CO129-481 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [8-12] — Page 127

MINUTES.

MINUTES NOT TO BE WRITTEN

ON THIS SIDE.

NO CONFIDENTIAL,

7026235

309727

For 10774

HONGKONG.

47041

P 24 SEP 23

122

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

8th August, 1923.

My Lord Duke,

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt

of Your Grace's confidential despatches of the 6th and 26th

of June with regard to the remuneration to be paid to the

Chief Justice of Hongkong for sitting as a member of the

proposed Court of Appeal at Shanghai.

2.

I have referred Your Grace's despatches to

the Chief Justice who desires me to say that, mich as he

regreta to place any difficulty in the way of carrying out

the wishes of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,

he regards it as his duty, in the interests of his high office and of the Supreme Court of this Colony, to withhold his consent to the appointment of the Chief Justice of Hongkong to be a member of the proposed Court except on the footing of absolute equality stipulated for in my despatch

of 24th January,

3.

Sir W. Rees-Davies desires me to make it

clear to Your Grace that the question is not one of money. If a proposal for reciprocal appointment of the Chief Justice of Hongkong and the Chief Judge at Shanghai to the Appeal Courts of either place were being made de novo he would gladly have accepted an arrangement under which only out-of-pocket expenses would have been paid to either officer.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G.,

&c..

&c.

In