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felony and being convicted thereof should be liable to imprisonment for any term not exceeding three years with or without hard labour.
This Ordinance was dated the 8th January 1945.
I have not been able to find out whether any difficulty arose in carrying it into execution, nor are there any records of the Court to show whether any conviction was obtained under it.
On the 20th October of the same year, Ordinance 12 of 1845 was passed to amend Ordinance 1 of 1845, with a view of "introducing certain limitations and giving additional certainty to its provisions." By this Ordinance, no person shall be considered as coming within the provisions of Ordinance 1 of 1845 who:
A. shall have joined the Triad Society in ignorance of its designs,
B. under the influence of terror, or
C. who shall not have been duly convicted of active participation in some unlawful act arising out of his connection with the said Society.
The 4th Section of this Ordinance repealed 1 of 1845 in so far as it provided any penalty against any member of any Secret Society other than the Triad Society.
It strictly limited Ordinance 1 of 1845 to the Triad Society and to the Triad Society alone, and no longer punished membership of that Society unless there was a conviction for active participation in some unlawful act arising out of connection with that Society.
I can assign no reason why Ordinance 1 of 1845 was passed in January 1845 because these associations, i.e., Triad and other Secret Societies, had in view an object which was incompatible with the maintenance of good order and constituted authority, and with the security of life and property, afforded by means of their Agency increased facilities for the commission of crime and for the escape of offenders.