CO129-390 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1912 [5-6] — Page 8

Y.

Enclosure 2.

C. O.

Hon. Colonial Secretary,

There was only one copy.co₤7 te ulignent of the

full court typewritten and that was sent to the Printers who have

not been able to get it printed before today. I attach two prints

but more can be obtained if you require them. The judgment is of

extreme importance and should I think be submitted to His

Majesty's Secretary of State. The grounds for Sotto's discharge are shortly stated in the headnote to the print which was written

by Sir Francis Piggott (in his capacity of Editor of the Hong- -kong Law Reports) who was the Chief Justice in the case.

With regard to the first ground that the

order in Council was not proved in the proceedings before the

Magistrate I will merely observe that (as my name appears in the

print) I was not retained for the Crown and had nothing to do

with the conduct of the case until after the Magistrate had com-

-mitted the prisoner.

The second ground also a technical one was

the imperfect authentication of the papers by the Authorities in

Manila. The full court has laid it down very clearly what the

requirements of our law are and as you will doubtless send them a copy of the judgment, through the Consul-General, it is not like-

-ly that any future fugitive will be able to escape on this

ground.

I now come to the third ground which involves

a question of law and another of fact on both of which it would

seeu desirable to consult the Secretary of State. By Section

17 (1) of the Extradition Act 1870 the requisition for the

surrender of a fugitive criminal who is suspected of being in a

British Possession may be made to the Governor of that British

Possession by any person recognised by that Governor as a Consul-

-General, Consul, or Vice-Consul, or (if the fugitive criminal

has escaped from a Colony or dependency of the foreign state on

behalf of which the requisition is made) as the Governor of such

Colony or dependency.

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