294 THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNMENT [PART II 
ultimately to be assented to by the Crown. In the light of 
the information now furnished His Majesty’s Government 
recognize that the decision of this grave matter rests in the 
hands of your Ministers and yourself. 
The manner in which you have placed the various aspects 
of this question before your Ministers from the 16th March 
onwards has my approval ; but I regret that you did not 
keep me informed by telegraph of the steps you were taking, 
or that the telegram announcing the imminent execution 
of these twelve men did not contain the detailed information 
which has now been given in reply to my telegram of the 
28th. It was this lack of information which necessitated 
my telegram.— ELGIN. 
[n a dispatch of April 191 the Secretary of State corrected 
the error committed by the Governor in treating the matter as 
falling under the royal instructions as to pardon. He wrote :— 
I observe that in your telegram, No. 2, of 10th April, you 
speak of the Executive Council having advised you to exercise 
“the prerogative of mercy’. It seems doubtful whether this 
phrase can properly be applied in cases of sentences by 
courts martial under martial law, and I am disposed to think 
that it would be more correct to say that the Executive 
Council had advised you not to confirm the death sentences. 
Similarly, in your minute to Ministers of 17th March you 
speak of death sentences (by courts martial under martial 
law) being considered in Executive Council ‘in accordance 
with Royal Instructions’. It is clear, however, from the 
decision of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council on 
the 2nd of April 2 that such sentences cannot be regarded as 
being on the same footing as sentences pronounced by lawfully 
established Courts to which the Royal Instructions refer. 
In making these remarks, I beg that you will not under- 
stand me as in the least degree questioning the propriety of 
your acting in concurrence with your Ministers in matters 
arising out of the present application of martial law. 
Meanwhile the Government of the Commonwealth of 
Australia telegraphed to express the view that interference 
even as to the prerogative of pardon with a self-governing 
Colony would establish a dangerous precedent with regard to 
all the states of the Empire, and appealed for a reconsidera- 
' Parl. Pap., Cd. 2905, p. 44. 
¢ Ibid., Cd. 2927.