34
257
35
many years
M baldwell had been
"the 'go-between' in the intrigues to legalize 'gambling and convert it into a profitable farm', and that it was untrue this 'Government had exhausted penal means of suppression'. Now, whilst merely traversing the above assertion as to M baldwell, I am prepared to raise an important point, and am confident that any Member of the Executive Council would have consented to the present system, if we had not conscientiously believed we had exhausted all other known and available means to eradicate yet greater evils.
38. I take the liberty, however, in answer to such allegations against this Government, to refer to a statement which I made publicly in May last year in answer to some questions of Mr. Breloque, Mr. Keswick. Those explanations sufficiently showed that nothing but necessity drove the Government to adopt the present policy, and they also illustrated the real feeling of the Chinese in reference to recent Legislation, and instanced the ineffectual attempts made by the Police by breathing into illegal gambling haunts to suppress them, because as many appeared to exist at the end of a year as at the beginning, a fact proved in 1865 during the administration of the late Governor.
Vide Encl. No 2, Para 7, 48.
Vide End 2, Para...
Vide Encl. 2.
To Secretary of State No 439 of Jany 1866. The fact that 45 illegal Gambling Houses had been broken up.
14 to 7.
thighs which