CO129-333 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [1-4] — Page 267

5

COPY.

C. O.

10287

Enclosure 2.

REC?

(REG: 24 MAR 06

Governor's Minute.

264

Hon. Colonial Secretary,

Obviously no proceedings are possible in the

Hongkong Courts.

The question is whether the Company which

runs the newspaper should be registered in this Colony.

It seems to me to be an abuse of exterritori-

-ality that a murder-advocating paper rua by Chinese in China

should receive British protection by registration in a British Colony of the Company that nominally owns it.

Nearly all the shares (75 out of 81) stand

in the name of 1 man an insurance agent living in Bankow who

is presumably a British subject. According to the Consul-General

at bankow the shareholders are really Americans and Chinese

Bostly the latter.

Please ask the Attorney-General whether the

fact of the Hongkong registration of the Company protects its

employés in China from being dealt with by the Chinese Courts and

if so how can that protection be taken from them.

(sd.) M. Nathan.

27th. August, 1905.