CO129-410 - Governor Sir May - 1914 [3-5] — Page 69

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he would not be. And therefore, although the Act is silent

expediency would demand the discharge of the fugitive even were

there no such proposition as the one for which I am contending.

Indeed if the fugitive were known to be furthering his country'

projects in England nothing so easy as to issue a requisition,

get him arrested, and let the proceedings drag on pretence of

collecting evidence as long as possible. From all points of

view therefore I maintain that when the requesting State is at

war the extradition of subjects of its enemy from England is

impossible, England being at peace with both States.

I come now to internecine Strife, and shall not pause to

sonsider the application of thi■ principle to civil war, but

shall pass at once to apply it to rebellions: to internal commo-

tions which are not mereriots but which, while not having

attained to the rank of civil war, yet are sufficiently serious

to necessitate the declaration of martial law. What is martial

law? There is no more accurate definition than this:-

It is the suspension of the constitutional gurantees. It is a

subject mot too well known now to English lawyers, being often

by then confounded with military law, and necessary subservience

of the civilian to the hilitary in time of invasion. It is well

known on the continent; but there curiously enough under the

hame 'etat de siege, which indicates in the same way a control

by the military over the civilian population when a city is

Besieged by the enemy. But the term has a special apllication

in times of rebellion and is one of the means employed by the

Government for stamping it out, subjecting the whole population to military tribunals, specially created which take the place in whole or in part of the civil tribunals, and enforced some- thing which is not law, military or civil, and is often not

justice.

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