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Reference:

C.O. 882

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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"It is evident that, judging from the records of this court, no increase has taken

place in the crimes referred to since the abolition of public flogging.”

Mr. Deane, the Captain Superintendent of Police, says:

"I do not think that the abolition of public flogging will cause an increase of crime, provided that it is known that the power of ordering the private flogging of such "offenders as merit it remains."

7. On the 15th of last month those reports were considered in Executive Council, when the members unanimously recommended the abolition of public flogging.

8. But though all my Executive Councillors and all the officials connected with the administration of justice have recommended the abolition of public flogging, I have reason to believe that the bulk of the European community, including many of the heads of the leading mercantile houses, are anxious to see the existing law retained and strictly enforced.

I bave, &c.

The Right Honourable Sir Michael

Hicks-Beach, Bart., M.P.,

&c.

&c.

&c.

No. 19.

(Signed)

J. POPE HENNESSY.

GOVERNOR HENNESSY, C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. SIR MICHAEL HICKS BEACH, BART. (Received June 8, 1879.)

Government House, Hong Kong, May 13, 1879.

(No. 53.) SIB,

I HAVE the honour to lay before you a copy of the report of the Medical Board I appointed under instructions from the Earl of Carnarvon to investigate the physical effect of the mode of flogging in the Hong Kong Gaol, and the prevalence or otherwise of pulmonary disease in the prison. In the appendix to the report will be found a copy of the evidence taken by the Board, together with a copy of the Colonial Surgeon's observations on the report, a memorandum showing the air space in the associated cells where the Chinese prisoners are confined, a note giving the reason why the Chinese Government do not sanction flogging on the back, and some correspondence that had been laid before the Committee.

2. The Government was fortunate in obtaining the very valuable services, as members of this Board, of Deputy Inspector General Wells, of the Royal Navy, and of Dr. O'Brien, the leading physician in private practice in the Colony, two gentlemen whose great experience and professional skill command the confidence of the whole community.

3. Owing to the ill-health of Dr. Wells for three months, and to the desirability of watching for a considerable period the physical condition of certain prisoners and the wounds that had been caused by floggings, the enquiry has been of necessity somewhat protracted. As the Government printers had other work on hand the printed copies of the report only reached me this month.

4. Unfortunately, on account of the imperfect statistics hitherto kept in the gaol, and for other reasons given by the Board, they seem to have had but little to guide them in the solution of the question whether flogging on the back, in the case of Chinese prisoners, has produced phthisis. They say:-

"Apart from the questions put by us to the Colonial Surgeon, and the examination "of the four men who had been flogged on the back, with imperfect statistics, we have "little to guide us in the solution of the main question 'does flogging on the back

produce phthisis ?" "

5. As to the special report Lord Carnarvon desired to obtain respecting the health of Yeung-a-Man, who was flogged in November 1876, and Leung-a-Loi, who was flogged for the third time in March 1877, as the former had left the prison the Board were unable to see him, and as to the latter, they find that he is suffering from phthisis, but they are not prepared either to assert or to deny that the disease was induced or developed by the floggings he received. Their words are-

**

*

"We find that Leung-a-Loi is suffering from phthisis, but we are not prepared to

assert, neither do we deny, the possibility that the disease in him was induced or developed by the floggings he received."

6. In its relation no doubt to pulmonary disease, the Board make the following observation on the important question of the air space in the cells :----

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"In regard to the air space, we find that in the cells where many prisoners are locked up together for the night, instead of at least from 1,000 to 1,200 cubic feet per man,

"the allowance is actually only from 482 to 775, and even bearing in mind the fact of

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only barred gates separating the cells from the corridors, we do not consider the air space and ventilation what it should be."

..

The figures quoted by the Board from Dr. Ayres' evidence (as he subsequently explains in his minute of the 15th October 1878) represented the average cubic space of all the cells in the gaol, including those for Europeans, who are placed in comparatively commodious cells; and from the enclosed return of the measurements made in May 1877 of the cells where the Chinese prisoners are confined in association, the air space for the Chinese (184 to 221 cubic feet at the end of 1876) is far less even than the average allowance the Board think insufficient. For instance, the prisoner Leung-a-Loi, about the time that he was flogged, had been confiued in a cell in which he had only 221 cubic feet of air space. As Dr. Wells and Dr. O'Brien think that the average cell space of the whole prison, 482 to 775, is not what it should be, and that each prisoner should have at least from 1,000 to 1,200 cubic feet of air space in this climate, it is manifest that the pulmonary disease from which Leung-a-Loi now suffers, and which led to the deaths last year of Mok a Kwai and Wong a Kwai, may not be entirely unconnected with the insufficient accommodation in the prison.

7. It is satisfactory to notice that the Board speak well of the dry earth system which was recently introduced, and of the way the prison discipline is now enforced.

8. Whilst recording their opinion that the evidence submitted to them respecting the effect.in producing phthisis of flugging Chinese on the bark was most inconclusive, they say the action of Dr. Ayres, the Colonial Surgeon, in bringing the matter under official notice, was "most commendable." I may here answer an inquiry made by the Earl of Carnarvon in the despatch No. 3 of January 1878.*

"I should wish to be informed," his Lordship says, "whether Dr. Ayres has ever, during his previous years of service, brought these facts to the notice of the Govern- ment, and if not, you will desire him to explain why he has not done so.’

A reference to one of the enclosures in Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy's despatch No. 40, of the 29th February 1877,† shows that Dr. Ayres brought this matter under official notice a few years ago. In his evidence before the Gaol Commission, which was transmitted in Sir Arthur Kennedy's' despatch, Dr. Ayres, on the 17th of January 1876, said :-

"I think a cane is better than a cat, and flogging on the breech. It is much more severe, and less dangerous than when administered on the back. The men often complain of pains in the chest and difficulty of breathing after being flogged on the "back."

This evidence was not noticed by the Gaol Commissioners in their Report, but, of course, for that Dr. Ayres is in no degree responsible.

9. That the rattan in use in the Hong Kong Gaol is a severer instrument than the cat appears to be also the opinion of Dr. Wells and Dr. O'Brien ; and, indeed, on the ground that it is too heavy a weapon and cuts too deep into the muscular tissues, they knots whatever. recommend a return, not to the knotted cat, but to a cat without Of the rattan of the Hong Kong Gaol they say :-

any

"It is generally forty-seven inches in length, but there is no regulation as to length. We consider the "The average circumference is two inches.

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"'rattan' too heavy a weapon, and its effects are very likely to go deep into the "cellular and muscular tissues, probably producing loss of substance by sloughing, and "thus for a long time delaying the healing of the wounds.”

10. There gentlemen support their opinion as to the great severity, with which the floggings with the rattan have been conducted by referring to some caves that came under their observation, one in which a prisoner flogged with the rattan on the 11th of May 1878 was found, on the 3rd of June, to be suffering from "a secondary abscess that had formed over the left hip joint." Another case they describe in which the wounds were not completely healed in six months :—

** A man who had been punished with 36 strokes of the rattan on the breech on the ** 1st March 1878 was examined on the 14th May. The wounds were not healed;

"there must have been sloughing from the evident loss of substance. On the exammation

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on the 3rd of June the wounds were not then healed though the ulcerated surface was on a level with the surrounding parts and looked healthy. Dr. O'Brien saw this man early in September; the wounds then were not completely healed."

M 850.

• No. 18.

↑ Not printed.

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