1841-1886
OF HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
303
21
they submit to be marked so as to be easily recognized by the police, and that, if they return to the Colony, and are recognized, they are to be at once punished for returning, according to their agreement, and compelled to undergo the remainder of their sentence.
14. The number of those who petition for the favour of release on such conditions is now sensibly diminished, because enforcement of those conditions, and the risk of discovery on return, have been proved by experience to be real dangers. The effect, however, continues, and the great end which from the first I stated to be my object, namely, to leave the Viceroy of the adjoining provinces to deal there with the criminal classes of those districts, instead of throwing a large portion of them on the hands of the authorities here, has already been in a great measure attained.
15. As from the first I personally had no doubt that by improving the police, and by rendering prison labour really deterrent, as well as by devising means for preventing the continued return to Hong Kong of confirmed criminals, I could greatly diminish the number of prisoners, I took on myself last October the responsibility of closing the convict hulk at Stone Cutters' Island, and abandoning the new and extensive gaol then just completed there; a policy which has been attended with the most gratifying results, not merely in diminishing crime, by bringing all prisoners under a uniform system of surveillance and discipline, but also because the Colony has since had the advantage of economizing the cost of a very expensive establishment, whilst it has likewise recovered the use of the police force formerly stationed at Stone Cutters' Island. Moreover, the labour of the convicts, perfectly useless there, is now available for the roads and public works here, where it is so much needed.
16. It is impossible to estimate the pecuniary gain to the Colony by the change, whether arising directly through diminished outlay for establishments, or indirectly by utilizing the labour of the convicts at less than $30,000 per annum; whilst at this moment I cannot compute the diminution of crime in the Colony, as compared with March last year, when I arrived, to be less than 30 per cent. The number of persons tried at the sessions up to this period last year was 181, whereas during the current year it has only been 115. In 1863, 1864, 1865, the numbers were respectively 311, 293, 326.
17. In all these reforms no one has contributed more to their efficient success than Mr. Douglas, the Superintendent of Victoria Gaol, which is probably the best conducted establishment of the kind in the East. I have, therefore, much satisfaction in bringing that officer's name again to your Grace's notice.
18. In treating of the mode of dealing with the criminal classes here, it is impossible to omit the improvement which has been effected in the energy and “morale” of the police. I do not remember seeing in any Colony a body of men so ineffective in proportion to its number, or so corrupt generally, as the police force which I found here. Its authorized strength then, as now, without counting the naval dockyard police, consisted of 89 Europeans, 377 Indians, chiefly Bombay Sepoys, and 132 Chinese, or a total in round numbers of 600; a force which, so far as numbers go, could in England deal with six times the population of this Island.
19. It must, however, be remembered that in England almost every one is inclined to assist the policeman. Here, on the contrary, in the Chinese quarter of the town, it was possible, till lately, and is even now occasionally so, for a man to be knocked down at noon and robbed in presence of fifty witnesses, without any intervention in his aid, or the least disposition to give information subsequently to the police.
20. What is still more embarrassing is, the facility with which the Chinese submit to extortion, within certain limits; thereby holding out irresistible temptation to members of the police, when so disposed, to levy a species of black mail as well on those who infringe the law as on those who are really guilty of no offence. In this way each new law made for the protection of society and suppression of crime became with the police a new means of extortion, the temptation to double and treble the amount of their regular pay by such practices being too often irresistible. Hence, between the corruption engendered in the police, and the peculiar facility with which the Chinese lent themselves to such improper practices, as well as the little aid comparatively which they otherwise afforded for detection of crime, it is not surprising that the police force, consisting, as it did, of men without any previous special training for their peculiar duties, should, in proportion to its numbers and cost, have long proved a most inefficient protection to the public.
21. In my Despatch No. 183, of last January, I went very fully into details as to the necessary re-organization of the police force; and am enabled now to report a marked improvement consequent on the changes sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government.
22. Dismissals and compulsory resignations of inspectors have left but three remaining of the eleven whom I found on my arrival in March last year. I am sensible, however,