CO129-287 - Public Offices & Others - 1898 — Page 314

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further empowered such officers to issue warrants

for their arrest upon complaint on oath, and upon

due proof of the desertion to order them to be con-

veyed on board their respective ships.

These provisions were repealed by the Imperial

Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, but substantially re-

enacted in Section 238 of that Act, and the Order

in Council made under the Act of 1852 was kept in

force by Section 745, Sub-section 18, of the Act of

1894.

The assistance Mica snould "be p ovided by low*

throughout. Her Majesty's

Dominions for Consuls of

the Foreign powers with whom Her Majesty has entered

into treaties on the subject is therefore that de-

fined in Section 238 of the Imperial Merchant Ship-

ping Act, 1894, and whatever additional or different

1rovisions may be deemed expedient by the Hongkong

authorities in the case of deserters from British

ships, their Ordinance should, so for as regards

foreign

foreign desertors, be brought into entire conformity

with section 238 of the imperial Act. Section 20

of the Hongkong Ordinance should therefore be amend-

ed in this sense.

It is clearly the intention of the Imperial Act

that if the aid of the judicial Officers is invoked

by a foreign Consul the judicial Officer is required

to aid the Consul in apprehending a deserter upon

ths responsibility of the Consul, and he may for that

purpose issue a warrant for the man's arrest, but

the further power to order aim to be taken back to

his snip is only to be exercised if the judicial of-

ficer is satisfied upon due proof, of the desertion".

(Intd.)

W.M.

31/7/98.