(Copy.)
123.
Eveloeuvre.
425
Gaol Superintendent's Office,
Hongkong, 29th December, 1886.
Colonial Secretary,
A few days ago I had a personal communication to His Excellency as to a plot supposed to be hatching in the Gaol to set fire to it on Christmas day with a view to prisoners effecting their escape in the confusion. I now beg to report the facts as they occurred and such information as I have elicited.
On the 22nd instant a European Prisoner, Logan, employed in the Gaol Library, informed me that he had heard of a plot to set fire on Christmas night, to the tailors' shop when there would be few officers on duty, many of them being absent or perhaps under the influence of liquor, and it was hoped that in the confusion a member of the long sentence prisoners would make their escape.