CO129-613-6 Arrest of members of the Kwang Tung Provincial Peace Preservation Corps 10-1-1947 - 25-11-1947 — Page 18

that we ought to put our views in the matter. to the

Governor privately and ask him what action, if any,

was taken on this suggestion.

I would accordingly propose to write a

private letter to Sir Alexander Grantham, saying

that we should be interested to hear what decision

stating

was taken on the suggestion and then proceeding te

set out the objections which we see to it. The

first is the implication that the remission of

sentences for crimes committed in a British Colony having regard to is something that may be determined en grounds of

political expedieney In our view the remission

of sentences should be governed either by the general

principles of penal administration or on the inherent

merits of individual cases. It does not seem proper

to take into account in assessing the merits of

individual cases purely extraneous political

considerations.

Secondly, if the Governor were to

remit the sentences after Vice-Minister George Yeh's

vince display, it would be extremely difficult to confinde

the Chinese that this was not done as the result of

his display, with the result that they would be

encouraged to use similar tactics in the future, and what is perhaps equally objectionable,would assume that we accepted political expediency as a

reason for remission of sentences.

Before writing to Sir Alexander Grantham on

the above lines, I should be very grateful for your

views, both on Lamb's suggestion and the view which

we take on that suggestion here.