403A
%
8.
7.
10.
An enquiry into Your Petitioners case was held once and on the 23rd August 1877 Your Petitioner was dismissed from the "Hongkong Police Force" for gross neglect of duty in not discovering and reporting an unlawful gaming house at No. 2 Wow Lane." Sections 244 and 14 of Ordinance ... of 1867 provide that the Governor shall have power upon the representation of the Captain Superintendent to dismiss any subordinate Officers for misconduct or neglect of duty. By such dismissal otherwise he would be entitled.
Your Petitioner is deprived of the pension to which he is entitled as a Constable for ...
Your Petitioner does not wish to be reinstated in the Force, but he submits that he should not be deprived of the pension which he has earned by nearly a quarter of a century's conscientious work.
On his own behalf Your Petitioner consulted Messrs. Duncow and Hastings, Solicitors, on this question of pension, and these gentlemen, being of opinion that, in order to do full justice to Your Petitioner's application, they ought to see, as verbatim report of the evidence taken on the enquiry before the Captain Superintendent of Police, wrote on the 3rd September 1877 to the Colonial Secretary in letter, a copy of which is contained in the third Schedule hereunder written. Not having received a reply to this letter, they again, on the 8th September, wrote a letter, a copy of which is contained in the same third Schedule. Still not having had any reply they again, on the 20th September, wrote a letter a copy of which is contained in the Schedule. On the 21st September 1894 they received a letter in reply, the terms of that reply which is contained in the Schedule. It will be observed that in the Colonial Secretary's letter it states that the Governor must decline to reopen the question of Your Petitioner's dismissal from the Police. Your Petitioner humbly points out that he had not asked for the reopening of this question of dismissal, but merely intended only to prefer a request that his pension might not be lost to him (Duncow and Hastings in letter to the Colonial Secretary of the 3rd September 1894).
Leaving out of sight for the present any legal rights which Your Petitioner may be entitled to, he wishes to bring prominently to your notice the following facts, namely, that the inquiry was held and presided over by the Captain Superintendent of Police, who was in reality the prosecutor, that Mr. Dennys, the Crown Solicitor, was sitting immediately on the left of the Captain Superintendent, and obviously suggesting questions for the Captain Superintendent to ask, that Your Petitioner was not given the opportunity of having professional representation in the enquiry of such extreme and vital importance to him, and which has resulted in his complete ruin, and that in all the circumstances the Government ...