sent elsewhere, because their habits and customs as well as diet were very different from those of the Natives of India for whose management the Convict Regulations of the Straits Settlements had been framed, whilst they (the Chinese Convicts) by their countrymen were too much surrounded to allow the authorities safety to carry out those Regulations to their full extent. Ceylon was pointed to as the fittest place for their reception; but the Government of India, desirous of allowing the results of the plan of sending Chinese Convicts to the Straits Settlements to develop themselves fully before deciding on the expediency of continuing to render those Settlements final depots for this class of criminals, postponed the further discussion of the question at that time.
14. Subsequent experience has fully borne out the views that were expressed by the Governor of the Straits Settlements in 1850 as to the ineligibility of those ...