297
No. 18
87.
HONGKONG.
CORRESPONDENCE IN CONNECTION WITH THE BILL ENTITLED AN ORDINANCE EMPOWERING THE COURTS TO AWARD WHIPPING
AS A FURTHER PUNISHMENT FOR CERTAIN CRIMES.
Presented to the Legislative Council, by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government,
on the 18th March, 1887.
EXTRACTS FROM SECRETARY OF STATE'S DESPATCH, No. 78,
OF 10TH DECEMBER, 1886.
(1.)
Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Officer Administering the Government
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of Hongkong
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3. On the evidence contained in the papers now before me, and in view of the strong consensus of opinion on the subject existing in the Colony, I am prepared to approve a modification of the law relating to corporal punishment in the direction, though not to the full extent, suggested by the Commission. I consider that the Courts may properly be authorized to impose this penalty in the cases specified in the first paragraph of the letter of the Chinese Justices, except the offence of "being found armed with dangerous weapons, without sufficient reason and excuse," but I cannot sanction its imposition as a punishment of adults for petty larceny, or for the offence of returning from banishment. The number of strokes to be inflicted must be specified in the sentence, and must not exceed 36 in the case of adults, or 12 in the case of persons under the age of 16 years.
4. I approve of the Draft Prison Regulation which was transmitted with your Despatch of the 26th of June, empowering the Superintendent of the Gaol, without the concurrence of a Visiting Justice, to inflict corporal punishment for certain prison offences and requiring him to report to the Governor every case in which he exercises that power.
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*
6. I concur in the opinion which you have expressed, and which is shared by the majority of the Gaol Commission, and by the Chinese Justices of the Peace, that it is not desirable to resort to cutting off the queues as a mode of punishment, and you should consider whether it may not be desirable to alter the prison regu lation on the subject, so as not to allow the queues of Chinese sentenced to penal servitude to be cut without special permission of the Governor, this being the practice which is followed in the Straits Settlements.
7. I approve the suggested reductions in the scale of diet. No more food should be given to prisoners than is sufficient to keep them in good health and enable them to perform hard labour, when sentenced to it, and the Superintendent and Medical Officer must be held responsible for seeing that these conditions are fulfilled.
I have, &c..
(Signed)
EDWARD STANHOPE.
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