6
202
7
1866 without
any legislative sanction
and without Lord Kimberley's Knowledge.
We alludes to an indignation meeting He
of certain persons held to protest - against the cessation of this illegal practice,
and to the statements made by the gentlemen concerned, as to the increase of serious crimes that would
follow the abolition of branding. The allegations put before Lord Kimberley in the speeches and the memorial of the indignation meeting, did not, ~ probably, carry very much weight, but the actual statements in the
were,
to all
Governor's despatch appearance, precise, and being seemingly based on the results of
save
deliberate investigation, pointed to the necessity of extraordinary measures to Hongkong from being overwhelmed by a flood of Chinese criminals from the mainland. In paragraph 4 of the despatch, the Governor says:-
#
"As soon as the effect of the
cessation of the measure had had
"
#
"
time to make itself felt in the
Colony,
erime began
to
once more-
gather
to a head until, by the
summer
of 1871, it had assumed
proportions probably hitherto unknown. A number of desperadoes
whose education in the arts of
crime had been perfected by
contact with other scoundrels in