CO885(3-4) — Page 91

*137

XXVI. The Committee, therefore, in view of the whole question submitted for their consideration, are unanimous in their opinion that, should the transportation of the life and long prisoner be not possible, it is the duty of the Colony to construct a suitable gaol at Singapore for the due enforcement of prison discipline; and that this can best be effected by the erection of a prison, such as they have shown in Alternative Plan No. 3, at a probable cost, deducting the value of the present site, of about 150,000 dollars.

THIOS. SCOTT, President.

(Signed)

J. F. A. McNAIR,

Singapore, August 19, 1875.

JOHN CAMERON,

F. C. BISHOP,

h

Members.

Inclosure 5 in No. 21.

Plan of Criminal Gaol at Singapore, showing the Points referred to in the Report of the Committee on the Causes of the Outbreak.

No. 22.

PUBL

|ཝ

RD OFFICE

Reference -

CO 885

4 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

The Earl of Carnarvon to Governor Sir W. F. D. Jervois, R.E.K.C.M.G., C.B. (No. 191. Sir,

Straits Settlements.)

Downing Street, November 5, 1875.2

I HAVE to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 243 of the 21st of August,* forwarding the Report of the Committee which had been appointed by your Government to investigate the circumstances of the outbreak in Singapore Gaol.

2. I have abstained from replying to the several despatches which you have addressed to me in connection with this matter as I felt that it would be more convenient to reserve my comments for one general review of the whole matter, when, by the receipt of the Report which you now submit, I should have before me the whole of the materials for such a reply.

3. In the result I find that by so deferring my reply, I am relieved from the necessity of dealing in detail with many matters in which I am glad to find that your own views and action have been in accord with those which I should have recommended to you. Thus your declaration of opinion in favour of building a new prison on the cellular system at a short distance from town renders it needless again to press upon you the arguments in favour of the separate systern, wifich on so many occasions and in so many quarters it has been necessary to repeat, when through apathy or parsimony in various parts of Her Majesty's dominions they have been persistently disregarded.

4. With respect to your action in relation to the prisoners who were tried and convicted of participating in the murder of Mr. Dent, I have only to observe that I see no reason to dissent from the conclusions arrived at by yourself and your Legislative Council, as reported in your despatch No. 175 of the 11th of June last.†

5. With regard to the rewards by which you propose to mark your sense of the services rendered by the warders and the European prisoners, I bave to observe that the proposal to grant Mr. Lanib an annuity of 351. is a matter on which, for the present, I think it best to reserve my opinion.

The remission of the sentences of the European prisoners who aided in suppressing the outbreak is a measure probably somewhat in excess of what could be sanctioned by Her Majesty's Government in the case of an outbreak in an English convict prison; but the circumstances were critical, and I assume that the majority of the European prisoners were soldiers or sailors not committed for the ordinary offences against person and property, but for offences against the discipline of the military or mercantile marine code. If so, the signal service which they rendered at such a moment may properly be accepted as a repa- ration for the misconduct of which they may have been guilty.

6. The origin of the outbreak of February last has been very fully discussed in the Reports which you have submitted to me. The immediate cause of the prisoners' resent- ment was the severity of what is called the penal dict. The close association in which the structural inadequacy of the gaol allowed them to live, facilitated the formation of a conspiracy amongst men of a race who have a peculiar aptitude for secret combination.

That fatal laxity in the discharge of daily routine which has so often led to deplorable catastrophes, gave them the opportunity of preparing in the work-yard and

• No. 21. (404)

No. 60 of Miscellaneous No. 23

2 N