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really why I was in favour of the more lenient course that was adopted. To have dismissed him peremptorily without any pension at all, after 38 years service, would have been fining him nearly twice as many thousand dollars as he has years to live, and a considerable reduction in his pension coupled with compulsory retirement seemed to me sufficient punishment for charges (b) and (c).
11. It is difficult to say whether it will be, eventually, possible to obtain sufficient legal evidence against Quincey, Stanton, Baker and Holt, subordinate officers of the Police, so as to enable me to bring them to trial in a Criminal Court. Personally, I think it extremely improbable for the intermediaries, who are supposed to have actually paid the bribes, are not in the Colony and are not likely to confess the part they played.
12. It would, however, appear to be extremely improbable those officers were unaware of the existence of the Wa Lane and Cheung Hing Street gaming houses, and, if so, the inference that, unless they had been heavily bribed, the houses would have been reported and closed, seems irresistible.
13. There are some other officers with small salaries who can be dealt with, without the intervention of the Executive Council.
(Sd.) W. Meigh Goodman.
August 10th, 1897.