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THE GAMBLING LAW.
Ifany of our Legislative Councillors want a profitable hour's reading we would com- mend to their attention the debates which took place in the Legislative Council in 1891 upon the Gambling Bill. Especially would we ask the Hon. C. P. CHATER and the Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD to devote a little time to the study of this question. Neither of the hon. gentlemen had very much to say on the subject themselves, but what little they did say was to the effect that gambling was a crying evil, that something should be done, and therefore let us have a Bill. Well, we got a Bill, and here we are, six years later, in a worse position than ever, the public service honeycombed with corruption, and gamb- ling rife amongst all classes of the popu- lation, native and foreign. Again it will be said that something must be done, and in the interests of the colony at large we would earnestly implore the unofficial members of Council to take the trouble to think the whole matter out for themselves on independent lines and not to accept on trust any Bill that the officials may lay
before them.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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of which the law takes no cognisance; but if there is a banker, or a master of the game, who takes a commission on the winnings and runs the establishment for a profit, it becomes public gambling. There is no moral distinction between public and private gambling, but the former is deemed inexpedient in the public interests, on the ground that it encourages vice and leads to crime. It is therefore as a question of expediency, rather than as a question of morals, that the subject must be discussed, and looked at in that light we maintain that Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL'S system of licensing a limited number of gambling houses and so bringing the vice under control is the best that could be devised. Suppression is absolutely hopeless and must inevitably lead to corruption in the public service. We have no wish to palliate the offence of accepting bribes, but we can understand that a policeman who circumstances could
induced to connive at a robbery be
it might think not quite the same take a bribe in respect of thing to gambling, when he knows that gambling will go on whether he interferes with it or not, and when he knows also that gambling in one form or another is indulged in by all classes of the population, European and Chinese alike. Where bribes are freely offered the strain is too great to be uniformly resisted by men in receipt of small salaries when it is not an actual crime that is in question.
not under
any
[July 21, 1897.
"it is a question whether men at such "salaries as can be given in the police "force, the average man, would be able "to resist the large sums which it might
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pay gamblers to offer.". The Hon. Ho KAI in the same debate also expressed the apprehension that to increase the stringency of the law would increase corruption in the police force. That apprehension has been fulfilled, and it is evident our legislation on the subject will have to be revised. It seems to us there are only two alternatives: either to license a certain number of gambl- ing houses, as under Sir RICHARD MAC- DONNELL'S system, by which the evil of public gambling, though not suppressed, can be controlled and kept within bounds, or to give up interference with it altogether. The decision rests with the Colonial Office, and the matter should be presented to Mr. CHAMBERLAIN in that light. Perhaps home opinion might be shocked, but, as to one of the alternatives, it might be pointed out that the home Government has condemned the colony to free trade in sexual vice with its attendant dangers to the public health, and that free trade in gambling would be a lesser evil, and that the attempt to suppress gambling fails in its object and corrupts the public service.
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THE WOMEN'S HOSPITAL AND NURSING INSTITUTE.
was
In the course of the debates referred to an interesting and concise summary of the history of the gambling question was given by the Hon. W. M. DEANE, at that time Acting Colonial Secretary, but whose
A Hospital for Women and Children substantive office was that of Captain Su- perintendent of Police. In 1865 gambling The gambling law of 1891 was introduced with a Nursing Institute attached has been was rampant, said Mr. DEANE, and the during the absence of the then Governor, decided upon as one of Hongkong's memo- corruption of the police was notorious. Sir WILLIAM DES VEUX, who returned rials of Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, and Inspectors were paid $23 per month for each while it was still before the Council. His the foundation stone was duly laid by His house opened. Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL Excellency then said he must confess the Excellency the Governor on the second day thought it necessary to adopt regulations experience he had had in various parts of of the Jubilee holidays. The plan of the for the control of the vice and a certain the world made him very sceptical about the building is reported to have been settled, number of gambling houses were licensed, but practical effect for good of any gambling but neither the principle nor the details of these regulations were the subject of much | law; he had seen gambling laws tried in the scheme under which the institution is was bound to to be worked have, so far as is known, yet censure in England, and they had to be various places, and he withdrawn. Sir RICHARD MACDONNELL say that as far as he could see they had been decided upon, or, at all events, they Do effect; and he have not been published. Is the hospital steadily denied that the regulations had any had very little or reference to revenue, and Mr. DEANE in the referred to the feverish gambling spirit to be maintained for paying patients, or course of his speech expressed the opinion that prevails in England, notwithstanding for necessitous cases only, or for both? And that if the revenue had not been so great not all the laws passed for the suppression of on what terms are the services of the nurses so much would have been heard about the gambling. His Excellency expressed himself to be available? These are questions that matter. After the abolition of the licensing in somewhat similar terms at meeting after naturally suggest themselves, and which the system the suppression of gambling fell into meeting, but the conclusion at which he community would naturally like to have an the hands of the Registrar-General, and the finally arrived was that if it were a question opportunity of expressing its opinion upon. Captain Superintendent of Police. For a of beginning legislation he would "decline At Shanghai a Nursing Home time gambling was brought into what Mr to do anything in the absence of special established in the latter part of last year, -DEANE described as "moderate compass;
instructions, but as they had at present on three sisters being brought out from Eng- statute book law which had land. When the question of establishing but then, he continued, one or two the
a Diamond Jubilee memorial arose the "unfortunate events occurred. One. of become almost utterly useless be in- "the inspectors was suspected of being tended to proceed with the Bill, because decision of the Model Settlement was bought over, and then another Governor | it could not make matters worse than they in favour of a British Nursing Institute. It "arrived with an entirely new policy." were and might akem them better. There is now proposed that the existing experi- The Governor referred to was the late "is only one point," His Excellency mental Nurses' Home should be taken as
for a to which I was
the nucleus of the proposed British Diamond continued, Sir JOHN POPE HENNESSY, whose orders, according to Mr. DEANE, were,
"Leave the "long time doubtful, and that is the ques- Jubilee Victoria Nursing Institute and that
tion of corruption.
It has been the Institute should be amalgamated with "Chinese alque. Let them gamble in peace
suggested, I fear not altogether without the General Hospital with a view to improv " except in notorious cases.' After that Chinese clubs, so-called, were established in ground, that there is a large amount of ing the nursing of that institution. The large numbers, which were really gambling corruption. Yet we are not certain about present nurses are members of a French "it. This law will enable us to be certain. charitable order, whose religious obligations houses under another name, and in 1891 the law now in force was passed for the "If the gambling in particular places is not interfere in some directions with what put an end to we shall know that the are usually considered the duties of purpose of suppressing those establishments and all forms of public gambling. For a corruption exists, and either it will have nurses, It appears, however, the nursing "to be corrected or the law will have to be has been carried on by the same Order ever time the new law appeared to be successful,
given up altogether. It may be that since the foundation of the hospital, and, on until the parties concerned had time to look
"the inducements, to gambling are so the whole, with satisfaction to the patients round and take their bearings under the new
great that no salaries we are able and their friends. But when the hospital was conditions. Then, finding the house swept and garnished, the evil spirit returned, "to pay will be sufficient to procure established trained nurses were not available; men who will altogether administer the law in the interval which has since elapsed great bringing with him seven others.
against gamblers with strict impartiality, | advances have been made in the art of nurs- Of course I know there are in the presenting, and it is perhaps not unnatural that police force men who, although they are in a humble position, would firmly resist offers to be bribed. I know there are such men and that they have resisted such offers, but taking an ordinary view
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To make matters clear to those who may not have studied the gambling question it may be convenient to note the distinction between public and private gambling. If a party of friends sit down to a game of cards and play for r money, the chances of all being equal, that is private gambling,
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our Shanghai friends, while recognising the good work done by the French sisters in the past, should wish to bring the arrangements of their hospital more up to date. That, however, is a local question for Shanghai, on