CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 98

میاید

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

со

23539

AFFAIRS OF CHINA.

RECR R18 J

CONFIDENTIAL.

[June 10.]

SECTION 1.

[11926]

No. 1.

Sir,

Foreign Office to Acting Consul Rose.

Foreign Office, June 10, 1911.

I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 1, Confidential, of the 25th February last, and to inform you that your able and comprehensive report on the events on the Burmah-China frontier during the open season 1910-11 has been read with interest.

Your proposal that a King's regulation should be issued, investing His Majesty's consul at Tengyueh with full criminal jurisdiction, including powers of life and death, such as is exercised by the deputy commissioners in the Kachin Hills, has been carefully considered. The Secretary of State is, however, advised that although the object to be attained is desirable, the means suggested by you are impracticable. Powers of life and death cannot be conferred upon a consul by King's regulations, which are meant for quite a different purpose (see article 155 of the China Order in Council). The powers of jurisdiction exerciseable by His Majesty in China are only exerciseable over British subjects and protected persons, and the jurisdiction now exerciseable by consuls under the China Order in Council could only be made to extend to cases of great gravity, involving the capital penalty, by amending that order. The jurisdiction in question is already possessed by the judges of the court for China, and, if it is necessary, a judge appointed for the purpose (see article 7 (2) ) could be sent to Tengyuch to try these cases.

To confer such powers on a particular consul would be contrary to the general scheme of the order in council, which reserves their exercise to trained barristers of judicial rank; and it would appear to be undesirable to amend the order in council in this sense in order to meet a particular case which could be dealt with, if necessary, in the way already mentioned.

I

am,

&c.

F. A. CAMPBELL.

[2062 k-1]

97