THE
THE CHINA MAIL, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1960.
FIRST
THE first real blow struck at corruption in the
Police occurred while Captain-Superintendent Deane was away from the Colony, and Major This was the Dempster was acting in his place.
year 1886,
Information filtered into Police Headquarters that the pay-roll of the gambling houses was grow ing pretty long, so Dempster gave certain instruc- tions.
Inspector Mathieson and a the pollee were quickly off the Sergeant Interpreter went mark.
down to Taipingshan, The gang were robbing No.
Lok and hid themselves at the 5. Wing
Street when which was the pollee arrived. The Chinese top of a house later destroyed during the victims of the robbery were ren- Taipingshan clean-up follow-dered helpless by the simple ex- pediency of their long queues ing the plague of 1894. being tied together.
They had not lon before 53 Chinese constables appeared without encern, in a very matter of fact manuт, to collect their “fées.”;
lo wait
These men werd brought to 121 on August 14, 1800. charged with mlsconsuel under Section 15 of the Ordinance of They were subsequently 1082.
for tr comunitled
Supreme
referred
Mugistrates.
ٹاور
いい
DIL
back
to
the
were
the
All
were
:-
mily deal with.
The robbers put up a desper» ate resistance with knives revolvers, and during the melee a Sikh Constable, Ameer Singh, was killed, also a Chinese coolle who happened to be near.
The
BIG CLEAN-UP!
HONGKONG POLICE
By John Luff-
c. anxious Is the Briish to then, For their part, they were these criminal fak- stamp out tion who preyed on prosperous businessmen.
Captain-Superintendent May Was able to say that the re- Jaxing of the Light and Pass egulations had resulted in o minim of incidents after dusk.
I am now obliged to write upon an aspect of citizenship which to these days, affords the pollee deuitles. On the other hand, I can my from persona! ubservation that things have much improved, and that re
ularly. the Commisstomer of Police performs the pleasant ceremony of paying tribute to Five of the gangsters were such Chinese dizens who help
sub- the Police. arrested, and at the sequent trial, twa tere tenced to death.
SCR-
113
executions concern nly in the same that I was Execution to the first private take plaer in the Colony,
pursing
Mir
May, on
the
Vice village reports left by Mr Deane, con-
САП
In a few words, this is the situation. By tradition, the Chinese 30s never askoclated himself with public affairs. And by the same jaken, do Police Force
work efficiently, when the public adopts the "see nothing, say fothing, do nothing," attitude. :: เฟซ ! that Mr Deane was
Such a situation was strongly recommending that commented upon in 1896 when This and subseruent Palier corrcel in
take pince Police Constable Lal Tak Sing artions drove gummbling undercutions
was shot down in a narrow ground, but all that happened private. The reason was that was that gambling and vice at Ach gran dromas were useless lane off Gage Street, P. C. Shamshulp ourished as a cou- as deterrents (facts and figures Lai received Information that a
The des wanted robber this) as
was abroad in Those who require supported Rique'r:te,
nvolded any such Gage Street. While running particulars of this ran fnd them peradoes
the robber, Lai Mii, bway, in the Hongkong Story. where set.
turned and aimed his revolver the comments of the times ap-
at the policeman, pear with all their faded indig- nation.
Sufficient Shamshuipo
tea
that Was the Chinese UTTON and that a special team launch carried gamblers und ollers ov A che vicev village where a good time was had by all with much proft to the local Mandarin.
In 11399. when Shanshuipo
came
The Press were invited and grini ciuly reported the last moments, with desperate pen pictures of the two criminals being dragged to the scaffold,
The
plague
川
P. C. Lai dropped mortally While in pursuit. wounded. none of the Chinese attempted gangster. to apprehend the Nor did any come to the "ald' of P. C. Lai
However, the Chinese author- itles at Canton, acting on in- the received from get rid of this information Just to
arrested gangster Lai forumion, the Press: were not Colony',
after Mit, and probably on a quid pro executions invited to 1897, and up to this day, all quo busts, brought him to Kow- executions take place secretly, loon City. There they beheaded
altendants being those him.
Jurische- within antish tion, the gambling moved to the border town of Shumchun, The pilgrims made Lhe further the journey.
this continued, Inuited to the number perform- and with diminishing interest until ing the onlee, and these legally
when 1938.
the Japanese proscribed.
Kwanglung occupation of the Province put it out of court.
Captain-Superintendent Deane served the Hongkong Police for 24 years. To sum up his office you could say that he served well, without distinction, At the same time, you would have to admit that he could get neither the men he wanted, nor
A rather strange
case
came
before the Supreme Court in March 1897, when a coolio named Chut Kwan was tried on a charge of murder.
Cuptal-Superintendent May rerved the Colony well during e plagoe er 1894, and for his services he was awarded the Chul
the Companionship of
Ord T 01 Distinguished Michael and St George.
Things improved
It was a rather sordid affair, slit his wife's having Most throat and hidden her body in a
St trunk. Everything pointed
the circumstance that he was about to move off with her body.
the
the Colony to the extent where the Pass Regulations financial grant he needed to light and make the Force the efficient could be revised. body required to establish law
the
Big boys
ם
every piece of information to themselves, and taking only such n force sullicient to secure their catry, they descended on a house In East Street.
д
May found expetly what he went for. As well as a quantity of money and jewellery, he seized some books, and these bonks
revealed that Reveral Police Inspectors Os well other ranks were on the pay-roll Not of the gambling housen,
but it also showed only that, that earruption extended as far as the Registrar-General's De- well kept were partment. So these books, and so far back did their records go that it was
corruption shown that back as for as 1855.
Land
went
The finger pointed at Inspector Job Mitchell, he was MUZ- pended from city.
Strike back
Mitchell came up for trial and pleaded not guilty. However, was dead against the evidence him, and in spille of the fact that much could be said on his be half, the Chtet Justler awarded him six months Imprisonment, (aking into account, Mitchell's otherwise good record.
The criminal societies struck back
A Chincac quickly.
war chief nanied Cheng On
Mitchell. informer opainat Just over a month after Mit- chell was sentenced, Cheng On was found floating in a canot near Canton. He had been dead
His hands and some time, fect were securely tied. May continued to conduct the himself with the Investigation aid of the Attorney-General and Crown Soiletters and others. As R consequence, several pro- minent police officers were dis- missed the Farce.
Dim view
HERE was trouble all the time behind the walls of Kowloon Cty. (Razed to make room for the planes at Kat THERE Airport).
that was going, following May's investigation.
were
the depurung officers made their Chinese policemen were way from Hongkong.
bove
Mr F. H. May wrote a detall- Young Quincey had a bright career in front of him. Govern- rd report for Government, and there is little doubt that had he ment had sent him to Peking to
OC study Chiniest. He could have insisted upon the dismissal
Goverment ser- everyone whose name appeared risen high in
on the gambling houses books. vice, but out be weat.
Hongkong would
been The gambling house keepers, without an effective Police Force
dealt with, one for some time to come. also
However, serving a prison sentence.
May Captain-Superintendent took u very dim view of all the whose names appeared in bouts he had seized, Police In-
Mann spectors Hennessy and and Police Sergeants Hall and Ford were retired on March 3, 1808 and left for home.
sacked, and resigned,
another
Courage
also for money. May had them ar- were brought eighteen rested and they
before the Criminal Sessions of October 21, 1897, were found. guilty and sentenced.
This scandal fairly rocked Hongkong, but it stopped the It is obvious that the success
kind of sniggering, demoralising of this clean-up was due to F.H.
talk that the Police were this May conducting It on his own,
and that. May showed that he giving only his Immediate sub-
was there to do a job, and he dealing ordinate his confidence, making did it without fear or favour. with those wbo
received the
investigation None was preliminary
covered up. The regular bribes,
the Colony himself, and asking aid of none, senior officers deservedly receiv Jost onc European In- So it was, the usual tipping-off ng more severe punishment
months' imprl- did not spector (six
take place, and he than the juniors. sonment). three Inspectors caught the culprits red-handed.
May
were Among those dismissed
Detective Baker, Inspector
going through But such is this Colony that Inspectors Quincey and Stanton, and Detective Sergeant Holt they were not allowed to depart Their comrades This was for falling to discover umhonoured. and report a notorious gambling and civilan friends were down house at No. 2 Wu Lane Police at Market Wharf and the bag- Sergeant Phelps who had fifteen pipes skirled, and the Chinese years in was allowed to resign, ict off strings of crackers 09 and the question of his pension was referred to the Secretary of State.
and one Sergeant, were dis- missed; two Lispectors and one
Captain-Superintendent Sergeant were called upon to showed considemble courage in resign; two Sergeanta and one
with this. He Acting Sergeant were not re- received the usual threatening engaged; and one Acting Ser- letters once he had his suspects geant chose to resign on his under control, but he did not own account.
waver. Sul Tank Shan and his Nineteen indian policemen son Sel Ping accompanied their were dismissed while twenty-six threatening letter with a demond
A large number of Chinese detectives and district watchmen were also dismissed or bonished,
From 1841 to 1854,
Chui admitted he had mur-·
The Nor did stop bure. and order in this Colony,
extra- Indian members of the Force Deane was followed by Major Colony had been illuminated at dered his wife, but his
Gordon night by oil lamps and candles, ordinary defence in the Court were found to be involved and General Alexander
his wife had been a number of men were dismiss- Adain whre served the Pobre In 1864, Gas lamps had im- was that:
ed. The Interpretation Branch was implicated also.
for proved the lighting after dusk, visited by a sorceress who had as Captain-Superintendent
DreembXT 1, 1888, dicted his wife would com- less than Two years, during and which a notable piracy occurred Retrivity was introduced. The vit suicide, In the year 1800.
Trouble
Adam died as he was on the way home on sick leave abobril the & ship "Aden." This was February 16. 1893. Adam's body lies buried in Singapore,
This left the way open for another appointment, and this the Juost appointment was fortunate the Hongkong Police had yet known.
a lantern after dürk.
But
reached further than the Police Force. Sanitary In- spector Hore was in the know, ond on the receiving end. was dismissed on the spot.
He
But the way ahead was dif- ficult. The Police Force hüd
to be reorganised.
SATURDAY:
Wider still 'and'
widor
CONVALESCENCE
WITH COWARD
Montreux.
Then the First Clerk in the IAM deeply fond of Noel Coward.
upset if he dares to be ill.
on 11
I get very
That is why, when I heard he culation and my leg, it does not had phlebitis, I rang him up at mean that my vocal cords are Montreux, Switzerland, on the paralysed. Come and stay this
weekend."
MY WEEK-END AT HIS MOUNTAIN HOME by NANCY SPAIN
first stroed lights were In spite of the fact that the suspended on poles 150 yards prosecution were able to prove apart, the object being 10 that the defendant had the pro- lain melent light so that perty of the deceased upon his people could see each other's person, the special jury elected
faces.
to believe Chul's weak defence.
Even so, none of this pre-
When Chul was told he was Registrar-General's Office with was found to be snarled up in vented street robberies, so that free to leave the dock, he could 36 years service to his credit,
the scandal, from the earliest times, the not believe his ears. He he-
In view of his long sitated some time before it Chinese were required to carry occurred to him that his unusual service, he was at first called Lake of Geneva.
upon to resign
roduced defence had succeeded.
pension. But upon his case being I expected to be barred from I arrived in the dark and, was at this time that reviewed by the Secretary of him by a retinue of nurses and apart Iron some glimmering Captain-Superintendent May State, the latter refused
doctors. But to my astonishment snow, I had only A very con~ plans for a ski resort for the and called me Nancy Lisbon, I performed
his the Colony the accept
ol
the luxurious psychologically balanced middle- a beginning to think this is greatest service of his career. Charles Osmund, former Chler he replied to the telephone him- fated idea
Coward chalet above Montreux.
aged.
my month for getting in on the In short, he gave the Police Clerk to the Registrar-General
creative-genius lark. The biggest clean-up ever. was dismissed, eqns pension, I hit at corruption, and this sans reference, sand everything. time he got the big boys.
"'1 have news for Another who ฟรด saw some, daring gang robberies.
Acting on information. May was T. W. Quincey also of the Beadly," he said. The famous teleprinting tone chipped into The Arst two of the robberies sires of many of the present and his Chief Inspector carried Registrar-General's Office. Quin- were completely successful, the day Chinese who have helped out a raid on their own. They eey was the son of Inspector my cars Just as it always had gangs getting away with their make this Colony the great told none, they discussed no Quincey also demissed, go this done. loot. But on November 22, 184, pleen it is, were in liongkong plans with any, and by keeping family really caught everything I something wrong with my cir
But Ordinance No 13 of 1088 to carry required the Chinese
n Mr Francis not any lantern between dusk und dawn, but a pass also. This law was relaxed in 1890, and fally, un June 5, 1007, 11 www repealed.
Henry May was gazetted Captain Superintendent of Pollec on February 17. 18 May ran into the usual erop of trouble, and the year 1994
COLFO
NUEVO
This was a most satisfactory
more, for many Chinese, the
It
J
resignation, 90
dismissed
self.
HIS PYJAMAS
you,
"Just because I have
“But my dear bòy, this is just nothing compared to the fuss and publicity. I got at Loch Ness-before you were oven boka [”
~Chandon Exprete Service),
I When arrived I rushed straight up to the Master's bed- room. He was sitting up in bed, very pink and gay in a pair of purple pyjamas.
11-
"We must only have the very
Since he has been in bed 'this Ume the Master has completed gentlest slopes and anyone who by tearing down the mountain at a 150,000-word novel and wishes to prove anything 60 miles on hour will be other play. He also does a cross- He gave a wonderful display rigorously excluded," said George word puzzle every morning (It of crackling vitality; ending by Sanders in his most putring, takes him half an hour) and plays endless parlour games, wiggling his little toe, leaving plushy tone.
many of them based on, quola- the other stationary,
"Wasn't I clover to find him?" ons from English literature.
The whole series would be n wow on televiston, but probably only if the Master played them. "Amusa mel" comes the im perial command each morning,
"I may have written 'Caval- said the Master. "He was one of cade," he said proudly, but my original Rolstering Regency this is the tricic that no one else Rakes In Conversation Plece.""
can do. Look, none of you 'lot
can do it,"
HIS POODLES
at 12 noon and we all rush to
Strangely enough, we couldn't.
Sandera and his wife and the brightly lit bedroom - dogs, Film star George Sanders Bud step-daughter all wore magis house guests, and all. Ha wife, Benita Hume, and his fleent ski-ing costumes. They The conversation somehow step-daughter Juflet, aged 16, by ant and tolled decoratively ali veered to impossibly bad-taste- Benita's previous marriage to over the Master's bedroom, while lines of show dialogue. Ronald Colman--they couldn't two tiny white poodles, called "I once find to my in a cos do it. Nor could Noel's personal Sebastian and Hawthorn, tumo drama: Up to 4: point, representative, Cole Lesley. Nor cavorted among us, occasionally yea," said Noel happily. could I....
eating the Master's red velvet Then someone complained slippers.
About my hair-do. "It's no good, "Bebastian is called after me Spáiny dear" sáid Noel. in Nude with Violin," said "Nothing can be done about it.. We were all invited to dinner. Noel. "Hawthorn is called after i will always look like a mat, The Master, which is what all me in 'Our Mon In Havana.' my darling. All you need is his intimate friends call Noel In the morning the Sandets Welcome on it in golden letters. Coward, ale his der in his party had all gone home and I You must have it done at once." bedroom, hopping an merrily as suddenly became aware of the
HIS DELIGHT
HIS SPIRITS
a robin to an artichair, and fact that I was perched half-way back to bed again
up a mountain, surrounded by
Oulaldo it had now befun to
Swed scenoty of the most aggres- ite is not yet allowed to put aive kind, with a buzzard raging, snow, the fakes falling dowly, his foot to the ground although The Master was now wearing heavily, or suddenly Whirling ai his health is improving hourly, yellow pyjamas (the data that whim.
Today A specialidi called on he wore in "Our Man 10 I got the mad kopression that him from Geneva. The Sahdarset Havaha"), and he had sum“ Nooi hád évén conjured up, the and the rest of us dined in a moned us to raad us a nok snow, that we were living in a dining-room where 4 very three-act play, by Noel Coward. round, glass paperweight (thát curious decanter, shaped like a I enjoyed the play reading he could shake up and enjoy blood-transfusion outfit, squirbed very much, and I am fairly all by himself. vin rose all over mo,
cart in that I was not kntirely
Indeed, when I camé, avfay, I After dinner the party rusfied influenced by my pleasure could not really believe in any back to tho Mnstor, whs the fact that and of the heróident of It If' wad - as though for promptly became the end of the play, was newspaper three days, I had lived in, and Look of it,
Jady wearing frowers,
bota pati ol, 4,váry, dood He, domdrided that George As Pater Sellers has also put comedy by Mister Noel Saivară. Sanders should a deskribetile me, an · a gramophone resörd