PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference
CO. 882
4 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
floggings of the Chinese on the back. give my sanction is flogging with a rattan
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The only punishment of this kind to which I now in the way suggested by the Colonial Surgeon.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY,
The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon,
&c.
&c.
&c.
SIB,
Governor.
Government Civil Hospital, July 6, 1877. I HAVE the honcur to forward the following report as requested by His Excellency
the Governor.
In my last annual report I recommended that the flogging of prisoners should be carried out here in the same manner that it is in India, for the following reasons:
I have noticed that in all floggings of Chinese by the cat, that they suffer, besides the external injury of the skin, inore or less from congestion of the lungs afterwards, and in old cases, where the floggings have been severe,, irreparable injury has been done-- notably, in the case of one prisoner in the goal at present, named Wong-a-Kwai, whose lungs are extensively diseased, and who frequently suffers now from severe hemorrhages from the lungs. As far as I can ascertain this man has no phthisical history, and his personal physique does not at all correspond with that of a man suffering from hereditary phthisis. Besides, it is generally admitted by officers of the goal who knew him when he first entered that he was then of very powerful build for his size, and that his present broken-down state of health is entirely owing to the punishments he received years ago. I have seen, since I have been in medical charge of the gaol, two Europeans, a soldier and a sailor, flogged by the cat, but neither suffered in this way, probably owing to their more powerful build and greater muscularity.
In India, flogging is always performed on the breech, with a four-foot rattan as thick as a man's forefinger. I have never, in eight years experience, seen any worse effects than the injury done to the skin, besides this, it has none of the other injurious effects that the cat has. In the East, for the greater part of the year, the lower classes when at work are stripped to the waist, and a man marked with the scars of the cat would undergo considerable mental torture from the jeers of his comrades, and would excite notice if he wore his clothes to conceal the scars. If the punishment was inflicted on the breech this would not happen, as it is at his own option to retain his breech cloth, and would excite no comment.
I take it that the intention of the punishment of flogging is not to inflict a lifelong injury, which, as at present conducted upon Chinese prisoners, it does, as I have shown, in more ways than one.
I have, &c. (Signed)
PH. B. C. AYRES,
Colonial Surgeon.
(True copy.)
J. Gardiner Austin,
Colonial Secretary.
No. 5.
GOVERNOR HENNESSY, C.M.G., to the EArl of carNARVON.
(No. 64.) MY LORD,
(Received August 31, 1877.)
Government House, Hong Kong, July 18, 1877. Adverting to my Despatch, No. 61, of the 13th of July, I have now the honour to lay before your Lordship a copy of the Acting Superintendent's prison history of Wong-a-Kwai, the convict, who is described by the Colonial Surgeon, in his report of the 6th instant, as a man suffering from hemorrhage of the lungs in consequence of the floggings he received in the Hong Kong prison.
2. The prison history of this man certainly justifies Mr. Tomlin in regarding him as a very bad character. He was first convicted of larceny in 1862, and subsequently convicted four tinies of heinous crimes, including two escapes from prison.
3. The record of his prison offences is also of the worst" type, showing that he had to be punished twenty-three times, including three floggings.
• No. 4.
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4. When it is remembered that for several years past the prisoners have not been allowed outside the walls of the gaol, the frequency with which, as in this case, they have to be punished for using tobacco or for having prohibited articles in their possession showa a dangerous laxity of discipline,
5. The facility with which the prisoners communicate with their companions outside the gaol may possibly be traced, to some extent, to the structural defects I adverted to in my Despatch, No. 33, of the 13th of June, paragraphs 2, 3, and 4, and Despatch No. 41, of the 22nd. June†; but, I fear, it is also due to the incapacity and misconduct of the gaol staff, as noticed in Mr. Gardiner Austin's despatch, No. 76, of the 11th of April 1877.† Within the last few weeks I have had to dismiss four of the turnkeys or warders for beating prisoners, or for drunkenness on duty. -
6. Your Lordship will see that the floggings of prisoners in Hong Kong (by magis- trates, judges, and prison authorities) since January of last year, according to the return This is probably enclosed in the Acting Superintendent's letter, amounted to 210 cases. without a parallel in any part of the civilized globe of the same amount of population.
7. During the very short time I have been in Hong Kong I have permitted eighteen floggings to take place. I have allowed this with extreme reluctance. But, however revolting such a mode of administering justice may be, I do not feel at liberty to reform a system which, since the beginning of Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell's administration, has prevailed here, until I am instructed to do so.
8. Whilst fully reporting the official facts relating to the treatment of criminals in Hong Kong, and describing the real condition of the population, I shall await your Lordship's instructions on the subject.
9. As far as my own experience of the public service may be of any value, I might, however, remind your Lordship that during my four years at Labuan, where I had some of the worst class of Hong Kong and Singapore Chinese convicts to deal with, I did not find it necessary to sanction a single case of flogging; nor in my administration of the West African Settlements, the Windward Islands, or the Bahamas was a single lash inflicted on a prisoner. And this was done with an improvement in prison discipline and a decrease in crime.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon, '
&c.
&c.
(No. 73.)
&c.
I have, &c. (Signed)
J. POPE HENNESSY,
GOVERNOR.
Si&,
Victoria Gaol Office, Hong Kong, 14th July 1877. In compliance with the directions contained in your letter, No. 482, of the 9th instant, I have the honour to submit the prison history of convict Wong-a-Kwai.
The prisoner's first conviction, so far as can be ascertained, was on the 10th September 1862, when he was sentenced at the Police Court to two months hard labour for larceny. On the 19th January 1863 he was tried at the Supreme Court, under the name of Chun & Ween, and sentenced to two years imprisonment with bard labour for "robbery from the person;" while undergoing this sentence he escaped from Stone Cutters Island Gaol.
At the Criminal Sessions held in August 1864 the prisoner was tried under the name Wong-a-Kwai for "attempt to murder" death was recorded, but commuted to ten years penal servitude.
Again, at the Criminal Sessions held in January 1871, the prisoner pleaded guilty to 1st "cutting and wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm;" 2nd "unlawful wounding," and was sentenced to five years penal servitude, to commence at the expiration of his former sentence.
CL
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On the 20th June 1871 the prisoner pleaded guilty at the Criminal Sessions to 'escape and wounding" and to "wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm," and was sentenced to penal servitude for life.
in
I enclose an extract from the "prisoners' offences book," showing the convict's conduct gaol.
also enclose a return of the prisoners flogged each month since 1st January 1876 to this date.
• No. 1.
B 2
I have, &c. (Signed)
GEO. L. TOMLIN,
Acting Superintendent.
↑ Not printed.