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power to order the offender to forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding twenty-five dollars, or to award imprisonment for any term not exceeding seven days.
1.
I therefore ordered C. C. 217 to be sent before the Magistrate for trial, which was done; I further applied to the Government that the Crown Solicitor should prosecute (Enclosure C). I received no reply to my application. Instead of dealing with the case in the ordinary course of business, the Magistrate adopted an exceptional course. (Appendix I, Letter 27 Confidential). Then followed a series of remands awaiting the declaration of the decision of the Government. In this interval, His Excellency the Governor (to whom I should have desired references on this point should be made rather than to me) informed me on more than one occasion that he had ordered a secret inquiry into the matter of the alleged corruption of the China Police; I received no information as to the powers to be conferred on the Commission, nor as to the particular manner in which the inquiry was to be conducted.
His Excellency the Major General, has expressed his opinion: "It appears very clearly to His Excellency that the Superintendent of Police is much in the position of the Commanding Officer of a Regiment, who is bound to investigate all complaints preferred by civilians against his men, and punish subordinates, if guilty." Colonial Secretary's letter 1156, 25th August, 1885,