CO129-305 - Governor Sir Blake - 1901 [5-7] — Page 221

COPY.

sir,

215

Foreign Office,

September 6th. 1892.

You are aware of the correspondence

which has passed between Her Majesty's Legation, Her Majesty'

Consul at Canton, and the Government of HongKong relative

to the case of certain Chinese fugitives from justice

whose extradition was demanded by the Viceroy of Canton,

under the 21st Article of the Treaty of Tientsin. These

men were detained for many months in prison owing to the

belief that notwithstanding the assurance of the Viceroy

to the contrary, torture would be resorted to both as a means of Extorting confession and in the execution of their

sentence.

The prisoners, however, were released

in December last by order of the Supreme Court off the Colony in consequence of some technical informalities in

the warrants under which they were detained.

A protest, of which I enclose a copy,

against the action of the Hong Kong Authorities in this

case has been addressed to me by the Chinese Minister,

and you will see that in my reply I allude to a formal guarantee given by the Prince of Kung to Sir R, Alcock in May 1866, that no torture would be used in the execution

of criminals surrendered by the HongKong Government, which guarantee appears to be unknown to the Viceroy of Canton.

I have to instruct you to inform Prince

Eung that the difficulty in complying with the application of the Chinese Government has arisen from the belief that this engagement has not been observed by the Provincial

and that it is believed that they are even

Authorities,

The Honourable,

T. G. Grosvenor. C., B.,

ignorant

&C.

&C.,

&c.,