Lord Goddard:-

Their Lordships now give their reasons for the advice they humbly tendered to His Majesty on 31st July that this appeal should be dismissed. The appellant together with his brother Elmi was charged on 22nd July 1944 before the Protectorate Court of Somaliland with the murder of his half-brother Abdillahi on or about 17th May 1942. The Judge of the Court convicted the appellant and sentenced him to death, and acquitted Elmi. The conviction and sentence were confirmed on appeal by the Military Governor sitting as Judge of the Protectorate Court on the appellate side and the appellant subsequently obtained special leave to appeal to His Majesty in Council. The ground upon which special leave was given was that the Court had admitted and acted upon the unsworn evidence of a girl of 10 or 11 years of age whom the Judge found was competent to testify but whom he did not consider was able to understand the nature of an oath. It was conceded by the Crown that if her evidence was inadmissible, not being given on oath, there was not sufficient evidence to warrant a conviction. In substance the only question for decision is whether the law in force in the Protectorate permits th