No 185
(
Sir,
90
IREC
Red 2 JN II
107
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONGKONG, 10th. May, 1911.
I have the honour to forward for your
approval draft of a Bill entitled "An Ordinance to amend the
Banishment and Conditional Pardons Ordinance, 1882".
2.
The provisions of Section 2 sub-sections
1 to 6 are in the opinion of myself and of my advisers necessary
to enable us to cope with the increase of crime in the Colony
which I have reported in various Despatches of recent dates. A
large number of Chinese are banished from the Straits Settle-
-ments and Federated Malay States for life whereas the Hongkong
Ordinance limits the time of banishment to 5 years and the
penalty for returning from banishment to 1 year's hard labour
which the frequent convictions of banished persons for being in
the Colony proves not to be deterrent. It is, therefore, propos-
-ed in this Bill to amend the Hongkong Law so as to give the
power
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LEWIS HARCOURT, M.P.,
&c.,
&C..
&C...