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other portions of my despatch do amply prove the vital importance, as a means of self defence, of marking in some way the convicted criminal population that visits Hongkong as a legitimate field for plunder and robbery.
b. and How to get rid of that class of criminals is a very great embarrassment. The old System did not do so, I clearly shewed that they returned again and with their numbers recruited, and preferred running every risk to abandoning so lucrative a field for robbery as this city. It therefore seemed to me necessary to do something absolutely that would be commensurate with the difficulty, and would reduce the Criminal population here, as well as the establishments required for its control, within reasonable limits.
No other mode than branding has been suggested. If any other mode sufficiently effective for purposes of identification can be devised to deter Criminals from returning, it would become a matter for consideration which plan should be adopted, but I have never heard that any mode equally effective has been suggested, and the question therefore appears now to be simply whether we must abandon the only efficient means of self defence at our disposal, and thereby expose ourselves to a continuance of wanton assaults on property and