(26)
(27)
194
**
"In 1866, the Executive, in order to avoid the expenses of a second Gaol, gave conditional pardons, without reference to myself as Chief Justice, to hundreds of prisoners after having served very short portions of their sentences, the condition being that they should leave the Colony, and this practice was followed subsequently. Most of these men returned to the Colony, and to that I attribute the formation of an enlarged criminal community, from which the Colony has never since been freed. His Excellency Governor HENNESSY, since about the end of a year after his arrival, re-established the rule of Sir HERCULES ROBINSON, and referred the cases to the Judges as Sir HERCULES ROBINSON had done. Thus, mercy to those deserving of it has always been shown, whilst really dangerous characters have been kept in prison. Thus, also, the Judges act on the assurance that the precise sentence will be carried out, subject only to remission according to settled rules.
"2nd. Although by law the Supreme Court has long been enabled, by special provisions, adequately to punish old offenders twice previously convicted, a practice prevailed at the Magistracy to deal with such offenders by repeated sentences of short terms of imprisonment. His Excellency Governor HENNESSY, however, being impressed with the entire uselessness of these proceedings, induced the Magistrates to send all such old offenders for trial in the Supreme Court. At first, this raised the number of prisoners for trial there greatly. The first monthly Calendar after the change raised the number of prisoners for trial to, I believe, forty, but when the adequate punishment of old offenders became known, subsequent Calendars soon returned to the usual rate, and some of the worst characters in the Colony were subject to long terms of imprisonment without any sensible increase in the inmates of the Gaol.
"3rd. Flogging, as an additional punishment for crimes accompanied with violence, was introduced by Ordinance immediately after Chief Justice ADAMS and I had gone home on sick leave. He and I had always opposed its introduction. I am bound to say that on my return, after trial for a year, the universal satisfaction expressed at the result induced my reluctant acceptance of the system.
44
"I, however, was prepared to consider with very great earnestness the objections of His Excellency the Governor to flogging in public, supported as he was by the highest authority at home. Flogging being brutal and brutalizing, it appeared to me that flogging in private had both these characteristics, whilst it was largely wanting in the deterrent element addressed to the eyes of the lowest brutes in society, which, to me, had been its chief, if not its only recommendation. I rarely sentenced men to be privately flogged, but I soon became convinced, as I now am, that although the Ordinance might well remain unrepealed, it should be had recourse to only in very exceptional cases, and that, with rare exceptions, flogging may be avoided altogether.
46
"4th. Mr. TONNOCHY's Report is, (especially para. 4) to my mind, the best answer to all objections to the reforms which His Excellency the Governor has introduced."
10. For nine months past I have not sanctioned a single case of flogging, and life and property have never been so secure in Hongkong as at this moment. Crime has been reduced to a minimum, and, whilst this has been done, the Chinese population of the Colony has largely increased, and the influx of Chinese from the Kwantung Province has never been so great.
11. Speaking, therefore, with an experience of three years at this side of the China Sea, and of four years' administration of a Chinese Community at the other side of the China Sea, I venture to think that the views of those European gentlemen who assert that the Chinese are an exceptionally criminal race, and a race that should be especially dealt with by flogging, are not correct.
On the contrary, having some small experience in the government of nearly every race in Her Majesty's Colonies, Europeans, Negroes, Malays, and Chinese, I am more disposed to say that the latter are, as a race, the least criminally inclined, and that they are the easiest to influence by that best of reformatory elements, industrial labour.
12. There is another point that perhaps should not be lost sight of by Her Majesty's Government in considering the recommendations suggested by the foregoing statements, I refer to the fact that the late Lord DERBY, Mr. GLADSTONE, and EARL GREY, as well as others who were concerned in the creation of this Colony, dwelt over and over again on the benefits it might indirectly confer on the neighbouring Empire of China by setting an example of a just and merciful treatment of criminals.
13. My recommendations are, that the Branding Ordinances be repealed, that Public Flogging be abolished by law, that all laws in Hongkong which impose flogging on persons of the Chinese race exclusively be repealed, that all flogging be abolished except for such offences as entail flogging in England, and that flogging on the back be abolished by law. I would have added that the authority to order prisoners to be flogged be taken away from the Superintendent of the Gaol and entrusted only to a Police Magistrate, but that you have already, in despatch No. 134 of 3rd October, 1879, expressed your opinion and Sir RICHARD CROSSE'S on that improper provision of the Hongkong Gaol Ordinances, clause XI, No. 4 of 1863. Having laid your despatch before my Executive Council, together with a Report from the Superintendent of the Gaol on the subject, the Council unanimously recommended, in accordance with what was evidently the views of Her Majesty's Government, that an amendment of the Gaol Ordinance should be made transferring the power of imposing sentences of flogging from the Superintendent, and from the ordinary unofficial Justices, to the Police Magistrates, and in other respects assimilating the Gaol Ordinance to the Act recently passed for the government of the Prisons in England.
The Right Honourable
I have, &c.,
(Signed)
J. POPE HENNESSY,
Governor.
SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH, Bart., M.P.,
Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies,
&c.,
&c.,
HONGKONG.
No. 29.
&c.
DECISION OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY TO GOVERNOR SIR JOHN POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
DOWNING STREET,
29th July, 1880.
SIR, I have had under my consideration your despatches No. 60 of the 18th May and No. 61 of the 19th May, relating to the general subject of crime at Hongkong and the treatment of criminals in the Colony at the present time, and I have decided to give my assent to the recommendations contained in paragraph 13 of your despatch No. 60.
I have come to this decision mainly because I entertain grave objection, on general grounds, to the infliction of the punishments in question, and especially that of flogging, for ordinary offences. In this country, flogging has ceased to be employed as a means of repressing crime except in the case of certain crimes of brutal violence, and as a means of prison discipline, it is confined to the case of convicted prisoners who are guilty of serious offences against the regulations of the gaol. It must be borne in mind, however, that it is not always safe to conclude that punishments which are unsuited to a European community can be dispensed with in dealing with such a population as the Chinese population at Hongkong, and it will be necessary, therefore, that the effect of the changes which I recommend should be carefully watched; and I have to request that you will transmit to me the draft of any Ordinance which you may deem necessary to carry your recommendations into effect, in order that I may consider its provisions before it is laid before the Legislative Council.
Governor Sir J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.,
&c.,
&c.
I have, &c.,
KIMBERLEY.