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PERMANENCY OF OFFICE AND THE DISMISSED POLICE INSPECTORS.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
of expediency and justice. A scandal almost on all fours with that which has recently convulsed Hongkong occurred Every official in Her Majesty's Colonial recently at Manchester, but instead of the Service, on the permanent staff, holds office Chief Constable being left to deal with it in at Her Majesty's pleasure and is liable to secret on his own responsibility—a course instant dismissal, without any redress at which would have outraged the public feel law in the event of injustice being done. ing of the whole kingdom-outside assist- This applies alike to the gentlemen whose ance was invoked and the Home Office high offices entitle them to the prefix of deputed the Recorder of Birmingham to "Honourable " and to the junior clerks. conduct the inquiry, which was held in So thoroughly, however, is the system per- public. So in Hongkong, an independent meated with the principle of justice that it commission should have been appointed for is recognised as a matter of fact, though not the investigation, who would have approached of law, that officers hold their appointments it with minds entirely unbiassed by any during good behaviour, and in the rare event direct connection with the Force, who would of injustice being done the victim can always have done their duty to the public and count on the support of public opinion if his dealt justly by the officers whose names case is fairly and clearly stated, and in the were brought into the matter, sparing not long run the injustice is generally righted. where guilt was proved, but not assuming Though there are frequent occasions on guilt from any possibly preconceived ideas which officials lay themselves open to cri- having their origin in matters outside the ticism in detail, the British nation is proud, scope of the inquiry. And if it were deemed and justly proud, of its public service in the expedient that the inquiry should be hell mass. Hongkong is no exception to the in private, a full report should have been rule, and it is natural when scandal arises prepare with as little delay as possible that the public should watch with a critical for publication, so that the public might eye the working of the machinery on which know in what condition the Service really was and how far it was to be trustel. As it so much of the colony's welfare depends, and be jealous of the justice of its administration, is, things are almost worse than they were a cardinal principle on which the honour at the beginning, because we are still in the and efficiency of the service rest being that dark as to how far cɔrrupti »n exten·ls, an·l the same quality and measure of justice to the suspicions existing on that score have should be meted out throughout all ranks, been abled suspicions as to the quality of from the highest to the lowest. This pro-justice a Iministere I in the internal manage- position, which seems so self-evident, we find to our great surprise disputed by the China Mail, which holds that a police officer with twenty years' honourable service has no right to complain if he is dismissed without a fair trial, and that the public has no right to concern itself about such a case of injustice, because it is all in the bond. We hold no brief for the dismissed Inspectors; they may have been unfaithful and merit the severest punishment the law allows; but we maintain that they are, like all other men, entitled to be considered innocent until they have been proved guilty, and that guilt can only be satisfactorily established upon a fair trial Such a trial they have not had.
We do not hold the Hon. F. H. MAY primarily responsible for the lamentable bungle that has been made-of the inquiry into the alleged corruption in the Police Force, though it is possible that most of the official blame aay ultimately rest on his shoulders. There are older and pre- sumably wiser heads than his in the Executive Council, and they ought to have recognised the necessity for a full and im- partial inquiry by an officer or officers un- connected with the department, who should also have been commissioned to deal with cases of corruption reported in any other branch of the service. Names of suitable men for such a duty will readily suggest themselves. If the inquiry could have been held in public, Mr. Justice WISE sitting alone would have commanded full con- fidence; if it were deemed advisable to hold it in secret it would have been well to have associated with him say Captain RUMBEY and Mr. A. M. THOMSON, or any other two officials of sufficient standing and experience, We are aware that the law says the Gover- nor may dismiss on the representation of the Captain Superintendent, but it is no use quibbling about techuicalities of that kind; the Governor has power to order an inquiry by any one he chooses and His Excellency should have chosen some one other than the Captain Superintendent. Such a choice would not have constituted any slight upon Mr. MAY, but would simply have been in accordance with the elementary principles
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[September 15, 1897. exception, and we propose to make an ex- ception on the present occasion. The pre- sent scandal was in the first instance brought to the notice of the Government through the medium of Mr. J. J. FRANCIS, QË, who thereby rendered a conspicuous public service for which he deserves the public thanks. But Mr. FRANCIS, in the midst of his large practice as the leading barrister, finds time to edit the Hongkong Telegraph, and under the circumstances a special signi ficance attaches to what appears in his pa- per with respect to the bribery scandal. In an article in the issue of the 14th July the following passage occurred:-"We only hope that there will be a thorough inves- “
tigation, a public investigation if possible, "made by men who have sufficient know- ledge to conduct an inquiry of the kind "and sufficient courage and independence to push it to its limits without fear, favour, "or affection." It is unfortunate the Govern- ment did not adopt that advice in the first instance, as it will have to do in the long
run. Further on in the same article the Moral certainty following passage occurs:
'justifies His Excellency the Governor in banishing aliens from the colony for five years under heavy penalties, in the ab- sence of legal evidence of guilt. If there
"is
"the
strong presumption of guilt in cases of the Europeans, even although there is no sufficient legal "evidence to secure a conviction, the par- ties affected should at least cense to be "members of the Police Force." That is a
ment of the Service. Mr. MAY, we are fully convinced, has actel with a perfectly up-doctrine that can be accepted only with very large reservations, and when the full and right min | thebagh, but hinun nature being subject to its limitations it seems complete inqury comes to be made one of almost inconceivable that he could possibly the points that will have to be gone into is have approached the matter with a perfectly whether the recent dismissals from the Po- open mind, the matter being one that lice Force have been made on the princi- closely concerns himself as the head of the ple embodied in the above quotation. If department, for if abuses have grown up in suspicion rests so heavily upon a man the Force it is possible that he and his that he no longer commands confidence no predecessors in office may be to some extent doubt it is right that he should cease to be to blame, just as in the Treasury frauds a member of the Police Force, but it is not the head of the department was held right that he should, on mere suspicion, be culpable in respect of a felony committed deprived of the fruits of twenty years' pre- vious good conduct. That, we take it, is by a subordinate. It would have been as sensible a proceeding to have appointed Mr. what has been done. The evidence. was of MITCHELL INNES on that occasion to in- such a character that it could at best only quire into the abuses in the Treasury as to establish strong presumption, and against appoint Mr. MAY to inquire into abuses in a presumption arising from the evidence the Police Force in a serious crisis like the of convicts testifying before their gaoler, present. In connection with the Treasury the said gaoler being the prosecutor and scandal no stigma rested on Mr. MITCHELL | judge in the case, we think that twenty INNES's moral character, but he was con- years' good character possessed by an victed of neglect of duty, and it is possible accused European ought to count for a good that Mr. May may have been guilty of deal. similar neglect, or of errors of judgment. No may should be a judge in his own cause, and the cause of the Police is Mr. MAY's cause.
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There can unfortunately be no doubt that corruption has been going on, but whe ther to the extent amongst the European members of the Force that is generally The practical question is, what is to be supposed open to doubt. At all events, done now to put matters right, seeing they the doctrine that it is better to let ten have been allowed to go all wrong. Either guilty men escape thau convict an innocent the dismissed officers must have a new trial one is at least preferable to its converse, that it is better to punish ten innocent men than or the sentences must be revised. A new trial would be the more satisfactory, because let one guilty escape. If the officers who have been dismissed on "strong presumption for all that is known to the contrary the men
of guilt" cannot be accorded a new trial may deserve all they have got and a great deal more. All that is known for certain justice demands that their sentences should is that they have not had what is commonly be revised and that they should be allowed to retire on their pensions, which are in the understood by the term "a fair trial." It would be more satisfactory still if some high nature of deferred pay and cannot justly official from another colony or from India be withheld except ou absolute proof Our reason for saying that could be appointed to probe the whole of misconduct. question of corruption in the public service to the corruption amongst the European mem- the bottom, a gentleman having no intimate bers of the Force may not be so great as is friends in the colony and who woull hol: | supposed is that we do not consider that the himself aloof from local society, official and gamblers' book containing their names unofficial, until his investigation was complet-should be accepted even as prima facie evi- ed. It is not usual under our English system dence against any one of them. All large of anonymity in journalism to refer to writers gambling establishments, in Canton as well as in Hongkong, are said to have on their by name, but there is no rule without an