CO129-261 - Public Offices & Others - 1893 — Page 61

450X12

ALL COMMUNICATIONS

TO BE ADDRESSED TO THE

CROWN AGENTS FOR THE COLONIES.

Sir,

att but

Lasterdspes

C. 0.

12293

20 JU 33

59

Copy

Hong Kong.

DOWNING STREET, LONDON.

21st July

189 3.

rade

C.F. 11.5. 1893.

I have the honour to enclose, for the information

of the Secretary of State, copies of a correspondence which

C.A. 16.5.1893. we have had with the Principal of the School of Practical C.P. 20.7.1893. Print of Pro- ceedings.

Engineering at the Crystal Palace in reference to the case

of Mr F.Southey, a Hong Kong Government Scholar who is

studying there, and who has been fined £5 at a Police Court

for an assault on a plain clothes Constable, a sentence

which on appeal has been affirmed.

I have seen Mr Southey several times about this

matter, and have arrived at the conclusion that the case in

the Police Court would probably have ended favourably to

him if he had employed a Solicitor, or applied for an ad-

journment to bring forward evidence in his favour, instead of electing to have it dealt with summarily by the Magis-

trate, and I gather from the letters of the Principal of the School of Practical Engineering that he has formed much

the same opinion.

In these circumstances I beg to suggest that the

merits of the case would be met by the Secretary of State's

authorizing us to continue the payment of Mr Southey's Scholarship after warning him as to the necessity of exercis- ing greater discretion in his proceedings in the future.

Mr Southey's

The Under Secretary of State.

&c

&c Be

Colonial Office.