CO129-363 - Public Offices & Others - 1909 — Page 141

I may state shortly that our power to deport de-

ordered

pends upon the inability or neglect of a person,

to find security for his future good behaviour, to obey

such order. It is obviously inexpedient to strain the

terms of the Order in Council by fixing a prohibitive

in

security, and I have come to the conclusion that if,

addition to its present powers, the Court is given power

to deport at the expiration of sentences of over six

months all that is necessary will be provided.

As however in most cases of imprisonment for serious

offences the prisoner will at the expiration of his

sentence be in Hongkong, it would seem desirable that

he should be deported direct from Hongkong and not re-

turned here in order to be restarted on his journey

from Shanghai.

Incidentally considerable expense would

be saved. Power would however have to be given to the

Colonial Government to do the acts necessary for the

deportation to be carried out from Hongkong.

Section 2

of the proposed Article deals with the case, and I am

now submitting the draft to Your Excellency hoping that

you may see your way to assist us in the manner I have

indicated.

Section (1) gives power to the Court to deport.

Section (2) is that touching Hongkong.

hands.

In subsection

(a) I have followed the now repealed Article 84 of the

China and Corea Order in Council 1904 in placing the

signature of the necessary warrant in Your Excellency's

My warrant will be proof of the order of deport-

ation having been passed by the Court, but a further

warrant will be necessary for his removal from Hongkong.

It may not be possible at the time of passing sentence

to discover to what part of the King's dominions the

prisoner belongs, so I have made provision for this

being supplied later. Subsections (b) (c) and (a)

speak for themselves.

They are taken substantially

from Articles 83 and 124 of the China and Corea Order

in Council, 1904. I am not sure that subsection (a)

is sufficient without Colonial legislation, but doubt-

less the Attorney General will be able to advise on

this point. With us the officer who fixes the

"reasonable remuneration" is the Judge, but you may

prefer that this should be done by some one else, e.g.

the Chief Magistrate of Police. Of course these pro-

posals

SC.

Tune

Section