CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 208

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I considered that, as the death had occurred on

board a British ship in alleged suspicious circumstancos,

presumably in hinese territorial waters, it was my duty

to hold an enquiry. As the Portuguese matchman Noronha, an

employs on the articles of the ship, voluntarily surrendered

himself as being the person accused of having caused the

passmeer'e death, I endeavoured to find out if there wore

sufficient grounds for charging hin with a criminal

offence in connection with the man's death. I came to the

conclusion that there were not.

Pad it been otherwise I should have communicated the

charme against the accused to his own Consul, in this Cube

the Consul-General for Portugal, with the request that he

would exercise jurisdiction. I acted on the principle that

the charge being of a criminal nature, such as manslaughter,

and not one, such as insubordination, affecting the dia-

cipling of the ship, it would, under ordinary circumstezicus,

be dealt with by the officials of the country in whose

territory the case occurred

in this instance China.

But foreimers in bina being exempt from Thinese juris-

diction, owing to extra-territoriality, a case of this

kind