CO129-305 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [5-7] — Page 202

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Consul-General in which he states that as a general rule all

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prisoners are tortured.

}

On 8th. November, the Consul-General re-

ferred to a Despatch from the Viceroy requesting the extradi-

tion of one Liao Yu, who was charged by the Chinese Authori-

ties with being a notorious robber and rebel. I replied en-

quiring whether in the event of his extradition an Official

delegated by the Consul-General would be permitted to attend

at the trial. To that enquiry the Consul-General replied de-

clining to approach the Viceroy on the subject.

A correspondence ensued, as I declined to

hand over any man from the protection of the Britisk Flag to

such tortures as are indicated by the following passage from

the letter of the Consul-General of the 11th. December, 1900.

"The forms of torture legalised in

Chinese Courts are so barbarous, so cruel, and so futile that

if their abolition could be secured in the way suggested it

ought to be worth while to make the attempt.'

With this letter were enclosed copies of

Foreign Office Despatches of November 2nd., 1882, and Septem--

ber 6th., 1882.

In the meantime two other men were arrest-

ed here on a charge of piracy for whose extradition demands

were made, but I maintained the attitude assumed in the cor-

respondence quoted above.

In November, 1900, another case occurred

which emphasised the danger of the mode of extraction of con-

fession by torture and the utter unreliability of evidence so

extracted.

In