CO129-302 - Public Offices - 1900 — Page 702

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authority and only asked for a short term to make

the delivery.

This term having passed and yet

al-

another, and the Colonial authorities having declared

their inability to do anything in the matter,

though the Consulate of Hong Kong had remained

expressly in the jurisdiction of the Consulate

General of Yokohama, the Ministry thought it

necessary to send a cable message to the Peruvian

Legation in London for it to request the Foreign

Office to communicate by cable to the Governor of

the Colony the cancellation of Smith's warrant.

In the meanwhile Mr. Mesa had instituted a

suit against the ex Consul to obtain the delivery

of the archives and property of the Consulate, as

also of the funds retained by Smith, without any

assistance from the Colonial authorities in placing

at the disposal of our Consular representative the

necessary means to compel Smith to deliver the

same.

The suit was not finished on the date of the

last despatch received from the Consul General at

As Consular archives are inviolable and cannot

be matter of legal procedure and again as Smith is

an official expressly stationed under the orders of

Mesa, this Ministry thinks that a simple magisterial

order should be enough to oblige him to obey the

orders of his superior.

In virtue of this, it is desired that the

British Government should impart clear instructions

to the authorities at Hong Kong to give to Mr. Mesa

the Consular representative of Peru the assistance

of the public forces so as to enable him to recover

the Consular archives and all that Smith unduly

retains, without the necessity of the intervention

of the Courts of Justice.

Yokohama.

As