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Hong Kong Annual Administration Reports, 1841-1941
PAPERS RELATING TO
the early days of the Colony.' Her Majesty's Navy have done much to bring about this result, but the numerous Chinese gun-boats in the neighbourhood and the Revenue cruisers of the Chinese government have contributed also to its suppression.
78. What Mr. Gützlaff states in his Life of Taokwang should not be forgotten, that piracy was hardly known in South China when this Emperor was able to exercise full authority. The weakening of the native Government consequent on the opium war and other foreign wars enabled piracy to spring up again. As the Chinese Government has regained strength the traders have been protected and piracy has declined.
Police.
79. When Sir Arthur Kennedy assumed the government of Hong Kong in 1872, your Lordship instructed him to take in hand at once, and endeavour to reform the Police force, which had become utterly demoralized from various causes such as the temporary establishment of the gambling license system. He lost no time in dealing with it vigorously and thoroughly. He found it necessary in one year to strike 158 men off the roll. He set his face against recruiting any of the European members of the force in Hong Kong, having seen that discharged sailors and men of that class made very indifferent constables. He entered fully into the question of constituting a large contingent of the force of well-conducted Chinese.
80. Owing to the good offices of the Crown Agents for the Colonies he was able to obtain from the United Kingdom a trusty and respectable body of men, and to establish a system by which the Crown Agents from time to time select recruits to fill the vacancies that occur. The Local Government is much indebted to the Crown Agents for the care they have shown in selecting these men.
His Chinese branch of the force was also chosen carefully, and it has turned out to be a valuable instrument in the detection and prevention of crime. The Sikh contingent he likewise improved. The consequence was that on succeeding Sir Arthur Kennedy, I found a police force of Europeans, Chinese, and Sikhs in Hong Kong superior in its personnel to any police force I had ever seen in Her Majesty's Colonies.
81. At present the police force has a strength of 610 officers and men, not counting 52 Coolies. The 610 consist of 125 Europeans, 314 Chinese, and 171 Sikhs.
82. The good condition in which I found this force has been maintained by simply adhering to the admirable lines laid down by Sir Arthur Kennedy. In 1878 I found it necessary to establish a two-thirds' night duty system, and in the following year, on the recommendation of a Committee of the Legislative Council, alterations were made in some details of administration. In 1878 and 1879 I substituted steam launches for the comparatively slow row-boats of the water police, from which the quick native sampans so often escaped. These changes have all worked well.