CO129-410 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [3-5] — Page 65

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there is. I submit that extradition treaties are framed on the

basis of peace, and that this must apply not only to the con-

tracting Powers, but to all other Powers interested in any given

case of surrender. While we do extend to the alien on our

shores the same protection which we afford to our own subjecta in virtue of what we call this "temporary allegiance", yet we do

also in many respecte acknowledge his national status, and I

submit that in this respect we ought to respect the rights which

that nation atatus gives him. Logically of course, we ought not

to surrender a Spaniard to France if in the treaty between Frsace

and Spain subjects are mutually not liable to surrender. Some

publicists, as Sir Edward Clarke, have contended for this; but

the treaties have been made, and to take the specific instance,

so long as other countries, such as Spain, whose subjects are

liable to surrender by England in such circumstances, have not

protested diplomatically, there is an end of the matter.

But I

am dealing with an entirely diffract gase, and one which lies

outside the language of the treaties: a case which is governed

by principle which overrides the treaty and treats it as non-

existent. I ask how it is possible in the case of a war between

France and Spain, for England to surrender a Spaniard to France

when the treaty between France and Spain is non-existent on

account of wart I submit that i is not possible, and this by

reason of another principle, which I believe to lie at the root

of extradition, that extradition treaties are also framed on the

basis of aquiiix equality of constitutional principle, that is

to say,

of equal treatment to the fugitive when surrendered,

should follow that if no surrender at all would be made from

England to France and vice versa, in the event of war between

England and France, so there should be no surrender of a Spaniard

from England to France in the eventof a war between France and

(4)

It.