420 THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 22ND SEPTEMBER, 1877.
Subsequently, in visiting the prison with Dr. AYRES, the Colonial Surgeon, he explained to me that WONG-A-KWAI, who is ow so decrepid and broken down, had been, when first committed to the Hongkong prison, a man of powerful frame and robust health, but that he had been brought to his present state by the punishments he received. Dr. AYRES said the prisoner was now labouring under an incurable pulmonary disease; that he frequly suffered from hæmorrhage of the lungs, and that this was owing to the way in which he had been flogged.
I requested the Colonial Surgeon to make a written report on the case for my information, and I called for a report from the Acting Superintendent on WONG-A-KWAI's prison history. The latter I have not yet received, but I have now the honour to lay before your Lordship a copy of Dr. AYRES' report. In addition to what he says about the case of this particular prisoner, the Colonial Surgeon makes the following statement:-
"I have noticed that in all floggings of Chinese by the cat, that they suffer, besides the external 'injury of the skin, more or less from congestion of the lungs afterwards, and in old cases
where the floggings have been severe, irreparable injury has been done.'
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IIe shows that owing to the peculiar physical constitution of the Chinese, this mode of punishment. though so fatal to them, is not similarly injurious to Europeans.
He points out another objection to the mode of flogging on the back, that it leaves scars, which, in this climate, where the lower classes are stripped to their waist at work, expose a discharged prisoner to a sort of permanent punishment; and he suggests that the discipline of the Indian prisons, which he considers more humane, should be adopted here.
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He adds:-"I take it that the intention of the punishment of flogging is not to inflict a lifelon
injury, which, as at present conducted upon Chinese prisoners, it does, as I have shown. more ways than one."
Pending your Lordship's decision on Dr. AYRES' suggestions and on the points raised in despatch No. 55 of the 6th July, I have suspended all public floggings and all fleggings of the Chinese on the back. The only punishment of this kind to which I now give my sanction is flogging with a rattan in the way suggested by the Colonial Surgeon.
I have, &c.,
(Signed,)
J. POPE HENNESSY,
Governor.
His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy to The Right Honourable the Earl of Carnarvon,
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 23rd August, 1877.
MY LORD,Seeing in the Times of the 23rd of June an abstract of a Parliamentary Paper that appears to have been issued last session, showing the number of corporal punishments inflicted on prisoners in the United Kingdom from April, 1871, to July, 1876, inclusive, I caused a similar return to be prepared, for your Lordship's information, respecting floggings in this Colony.
The number of floggings of criminals in Hongkong from April, 1871, to July, 1876, amounted to 1,149. As some individuals had been sentenced to two or three floggings, the actual number of prisoners flogged was 902.
Appending the number of floggings here, to the abstract published in the Times, the comparative
statement stands thus:-
Number of Floggings from April, 1871, to July, 1876.
England, Scotland, Ireland, Hongkong,
Population.
.4,988
24,000,000
679
3,400,000
34
5,250,000
..1,149
140,000
I have, &c.,
(Signed,) J. POPE HENNESSY,
*
Governor.