luna.
I
No. 194.
Gurd, 4
Sir,
538.36/39
20
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HONG KONG,
15th March, 1939.
I have the honour to request your covering
approval for an increase in the establishment of the
Prisons Department by the creation of four additional
posts of European Warder.
2.
The vast increase in the Colony's population,
due to the Sino-Japanese war, has brought a large number
of low-class Chinese into Hong Kong, with the result
that the daily muster in Stanley Prison has now reached
the large total of approximately 2,900; in these
circumstances the present maximum staff of fifty eight
Europeans, which is, of course, subject to constant
diminution owing to absence on leave or sickness, is
quite inadequate to cope with the duties required of
this cadre. Moreover, so large a prison population,
containing as it does a considerable number of dangerous criminals, to whom the overcrowded state of the prison offers abnormal opportunities for mischievous or
mutinous conduct, necessitates the continuous existence
of an armed guard which can be immediately summoned in the event of trouble occurring in any part of the prison.
3.
This guard is the more necessary because of
the resentment which, I am informed, recidivist prisoners
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
MALCOLM MACDONALD, M.P.,
&C.
&C.,
&C.,
凡
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