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referred to in paragraph 3). The Jury then returned and
after hearing the defence and a summing up by the trial judge,
(a certified copy of which was enclosed with the Governor's
despatch referred to in paragraph 3) found the appellant
guilty. The appellant was sentenced to death (see the trial
judge's notes ubi sup.) on the 24th August, 1937.
10. On the 31st August, 1937, the appellant gave notice of
Appeal to the Full Court of Hong Kong "against his conviction
on a question of law, namely that the Court which tried him
had no jurisdiction".
11.
A Solicitor and two Counsel were assigned to the
appellant, and the Appeal was heard on the 14th and 15th of
September, 1937, by a Full Court composed of three judges.
The arguments submitted to the Full Court sufficiently appear
from the record, and the Law Officers of the Crown in Hong Kong
have nothing to add. (See the notes of the arguments recorded
by MacGregor, C.J. and Lindsell and Alabaster, J.J., certified
copies of which are amongst the documents forwarded to Messrs.
Reid Sharman and Co., referred to in paragraph 3).
The gist of the Crown's argument was, that whilst
admittedly the Customs cruiser "Cheong Keng" was a public
vessel of the Republic of China, indistinguishable in status
from a man of war, and so enjoying an immunity from local
jurisdiction exactly similar to that enjoyed by a foreign
Sovereign, yet such immunity had been waived by the action of
the Officer of charge of the vessel, after the death of the
Captain, in running into Hong Kong and surrendering the
appellant to the Hong Kong Police; the effected of the waiver
being to remove any obstacles to the exercise of its Sorvereign
rights by the Government of Hong Kong within its territorial
jurisdiction.
effected
The Crown further submitted that such waiver,
once made, could not subsequently be repudiated, and
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.