684385-1880-Interpretation-in-the-Supreme-Court- — Page 3

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THE HUNGRUNG GUVERNATNI WAZEITE,

TH

121, 158W.

(In C.S.O. No. 1591.)

In pursuance of His Excellency's direction to report further on the subject mentioned within, i

have the honour to state:

1. That the Interpreter whom I first heard use the term, ch'ung-kwan, for penal servitusi.. was Mr. BALL; that I then gave him privately what I consider the correct rendering, viz.: 7. no-kung, and that, at the same time, I suggested to him to advise the other Interpreters to use the same term and to adopt the legal terms which I use in translating the Government Gazette, but that I said all this privately, as a matter of friendly advice, expressly stating that I had no authority ove Mr. BALL or any of the other Interpreters of the Supreme Court.

2. That the raison-d'être of the recommendation I made is simply that, after having spoken t.. Mr. BALL privately, I found that the other Interpreters continued to use the same wrong term as befor

3. That the words on enclosed blue scrap, over the signature " Mr. ROZARIO," viz.: J. ch'ung-kwan-chi-tsui, mean "crime (or punishment) of deportation," whilst the words written on the blue scrap over the signature "Mr. BALL," viz.: "41 I ts'o ng-niu-kám tsok nò-kung," mean "remain in prison for five years doing penal servitude work.”

4. That for the term, ch'ung-kwan, which, till I spoke to Mr. BALL, was used for years past by the Interpreters of the Court, I made extracts from all the authorities I possess, and enclose the result which will speak for itself.

5. That for the term I, nò-kung, which I gave to Mr. BALL, and which, after consultation with Mr. TONNOCHY, I had long ago introduced into the Gazette as the rendering for "penal servitude," I have no authority to adduce, for the simple reason that, as "penal servitude" is unknown to the laws of China, the written language has no established fixed term for it, but the term which I adopted I saw used by the Chinese Commissioners who reported on the condition of Chinese in Peru and elsewhere, and who called the condition of Chinese condemned by the Peruvian Government to work in the mines XI. literally

"slave labour."

6. That this term "no-kung" (XI) for "penal servitude" is colloquially as plain and intel ligible as in the written language it is in harmony with the spirit of the Chinese language.

8th July, 1880.

(Signed)

E. J. EITEL..

(Enclosure in C.S.O. No. 1591.)

EXTRACTS FROM VARIOUS AUTHORITIES as to the Meaning of the TERM

-

軍

1. CHALMERS' English and Cantonese Dictionary, Fifth Edition, p. 233, under the word "transport."

."

gives “transport convicts H," and on p. 16, under the word "banish," he gives “banish

2. MAYERS, Chinese Reader's Manual, Part II, p. 313, No. 129, gives under the heading "The five punishments as at present classified," the following:-"or AE Transportation for life, comprisis? 3 degrees of distance.”

3. EITEL's Dictionary of the Chinese Language in the Cantonese Dialect, p. 324, gives the following" or banishment for life, with penalty of military service (Wade)."

4. STENT, A Chinese and English Vocabulary in the Pekinese Dialect, Second Edition, p. 133. gives the following:-" to banish, to transport (ten years)."

E

5. WILLIAMS' Cantonese Dictionary, p. 40, and WILLIAMS' Syllabic Dictionary, p. 109, give thr following:-"banishment to the frontiers (or beyond the wall; such persons are often employed for camp followers.)"

(

6. Wade, Documentary Series, Notes on Part VII, Paper 65, No. 19, speaking of "

transportation in the milder degree" says, "there are three chief divisions of the penalty," and mentions as the third:

3rd, chin (Cantonese-kwan) is banishment for life, to certain places specified in another table, wi penalty of military servitude. These are classified as fu-chin, near, that is but 2000 li from the provine: capital; chin pien, a near frontier province; pien-yüan, a distant point in a frontier province; chin-pres