March 24, 1902.1
advice might with advantage be followed. We have written on several occasions, urging the unwisdom of the employment of Chinese as soldiers under the British flag. But, as has been seen at Hongkong, the Chinese policemen, if not the best instru- ment for the maintenance of law and order, can at least be rendered serviceable in conjunction with police of other nationali- ties.
The discipline and training which have been inculcated in the Weihaiwei Regiment will not have been thrown away if the men can be converted into the sug. gested police. Such a force will at least form a good nucleus for the policing of the Colony, which will be one of the duties which will engage the attention of our departing Colonial Secretary, the Hon. J. H. STEWART-LOCKHART, when he reaches his post at Weihaiwei; and from the Earl of ONSLOW's statement in the House of Lords on the 10th ult. it will be seen that the administration of Weihaiwei will in future be undertaken by police.
POLICE AND CRIME IN HONG- KONG IN 1901,
(Daily Press, 18th March.) Mr. F. J. BADELEY's Report on the Police and on Crime for the year 1901, with its numerous classified returns, is a document worthy of close study. Table D, a decennial return, with its full analyses of prisoners arrested, convicted, and discharged, for both serious and minor offences, together with the averages and summaries under each head for the two quinquennial periods involved, is about as instructive as tabulated figures can be, and furnishes the reader with a criminological barometer wherefrom he may easily read the varying fluctuations of crime for the past ten years. The total of all cases reported to the Police, in the year under notice, shows a decrease of 7.1 per cent. below that of 1900. This result, in some measure, is due to the more thorough Thanks policing of the New Territory. are also here due to the Provincial autho- rities of Kwangtung who for the latter half of the year kept a military force stationed along our northern boundary, thereby very materially aiding in the repression of crime in the adjoining New Territory. The most unsatisfactory feature of the murder cases recorded was the inability of the local
authorities to effect the arrest of the mur-
derer of YEUNG KU-WAN, the Gage Street teacher and member of the Chinese Reform party. Forty-four gang robberies were reported, twenty-three in the New Territory, and in no less than thirty of them, no arrest
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
Caine Road stretching from the lower end of Castle Road to the Roman Catholic Cathedral, being their favourite haunts. The licences issued for jinricksbas, private vehicles, public chairs, gharries, and to drivers, drawers, and bearers, number 14,362: which surely constitutes a record. No state- ment is made of the large sum thereby brought into the Treasury, Licences issued under the Dogs' Ordinance brought in an income of close on $4,000. The twenty-four Hill District chairs are all stationed at Victoria Gap. Could it not be arrange that six of them are available for the Plantation Road Tram station? The number of people who leave the cars at this station for Planta tion Gap, Red Hill, Barker Road, and Magazine Gap, is now much in excess of what it used to be. Suitable coolie-quar. ters could easily be built on the hillside, to the west of the station somewhat, where the Peak Road makes a sudden bend away from the line. The practical incorporation of that highly useful body, the District Watchmen, with the Police Force, has worked satisfactorily and smoothly, and speaks volumes for the tact and good sense of the European Inspectors and Sergeants concerned. The conduct of the three con- tingents, European, Indian, and Chinese, shows commendable improvement, which is a peculiarly gratifying feature. There is, however, still room for further improvement in this direction. The total strength is 920 men, nine less then in 1900. This includes the Police specially paid for by other Go- vernment Departments and by private firms, Stokers of the Water Police launches. If as well as the Engineers, Coxswains and the Executive Staff, clerical staff and coolies be included, the grand total comes to 999. During 1901, an additional Assistant Super- intendent was added to the Executive Staff. Mr. P. P. J. WODEHOUSE, transferred from the Registrar-General's Department, was appointed to the newly-created post, and proceeded straightway to Lahore, for the study of Hindustani and Indian Police methods. We imagine there can be little doubt about the extreme wisdom of such a course; because no matter how trustworthy the Jemadar of the Indian Contingent may be, it must be infinitely more satisfactory to have his actions controlled by a European executive officer with a competent knowledge of Hindustani. The results of this interest-
ing experiment the suggestion, we believe, will be watched of the Hon. F. H. MAY with the keenest interest.
HONGKONG AND QUARANTINE.
was made. This does not redound to the credit of the Detective Department. Amoug
(Daily Press, 19th March.) serious crimes, Piracy shows a notable Hongkong has had to suffer in the past decrease. It will be remembered that the many severe blows (if only of a temporary frequency and daring of the organised character) dealt by neighbouring ports on robbing of river launches, by men disguised account of scares as to the public health of as passengers, during 1900, led to the in- the Colony. This year we have already troduction of special legislation to provide been quarantined by the Netherlands Indies against such surprises. Mr. BADELEY draws and Shanghai because of the plague, and attention to the fact that the measures now Manila has declared quarantine against adopted were singularly successful. Gambus-on what particular ground it is not ling, though less serious than in 1900, is specified, but it may be suspected that it is still disagreeably prominent in our midst. for the supposed prevalence of cholera here, Eighty-one gambling deus were successfully since the period to be enforced is of five days raided and broken up. Heavier fines are only. Now it is unnecessary to point out now being inflicted on convicted keepers of that plague is not epidemic in the Colony, such houses, and it is hoped this will act as a that in fact only three cases (all Asiatic) wholesome deterrent. Mendicants to the bave occurred during the year, so far as number of 155 were summarily deported to it has gone. With regard to cholera we Canton, one persistent individual having lack all information with regard to the been thus dealt with no fewer than five exact origin of the four Japanese cases, times. Strange to say, the worst offenders while as for the Chinese it is at present under this head are to be found, at certain equally in doubt as to whence the infection times of the day, within a stone's throw of came. Cholera was at first reported to be the Central Police Station-Upper Arbuth-rampant at Canton, but this was afterwards not Road, Glenealy Nullah, and that part of denounced as an exaggeration, and judging
213
from information received from residents in the native City it is absolutely incorrect to say that there is any unusual illness this year in Canton. Two cases, however, have occurred of Europeans going up to Canton from Hongkong one day and dying in Shameen the next. Owing to the celerity with which cholera attacks its victims it is difficult to impute for certain the blame for the deaths of Lieutenant-Commander BAIRD and Mr. F. A. BROCKELMANN.
the three scattered cases of Beside plague and the mysteriously originating appearance of cholera, there is also un- doubtedly a certain amount of small-pox in Hongkong, but not enough to cause in itself an embargo against the Colony. The co-existence, in however slight forms, of the three diseases has sufficed to alarm most of our important neighbours against us, and we find ourselves thus early in the year an out- cast port. We have bad occasion at various times in the past to complain of the pre- cipitation shown by our neighbours in declaring quarantine against us in circum- stances when we should certainly not do the like. The reason for this unjust discrimina- tion of course lies in the evil name which we have gained, mainly through the recur- ring plague epidemics. It seems that the only way of getting rid of this handicap against us is by making every exertion to check at the start any further epidemic and gradually to live down our ill-repute. The process is both costly and long, but the result is sufficiently compensatory.
THE VOLUNTEERS AND THE
CORONATION.
No
(Daily Press, 20th March.) On the 11th instant the Hon. T. H. WHITE- HEAD asked at the Legislative Council meeting a question standing in his name with regard to the attendance of members of the Hongkong Volunteer Corps at the Coronation of King EDWARD VII. instructions had then been received from home, the Colonial Secretary answered, but a communication had been addressed to the Secretary of State for the Colonies en- quiring when such instructions might be expected. As we announced on Monday, the reply to this enquiry has come back stating that these instructions will be forwarded "in due course." No further communi- cation has been received in Hongkong up to the time at which this was written. In the meanwhile it will be seen from the telegram from our Singapore correspondent that it had been decided to send fifty of the Singapore Volunteers and a like number of the Malay Stites Guides to attend the Coronation on behalf of the Straits Settle- ments.
Whether this action is subsequent or not to an invitation of the home authori- ties, we cannot say, but in view of the fact no such communication has been that addressed to Hongkong we may consider it probable that the measure was one of pre- paration rather than of final decision.* A meeting was held at the Volunteer Head- quarters in Hongkong yesterday evening for the purpose of discovering how many of the local Volunteer Corps would be able to attend the Coronation ceremony in London, a contingent representative of should Hongkong by decided upon. The result of the proceedings at this meeting it is considered by the authorities inadvisable at the present juncture to make public, as1· publicity would probably frustrate the end It is, however, to be hoped that in view. Hongkong, like Singapore and the Colonies generally, will not fail to be represented by à body of its Volunteers at the Coronation ceremony.