CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 548

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tracted in Hongkong or elsewhere, treaty or no treaty.

Thina, which pretends to be a civil sod clute, cannot

refuse him assistance

But as the fact of a Chinese having contracted

debts in longkong and afterwards absconded to China is

held by the Hongkong Courts to justify their exercise of

jurisdiction over that person and their right to condemn

him unheard, by default, the real meaning of the term

does, in the matter under consideration, become of con-

siderable importance.

My predecessors have, generally speaking, always

held that a Chinese who has done business in Hongkong and

Canton at the same time, and, although he may have left

the Colony, continues to openly carry on his business in

Canton, is not, properly speaking, an absconding debtor

within the meaning of the Treaty; and again, that Chinese

merchants, resident in Canton, partners in a firm or firms

doing business both in Hongkong and Canton, while undoubt-

edly responsible, uro rata, for the debts of their

Hongkong