Enclosure 2
312
Copy.) Memorandum by the Acting Attorney General
to accompany a draft Ordinance for the
suppression of the Triad and other Secret Societies,
The Triad Society
C. O.
1971
RECR
VEGE I NOV OR,
originally formed
for the purpose of subverting the reigning dynasty of China; this, I believe, is still the object and raison d'être of the Triad Society in China, and was, I am informed, its aim and purpose in Hongkong when Ordinance 1 of 1845 was passed.
The Ordinance, after reciting that the Triad and other Secret Societies which prevailed
in China exist in Hongkong, and have in view an object which is incompatible with the maintenance of good order and constituted authority, and afford by means of a secret agency increased facilities for the commission of crime and for the escape of offenders, enacted that after the passing of the Ordinance any person belonging to any said Societies should be guilty of felony