1841-1886
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
#
+
243
37. Three years ago I reported to Her Majesty's Government that the opium smugglers who make this Colony the base of their operations are a desperate class. I transmitted police reports, showing that they fit out here with the necessary armaments and proceed to do battle with the Chinese Revenue cruisers within sight of the Colony. In these battles sometimes Revenue Officers are killed and sometimes the smugglers. The latter will refit here or at Macao after a skirmish, purchase cannon and ammunition, and again attack the Chinese cruisers. A few months ago wounded men of both sides were brought to our hospital.
+
#
38. In this way Hong Kong and Macao maintain a sort of chronic opium war with China on a small scale.
39. I hope Sir Thomas Wade's plan, or any other just scheme by which the Chinese Government might get their lawful Revenue, may be soon carried into effect, for the existing system is injurious to legitimate trade, and endangers the friendly relations it is the true interest of this Colony to maintain with China.
Crime, Prison Discipline, and Flogging.
40. In acknowledging the receipt of a Despatch from my predecessor, on certain matters of prison discipline, Lord Carnarvon instructed me in June 1877 "to review the whole question of prison discipline in Hong Kong, and to make such proposals as would place the system upon a sound basis for the future." In doing this I found that in 1875 Sir Arthur Kennedy had appointed a commission on the subject, in consequence of the large number of old offenders brought before the magistrates; and in September 1876 he had reported to the Secretary of State that the returns for 1876 would show a "serious increase of crime in Hong Kong;" on visiting the gaol I ascertained that the Chinese prisoners were kept in associated cells, that there was no attempt at a reformatory discipline, that the turnkeys and guards were not well suited for such posts, and that for some years an experiment had been tried in dealing with crime and criminals according to a system unknown in any other part of the empire; the history of this experiment is not without some general interest, and it explains, to some extent, the proposals I made, and which Her Majesty's Government have sanctioned.
41. The treatment of criminals in Hong Kong had been carefully considered by one of the ablest of my predecessors, Sir Hercules Robinson; he pointed out the defects as to size and locality of the old prison in the centre of the town of Victoria; he recommended the building of a new prison on an Island in the harbour on a site that admitted of extension and of large yards suitable for reformatory labour; he also recommended a definite system of remission of sentences according to a scale to be communicated to the prisoners. Mr. Cardwell approved of the Governor's proposals.
42. In three years a gaol was built on Stone Cutter's Island, and the conditions on which prisoners could earn the remission
619
1841-1886
HER MAJESTY'S COLONIAL POSSESSIONS.
#
+
243
37. Three years ago I reported to Her Majesty's Government that the opium smugglers who make this Colony the base of their operations are a desperate class I transmitted police reports, showing that they fit out here with the necessary armaments and proceed to do battle with the Chinese Revenue cruisers within sight of the Colony. In these battles sometimes Revenue Officers are killed and sometimes the smugglers. The latter will refit here or at Macao after a skirmish, purchase cannon and ammunition, and again attack the Chinese cruisers. A few months ago wounded men of both sides were brought to our hospital.
+
#
38. In this way Hong Kong and Macao maintain a sort of chronic opium war with China on a small scale.
妻
3.39. I hope Sir Thomas' Wade's plan, or any other just scheme by which the Chinese Government might get their lawful Revenue, may be soon carried into effect, for the existing system is injurious to legitimate trade, and endangers the friendly relations it is the true interest of this Colony to maintain with China,
+
Crime, Prison Discipline, and Flogging.
I
40. In acknowledging the receipt of a Despatch from my predecessor, on certain matters of prison discipline, Lord Car- narvon instructed me in June 1877 "to review the whole question "of prison discipline in Hong Kong, and to make such proposals "as would place the system upon a sound basis for the future." In doing this I found that in 1875 Sir Arthur Kennedy had appointed a commission on the subject, in consequence of the large number of old offenders brought before the magistrates ; and in September 1876 he had reported to the Secretary of State that the returns for 1876 would show a "serious increase of crime in Hong Kong;" on visiting the gaol I ascertained that the Chinese prisoners were kept in associated cells, that there was no attempt at a reformatory discipline, that the turnkeys and guards were not well suited for such posts, and that for some years an experi- iment had been tried in dealing with crime and criminals according to a system unknown in any other part of the empire; the history of this experiment is not without some general interest, and it explains, to some extent, the proposals I made, and which Her Majesty's Government have sanctioned.
41. The treatment of criminals in Hong Kong had been care- fully considered by one of the ablest of my predecessors, Sir Hercules Robinson; he pointed out the defects as to size and locality of the old prison in the centre of the town of Victoria; he recommended the building of a new prison on an Island in the harbour on a site that admitted of extension and of large yards suitable for reformatory labour; he also recommended a definite system of remission of sentences according to a scale to be com- municated to the prisoners. Mr. Cardwell approved of the Governor's proposals.
42. In three years a gaol was built on Stone Cutter's Island, and the conditions on which prisoners could earn the remission
619
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.