beg leave to refer, and which should be read together with the present-

despatek

=