3
more and more convinced that it is
not to be entirely accounted for by the geographical position of the Colony by the theory that the Chinese are by nature disposed
Op
2.
to crime.
I have, from
time
to time, furnished Your Lordship
with information showing that the
Gaol is not as
efficient
an
instrument
in the suppression of crime as it ought to; and I have also pointed
out what seems
to
me a
grave
error
in the administration of justice, that
is the imposition of repeated short sentences on old offenders.
3.
In course
But whilst I hope,
of time, to make some
reforms in those two
in those two subjects, there is
a
third element in the suppression
of crime with respect to which I venture to ask for Your Lordship's
assistance: I mean the establishment of a system of transportation
4.
In the
year
1857 Sir
Hercules Robinson was authorized to
transport to Labuan sixty of the worst class of Hongkong criminals. Soon after I arrived at Labuan I applied to the Secretary of State for ... permission to get a hundred Convicts from Singapore. With Sir Harry's
cooperation this was done; and I found the comparatively large number of Chinese convicts I then had to deal
ord's