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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941 REPORTS EXHIBITING THE PRESENT STATE
that much remains to be done; and, so far from feeling authorized to relax a vigilant supervision of the police, I hope to improve its organization by further reforms, and amongst them by getting rid of a hundred more of the feeble and corrupt constables from Bombay and Madras, and substituting for them an additional body of Sikhs. The success attending the recent introduction of 100 Sikhs from India into the force, under the command of Mr. C. Creigh, has been so decided that I can now see my way to further improvement by the employment of more Sikhs. Such details, however, must form the subject of a separate communication.
23. I cannot, however, omit noticing here that which has all along been at the root of most of the corruption of the police, viz., the regular stipends which many of the officers and men were in the habit of receiving as hush money from the keepers of illicit gaming houses. On that subject I have already reported so fully that I need add little here, except to state, as a matter connected with the history of 1866 now under review, that by Ordinance No. 8 of 1866, re-enacted with some slight changes and omissions as Ordinance No. 9 of the present year, power was given to the Governor in Council to pass rules for the better limitation and control of gambling, the intent being to strike a decisive blow at all illegal gaming, with its peculiarly corrupting and pernicious consequences, by legalizing it in certain houses, licensed on such conditions, and subject to such special surveillance, as the Executive might deem necessary.
24. The great obstacle to carrying this very important reform, which was not attempted till the most strenuous efforts had failed to close the haunts of illegal gamblers and their confederates, arose from inability to discover any stimulus to the good conduct and loyal observance of the Government rules by licencees of such houses so powerful as the payment of fees sufficiently large to render forfeiture of their licences a heavy penalty before recouping the expenditure incurred. To myself especially, and to Her Majesty's Government, the receipt of any revenue from gambling licences is most distasteful. It likewise gives room for imputation of motives which have had no influence whatever in shaping the policy of the Executive, because such revenue is really nothing but the accidental result of a legitimate effort to discharge one of the most evident duties of Government, and to suppress certain haunts of vice and crime, dangerous to society from their secret and illegal nature, dangerous also as the most fertile source of demoralization of the force entrusted with the protection of life and property.
25. My Despatch No. 381 of this month will have apprized your Grace of the great success of the experiment as to the principal object aimed at, viz., suppressing illegal gaming, and terminating the corruption of the police, from that source at least. I was also enabled to report the singularly orderly manner in which the houses themselves are conducted. At the same time your Grace will have been almost equally pleased to learn that I have reasonable grounds for expecting to get rid in a great measure of the revenue from licences which alone complicates and embarasses this really important measure. The difficulty cannot certainly be insuperable, though, as the whole matter is so novel and experimental, each step at the commencement requires much prudence and caution till further experience shall have justified more rapid action.
26. As your Grace is aware, the reforms of local legislation to meet the exigencies of the Colony in dealing with the criminal classes were not overlooked last year; and of the 12 Ordinances passed last year, several contained unusual provisions, and of so important and wide application as to amount almost to a social revolution of our relations towards the Chinese population.
27. The great evil and the great disgrace of this port for several years before my arrival had been the undoubted fact of its being almost a depôt for the equipment of piratical craft, the reception of booty, and the transmission of information to parties engaged in those nefarious pursuits. To deal adequately with an evil of such magnitude required a scheme of action at once energetic and comprehensive; and if, in devising and carrying out the measures necessary, there was much responsibility, anxiety, and labour, I cannot but feel that they are well repaid by the satisfactory report which I was enabled to transmit to your Grace on the 11th last July.
28. In contrast with the events of last year, when no less than six foreign vessels were captured in the vacinity of these waters, and many atrocious murders of Europeans perpetrated, I was then enabled to state, and can still report, that since the 1st of last September not one such case has recurred, and that out of 18 cases of piracy reported for the three quarters ended on the 30th of last June, most were comparatively trivial, whilst in 11 a punishment more or less effective had been inflicted on the guilty, and in none was there the slightest evidence to show the least connexion between the pirates and their former principal centre of operation, viz., Hong Kong.
29. On the whole I think there is now reasonable hope that the time is not far distant when we may look forward to being able to give a fatal blow to all piracy in these waters,