6.
132
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The overcrowding of the prisons which has often occurred and which has necessitated the deportation and branding of batches of prisoners, must also operate to prevent the Magistrates from dealing effectively with other offenders, into which I need not enter, to account for the frequent reiteration of short sentences on old offenders in Hong Kong.
8.
which in thing.
I am taking other steps, above my precise functions of the Executive, to put a check to the growth of Dungtung, but I can no longer refrain from asking the Magistrates to consider the necessity of dealing with old offenders as they are dealt with in England and in other parts of the Empire.
(Signed) J. Pope Hennessy
(True Copy)
E. H. Smit,
Acting Colonial Secretary
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