CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 545

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My predecessor, Mr. R.V. Mansfield, in the des-

patch referred to by Sir Frederick Lugard (To Peking No.

49, Gener:l Series, of October 12th. 1906) wrote "It

appears highly desirable that the co-operation of the

Chinese Government should be invoked to enable the Official

548

'

Receiver in Hongkong to recover any assete in China

belonging to an absconding bankrupt.

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to me that it might be possible to draft some arrangement

between the Hongkong Government and the Viceroy by which

certain mutual facilities in the matter of bankruptcies

might be granted. It would involve probably the creation

of a Bankruptcy Court in Canton as a department of the

Magistracy".

Hr. Mansfield's proposal, theoretically an ox-

callmt one, fairly bristles with difficulties when closely

considered from a practical point of view.

In the first place, it would appear that the

Official Receiver in Hongkong, who derives his powers

from the Board of Trade under the Bankruptcy Acts, has no

jurisdiction,