§ MR. STUART-WORTLEY (Sheffield, Hallam)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies, (1) whether the Cape Government has, apart from statute, any power to surrender fugitive criminals to the South African Republic; (2) whether the Imperial Statute known as the Extradition Act, 1870, until suspended in the Cape Colony by Order in Council under its eighteenth section, regulates the powers of the Cape Government in respect of the extradition of fugitive criminals to any Foreign State, and limits those powers to the case of offences not of a political character; and (3) whether, seeing that no such Order in Council has been made, the Cape Statute, No. 22, of 1882, which purports to authorise extradition to the South African Republic, even in the case of political offences, can avail to remove the restrictions enacted by the Imperial Statute?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN,) Birmingham, W.The first question is a legal one, to which I do not feel competent to give an authoritative answer, especially as the Cape Government has power by statute to surrender fugitive criminals to the South African Republic. As to the second and third questions, the Extradition Act, 1870, is not in force in the Cape Colony except as regards Foreign States, in the case of which it has been applied by Order in Council, and the South African Republic is not one of those States.