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in the ordinance, I venture to outline as follows the argum- ent by which it should be possible to convince the magistrate that the present Canton authorities are the officers of that government for the purposes of the ordinance. The ordinance was passed in the days of the Empire, but since then a completely different, republican form of government has been introduced in China and recognized by His Majesty's Government. Because of such recognition the republican administration was presumably accepted by the Hong Kong Courts as the Chinese Government for the purposes of the extradition ordinance, without any necessity for amendment of the Hong Kong law. The point I wish to make, so far, is that the only criterion which the Court has for deciding what is the Chinese Government is the attitude of His
Majesty's Government thereto. The nature and the extent of the recognition which one government may accord to another varies considerably, but no requirement in this connection is specified in the ordinance. At the present moment no authority in China is fully and formally recognized by His Majesty's Government as the government of the country, but the regional authorities throughout the land are undoubtedly recognized de facto as the officers of the Chinese Government for the purpose of carrying out the treaties, and this is demonstrated afresh each time one of His Majesty's Consuls addresses to them a protest against treaty infraction. far as the Canton authorities are concerned it can no longer be held that they are rebels against the government recogniz- ed by His Majesty's Government, because the nationalist authority, to which they owe allegiance, is equally recogniz- ed with the administration in Peking as the de facto Government of the area it controls and diplomatic conversations for treaty alteration have recently been.
So
conducted
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