Copy depositions in Police Court, case 517
1858.
Letter from Mr. May
to Messrs. Bridges, Anstey, and Davies,
9th March, 1858.
Dr. Bridges to Mr.
May, 11th Mar., 1858.
Mr. May to Dr. Bridges, 12th March, 1858.
Inspector Jarman
to Mr. May, 10th
March, 1858.
Inspector Jarman
to Mr. May, 12th
March, 1858.
Minute of Acting Colonial Secretary to His Excellency Sir J. Bowring, 12th March,
18.78.
Elgin Street.
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On
It is a private house, and therefore I did not go into it. The house belongs to a Government Official. I registered the house as belonging to Mr. May, when the Portuguese woman who was occupying it was asked whose it was. That is the reason I did not go in. Had it been a Chinese house I should have gone in. I know the 5th defendant has been fined here before for keeping a house to which prostitutes resort. Sunday night last, I visited the house of 4th defendant in Wellington Street No. 601 outside of the privileged districts. I went into it, and there I found a girl sitting outside one of the rooms, and inside, but above, on a small loft two other girls secreted." I then got a light and found two more. While I was directing the defendant to come to the Station for keeping a brothel, she saying that she had just come from Canton-three Europeans came in, two civilians, and one military officer. They walked into one of the rooms and an older woman said they must go away. I left the house, and the men came out afterwards. I did not speak to them. These women appeared in dress, &c., to be prostitutes with white trowsers, and the house was fitted up as a brothel for Europeans. I heard one of the women say "I have white trowsers on, I cannot come down.” Chaste women, married or single, do not wear white cotton trowsers. The defendant or the old woman said "never mind, say you're kept by a Parsee." They were strangers here, and say they have lately come from Canton. I did not speak Chinese at first. The European visitors went directly to one of the rooms. In answer to 5th defendant. You did say you had no girls in the house and could not let me in, you said this in English; you said why you fine me, when you do not fine others. I have had complaints of the house before. The house is fitted up as a brothel. In answer to 4th defendant.-The military officer was in English service.
should
1st, 2nd, and 3rd Defendants discharged.
5th Defendant to pay a fine of $75, in default imprisonment for one month. 4th Defendant to pay a fine of $40, in default one month's imprisonment.
Mr. Davies' Report.
H. TUDOR DAVIES, Chief Magistrate.
"HONGKONG, Friday, 19th March, 1858."
"SIR,-1.-On Tuesday last your Excellency placed in my hands the docu- ments notified in the margin and herewith returned, and you desired that I should fully report to you on all the matters to which they relate for your guidance in coming to a decision on the action it would befit you to take.
"2.—I have now the honor to report to your Excellency as follows:-
"The subject matters of the documents are a charge by the Superintendent of Police (Mr. May) against the Registrar General (Mr. Caldwell), and a charge by the Acting Colonial Secretary (Dr. Bridges) against the Superintendent of Police (Mr. May.)
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"3.-Mr. May's charge against Mr. Caldwell is that the latter did with 'culpable negligence" state on oath before myself, as sitting Magistrate, in the investigation of a case of unlicensed brothel keeping, that certain prostitutes es- caped from the brothel into a neighbouring house registered in Mr. May's name: that Mr. Caldwell made this statement unnecessarily; and that in doing so he was actuated by the impure suggestions of private malice.
That the
"4.-That Mr. Caldwell made such statement there is no doubt. statement that the women escaped into a house said to be Mr. May's is entirely false is equally beyond doubt; as it is also elcar from Mr. Jarman's letter that the slightest care on Mr. Caldwell's part would have prevented him from inaking such a statement. Whether the house was registered in Mr. May's name does not appear quite clear.
"5.--However hostile Mr. Caldwell's feelings towards Mr. May may be, it was certainly not at the dictate of such feelings that he made his statements, for he made them necessarily and not unnecessarily in direct answer to questions put by myself; and I am bound to add that he did so tardily and as it seemed to me with reluctance:-This I have already told Mr. May in answer to that gentle- man's circular letter to Dr. Bridges, Mr. Anstey, and myself.
6.But Mr. May charges Mr. Caldwell with having shewn not merely negligence but culpable negligence; and from Mr. May's violent language it is manifest that he means not simply negligence, culpable as it must always be in such a case, but in the highest degree culpable.
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❝7.—-Mr. Caldwell and Mr. May are, for the purposes of carrying out the Ordinance under which the case came, joint Superintendents of Police. Mr. Cald- well knew that the fact of prostitutes escaping from an unlicensed brothel into a house registered in the name of a person, whose especial duty it was to prosecute such brothels, was a fact most darnaging to the character of that person. From the nature of the fact therefore, from the peculiar official position of Mr. May, from the official relation of Mr. May to Mr. Caldwell, and from their asserted mutual hostility, it was manifestly the duty of the latter to have exhibited the most anxious care and to have most jealously watched himself that in ascertain- ing such a fact, and in swearing to it, he was not in error.-Instead of this he swears to a fact which the slightest care would have shewn him not only did not take place, but which could not possibly have taken place. Surely we cannot be surprized that Mr. May stigmatizes such conduct as culpable negligence. Were Mr. Caldwell and Mr. May Chinese, whose characters were unknown to me, I should think a far severer epithet more applicable: but in Mr. Caldwell's case I am convinced it was negligence in the highest degree culpable, and I am happy to add that I am as strongly convinced that it was nothing worse.
Such being my opinion, I cannot express any surprize at Mr. May's extreme indignation, and that he has been hurried into imputing dishonorable motives to Mr. Caldwell and into using language which in a calmer mood he might have avoided.•
8.-Dr. Bridges' charge against Mr. May is that the latter has neglected his duty as Superintendent of Police, not merely in " tacitly opposing in every possible way" the carrying out of an Ordinance which it was his especial duty actively to enforce, but that he has actively "encouraged offenders," and that he generally sacrifices his duty to his private concerns. He also complains of the tone of Mr. May's letters towards him, and of Mr. May's past and present immo- rality in keeping a mistress, and of the deteriorating influence of tliat immorality on the Police, when that mistress was kept in his official quarters.
"9.-On the latter part of these charges I conceive that it is not within my province to speak. As to the passive and active opposition offered by Mr. May to the enforcement of the Ordinance against brothels, Dr. Bridges states that Mr. May has rarely given him satisfaction, and that he has tacitly opposed it in every way from the commencement. Dr. Bridges has doubtless more facts to bring in support of this charge, but in the present documents one only is stated, viz:— that Mr. May, being Superintendent of Police, suffered a most notorious unlicensed brothel to exist, notwithstanding that Dr. Bridges had himself informed him of its existence some 10 days before its proprietor was charged at the Police Court, and although Mr. May must have been fully aware of its existence, as he kept a mistress within a door or two of the brothel.
"10.-It is not proved that Mr. May did keep a mistress at the house men- tioned nor is it denied. I shall therefore leave this allegation out of my consi- deration. It is admitted by Mr. May that Dr. Bridges did speak to him on the subject of the brothel, and Mr. May states that he thinks he gave Inspector Jar- man orders to watch the house.
11. That the house was a brothel, or certainly a house frequented by prostitutes, and one most glaringly disreputable and disorderly, I was myself aware, as were other persons whom I could name. It was in a well known and frequented street, and had existed for some time. The mistress had been recently charged and convicted under the old law of keeping a house to which prostitutes resorted.
"12. That the Superintendent of Police therefore should have been ignorant of its existence is in the highest degree surprizing. That he, whose duty it was to seek out secret brothels which shuumed the light should not have known of one that impudently courted the noon-day blaze is certainly indicative of negligence. That after having had it mentioned to him, he should not in ten days have taken any active measures for its suppression is inconceivable. Who can wonder there- fore that Dr. Bridges should believe that Mr. May sinned with his eyes open, and that he acted in intentional and direct opposition to his positive duty?
13. It is not competent for me to bring in evidence my previous knowledge of Mr. May's character, otherwise I should shew why I do not be
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