POLICE
2818
known officially as the Regulation of Chinese Ordinance, and more popularly as the Night Pass Ordinance. Regulations under this Ordinance were framed at the instance of Sir William Des Voeux, then Governor of Hong Kong, and the objects and reasons for the Ordinance could be found in the disorderly state of the Colony during the night. Highway robbery was rampant, many cases of breaking and entering were reported every night. The scum of South China made Hong Kong its happy hunting ground and the drastic ordinance was thus forced on the administration.
Under the Ordinance, the Colonial Secretary was empowered to issue an annual pass to any Chinese resident in the Colony and special passes for specified periods, to non-resident Chinese. No fee was charged for the passes, but in the case where the passes were lost or destroyed, one dollar was charged for a duplicate.
It was, perhaps, only natural that the law-abiding Chinese of the Colony should object to carrying lanterns when they were abroad after 9 p.m. Numerous protests were made, but Sir William Des Voeux kept the Ordinance in force on the principle that it provided the greatest good for the greatest number.
Finally, a petition, signed by many prominent Chinese was submitted to the Colonial Secretary, through the Registrar-General. In reply, Mr. J. H. Stewart Lockhart said that in view of the advice given by the Registrar General and by leading European residents, he had sent the following letter to the Captain Superintendent of Police:
Sir, I have the honour, by direction of the Governor (then Sir William Robinson) to inform you that while His Excellency is of opinion that the Night Pass Ordinance and the regulation as to carrying lights should remain as at present, so that the Government may at all times have a weapon at hand in the event of riots or serious disturbances of any kind, he considers that in ordinary times the law should not be generally enforced, except in the case of persons whose movements the Police have reason to suspect, and in the case of persons who are abroad after midnight.
The summary action of the Governor in easing the regulations evoked strong criticism from the local Press. "He has committed an offence, and a great offence, against constitutional law," said the Hong Kong Telegraph.
"It is a fundamental principle of English Constitutional Law that only the law-making power can interfere with a law once made. When his Excellency determined, and rightly determined, that the Light and Pass Ordinance ought not to be in force, it was his duty to have called the Legislative Council together and either to have repealed the law, amended it, or suspended it. But perhaps His Excellency did not care to meet the Legislative Council. Had he called the Council together for such a purpose, there would have been some strong expressions of opinion about the general policy of the Government in its dealing with the Chinese, and the opinions His Excellency has received in private might have been conveyed to him a little more forcibly in public. We strongly recommend the Government to legalize its position by calling the Council together very speedily and putting through the measures necessary to make binding what has been done by the Governor. There will be no opposition to his proposals to modify the Ordinance and to modify it very extensively; he will find a general concurrence in his opinion that it should not be entirely repealed, but should be kept in reserve.
"While dealing with this subject we may as well call attention to the wording of the Colonial Secretary's letter to the Captain Superintendent of Police. From the beneficent provisions of the dispensing order, certain persons are indicated