CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 549

547

Dis

Hongkong partners, are not absconding debtors" or hunkrupts

and are not within the jurisdiction of the Hongkong Courts.

On the principle laid down in the Chefoo con-

vention to guide judicial proceedings in mixod cases in

Thina, numely that the case is tried by the official of

the defendant's nationality, actions against such persons

for debt or petitions in bankruptcy must be brought in the

(hinese Courts, not in the British Courts in Hongkong.

Again Mr. Mansfield speaks of "mutual facilities"

being granted in bankruptcy cases, a concession the Hong-

kong Government would of necessity have to make in return

for the Canton Government's co-operation. I am firmly

convinced that, until some radical changes are I made

in the personnel of the permanent staff of the Canton

Government, and the whole system of the administration of

justice in Canton undergoes a thorough reform, any such

arrangement would be a fruitful cause of trouble, and, in

a very short space of time, be found unworkable by the

Hongkong Government,

One can easily imagine some unscrupulous yamen

official