Appendix K.
REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE
FOR THE YEAR 1936.
GENERAL.
1. 1936 was a comparatively quiet year.
There was a welcome reduction in the type of serious crime classed as Outrages—89 cases reported as against 102 in 1935. This was the smallest number since 1931. No piracies on steamers were reported.
2. Trade and industry were dull and unemployment was high, both in Kwangtung and in Hong Kong. Both factors fostered in Hong Kong a large number of persons desperate for a means of livelihood. Sheer poverty drove many to theft. The number of saloons for playing mah jongg and the number of opium divans increased. These acted as a temptation to many to commit petty crime, in order to obtain money to gamble or to smoke opium.
3. The intensive measures adopted in Canton, after the political turnover in September, for the suppression of gambling and opium smoking, deprived hundreds of employees of gambling saloons and opium divans of employment, and also caused the dispersal of a large number of bad characters who used to frequent these institutions.
4. These conditions were reflected in Hong Kong by a very large, if not an alarming, increase in all forms of larceny. The figures are 50% higher than those for 1935. The figures are disquieting, but it is satisfactory to record that the members of the Force have worked diligently to meet the increase. Their work has increased 50% under these heads, and they have secured even a higher percentage of arrests and convictions in 1936 than in 1935. Members of all contingents have contributed to this result.
5. The total number of cases of serious crime was 9,038 as against 6,373 in 1935. The value of the property stolen ($303,497) was considerably less than in 1935 ($576,203).
6. The Courts and Prison have failed to stem the increase in minor serious crime. The number of persons convicted for breaches of the Deportation Ordinance suggests that punishments for these offences are not sufficient deterrent.