CO129-379 - Governor Sir Lugard - 1911 [8-9] — Page 332

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9798.

and naturally gave rise to a misconception.

4.

Mr. Wei Han's second request was "that,

if a British subject was arrested in China for an offence

committed in Hongkong and was extradited, a Chinese Official

be allowed to attend the trial and sit on the Bench with the

Magistrate but have no part in the trial". As explained in the

second enclosure to my Despatch No. 204, this was an entire

misconception of what Mr. Wei Han really intended to ask. His

intention had been to request that in the case of prisoners

for whose extradition the Chinese Government apply, a repre-

-sentative of the Chinese Government might be allowed to have

a seat on the bench (instead of elsewhere in the Court) pro-

-vided he took no part whatever in the trial. It was merely a

question of dignity, and it was refused for the reasons given

in enclosure 2 above referred to.

5.

I will deal, however, with the request

as misunderstood by both Mr. C. Clementi and myself, and as

quoted above, and your comments upon it in Sir C. Lucas's

letter of 7th. June, 1911, to the Foreign Office and Sir

Edward Grey's reply in the antepenultimate paragraph of Mr.

Langley's letter to the Colonial Office of 16th. June, 1911.

I