20
Settlements as Penal Stations
for Chinese Criminals, under Report received from the Governor dated in December 1855 has induced the Government of India to come to a decision on this question.
In this report it is stated that the Chinese Convicts are desperate men of a daring character, that the amount of vigilance required to prevent escape is far greater in their case than in that of Convicts from India and that in some of the Stations it is found indispensably necessary to have a party of petty Officers attached exclusively to the Chinese Convicts, and furthermore that they are an object of great interest to the Secret Societies of their Country existing among Chinese men all of whom possess great influence and considerable pecuniary means and are bound under solemn obligation to assist and protect their members against constituted Authorities.
16. On the receipt of this