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No. 3.

SIB,

COLONIAL SURGEON to COLONIAL SECRETARY.

Government Civil Hospital, Hong Kong, 23 June 1877. I HAVE the honour to report that the wounds on the men Au-a-Fu and Im-a-Man are now completely skinned over. The wounds were always healthy in appearance and went through the usual course; the bleeding referred to came from the new granulations which will always bleed at the slightest touch, such as removing dressings, &c.; of course the new skin is still tender, but it is now more than ten days since the wounds closed; it is therefore my duty to report that the men are convalescent, as, if they are to be flogged at all, it must be within the time ordered by the Chief Justice.

I have, &c. (Signed)

PH. B. C. AYRES,

Colonial Surgeon.

GOVERNOR HENNESSY, C.M.G., to the EARL OF CARNARVON. (Received August 18, 1877.) (No. 58.) MY LORD,

Government House, Victoria, Hong Kong, July 6, 1877. WITH reference to my despatch of to-day's date, in which I refer to the effect of the flogging on the prisoners "Au a Fu " and "In a man," I have the honor to report, for your Lordship's information, that Mr. Cecil Smith, who visited the gaol yesterday and examined the present state of these men's backs, tells me that in his opinion it would

an act of positive inhumanity to allow the second flogging to be carried out." J. POPE HENNESSY,

be 44

I have, &c.

&c.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Carnarvon,

&c.

&c.

(Signed)

Governor.

No. 4.

REPORT by ACTING SUPERINTENDET, Victoria Gaol, Hong Kong, in reply to question respecting regulations for public flogging.

I am not aware of any regulations on the subject of public floggings; the following has been the practice pursued:

1. Sentences of public floggings passed by the Supreme Court are carried out at the public whipping post near the Harbour Master's Office, under the superintendence of the Gaol Superintendent or Warden and the Colonial Surgeon.

2. The instrument used is the regulation cat made in accordance with the pattern sent out by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Vide Colonial Secretary's Letter, No. 265, of 1st May 1865.

3. No flogging takes place until the receipt by this Department of the Criminal Calendar from the Supreme Court.

4. Every prisoner before being flogged is examined by the Colonial Surgeon as to his fitness to undergo the punishment, who gives a certificate which is afterwards forwarded to the Government, and permission is asked to carry out the punishment on the day and hour found suitable to the Police Department, which furnishes a guard.

5. After receiving the flogging the prisoner is treated by the Colonial Surgeon until his back is healed.

Victoria Gaol Office,

27 June, 1877.

(Signed) GEO. L. TOMLIN,

Acting Superintendent.

MINUTE by his Excellency the GOVERNOR.

WRITE to superintendent of the gaol directing him to suspend the 2nd flogging of these prisoners until further orders.

27 June, 1877.

(Signed) J. P. H.

MINUTE by the Honorable the Colonial SecretaRY.

SEND to Mr. Tomlin for the regulations respecting public floggings and then prepare copy of these papers,

June 25, '77,

(Signed) J. G. A. Noted, and report attached.

(Signed) Gro. L. TOMLIN, A. S.,

27 June, 1877.

GOVERNOR HENNESSY, C.M.G., to the EARL OF CARNARVON. (Received August 25, 1877.) (No. 61.)

MY LORD,

Government House, Hong Kong, July 13, 1877. On one of my first visits to the Hong Kong gaol, in the month of May, an old man, named Wong-a-Kwai, who was in the prison hospital, complained that the punish- ments he had received were killing him. Mr. Tomlin, the Acting Superintendent, pointed out however that he was an old offender, that he was constantly complaining, and that he was regarded as a very bad character by the prison officials. Neither Mr. Tomlin nor the turnkey who was present could understand the Chinese language, and it was through an interpreter that the complaint was made.

2. Subsequently, in visiting the prison with Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon, he ex- plained to me that Wong-a-Kwai, who is now so decrepid and broken down, had been, when first committed to the Hong Kong prisou, a man of powerful frame and robust health, but that he had been brought to his present state by the punishments he received. Dr. Ayres said the prisoner was now labouring under an incurable pulmonary disease; that he frequently suffered from hemorrhage of the lungs, and that this was owing to the way in which he had been flogged.

3. I requested the Colonial Surgeon to make a written report on the case for my in- formation, and I called for a report from the Acting Superintendent on Wong-a-Kwai's prison history. The latter I have not yet received, but I have now the honour to lay before your Lordship a copy of Dr. Ayres' report.

4. In addition to what he says about the case of this particular prisoner, the Colonial Surgeon makes the following statement:-

"I have noticed that in all floggings of Chinese by the cat, that they suffer, besides "the external injury of the skin, more or less from congestion of the lungs afterwards, " and in old cases, where the floggings have been severe, irreparable injury has been

done."

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He shows that, owing to the peculiar physical constitution of the Chinese, this mode of punishment, though so fatal to them, is not similarly injurious to Europeans.

5. He points out another objection to the mode of flogging on the back, that it leaves scars, which, in this climate, where the lower classes are stripped to their waist at work, expose a discharged prisoner to a sort of permanent punishment; and he suggests that the discipline of the Indian prisons, which he considers more humane, should be adopted here.

6. He adds

"I take it that the intention of the punishment of logging 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."

7. Pending your Lordship's decision on Dr. Ayres' suggestion and on the points raised in my despatch No. 55 of the 6th July,* I have suspended all public floggings and all

M 869.

• No. 2.

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