HITT, Acting Secretary to James Burrill Angell, August 16, 1881

No. 171. Mr. Hitt to Mr. Angell.

Sir: Your dispatch of the 20th of June last, No. 176, in regard to certain regulations lately promulgated by Mr. Hart, the superintendent of customs, has been received.

The regulation, the substance of which you give in your dispatch, namely, that if any foreign employé of the Chinese customs kills or wounds any person, he shall at once resign his place and report to the consul of his nationality within whose jurisdiction he resides, and that if the consul acquits him or decides that there is no cause for trial, such employé may resume his station with full pay during the time since his resignation, appears to be a just and reasonable one.

If in such a case the consul found that the employé killed or wounded a man in the discharge of his official duty, and under such circumstances as that he, if tried by a Chinese tribunal, be held guiltless, or such as would, under the laws of the United States, make the act justifiable or excusable, it would be the duty of the consul to discharge him. It would be difficult, and, indeed, inexpedient, to attempt to specify what the precise character of the circumstances should be that would warrant such acquittal by the consul. Each case must be determined by its own facts and res gesta.

I am, sir, &c.,