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66 રી few months
perly made the subject of representation to the Government back")-you purchased in conjunction with another public officer six notorious brothels, and that and Mr. Masson are now the registered owners of the same, and that you are at this moment receiving an augmentation of nearly fifty per cent upon the rental paid previously to your obtaining possession.
you
"It is obvious that such a state of things must be attended with public scandal and cannot be allowed to continue.-I have, &c.
CHARLES MAY, Esq."
"W. T. MERCER," "Colonial Secretary."
POLICE DEPARTMENT, HONGKONG,
14th September, 1855."
"SIR,-Having yesterday afternoon received intimation from you that His Excellency the Governor desired to have farther information on the subject of certain disresputable houses situated on Lyndhurst Terrace, which formed the subject of your letters to me No. 401,* dated 18th July, and No. 402, dated 19th July--
"I have the honor to acquaint you for His Excellency's knowledge that impelled by His Excellency's views no less than by my own desire on the matter I have effectually removed all the objectionable tenants alluded to and taken measures to prevent a re-occupation of the houses in the same manner. My letter to you dated 19th July expressed that when the property was purchased, four months since, the owners clearly made known to every person that their inten- tion was to clear out the bad class of person who had for so long a period inha- bited the houses; I now respectfully iterate that statement, and in addition beg to express to you that although I was aware there would be some difficulty met with, I was certain that in a short time I could carry out the intention-it was partially this object which induced the owners to retain in their own hands the direct control of the property, being assured that in the hands of any other it would maintain its old character. I have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
"C. MAY," “Superintendent of Police."
The Honorable W. T. MERCER, Esq.,"
"Colonial Secretary.”
* In error, should be No. 398.
Finding in Mr. The room being cleared the Council deliberated—
May's case.
The Council unanimously agreed that Mr. Caldwell had not only failed to substantiate any one of his charges, but that he had no grounds whatever to justify him in bringing these charges against Mr. May.
The Council were further of opinion that the explanations voluntarily offered by Mr. May
in reference to these charges were satisfactory.
As regards the allegations and insinuations against Mr. May contained in the printed pamphlet published by Mr. Caldwell and called "a Vindication," the Council were of opinion (1) that the allusion at page 22, already referred to, as to wealthy Officers in the Police taking bribes, was calculated to lead to the supposition that Mr. May was pointed at, and that there was no justification for such an insinua- tion, and the Council had listened with surprise to Mr. Caldwell's asseverations that in the words used he had no intention of alluding to Mr. May; (2) that the statement at page 23, of Mr. May being a notorious owner of Brothels, ought in justice to have been accompanied by the mention of the fact, that from the date of Mr. May becoming the purchaser of the property in question he had taken the most active measures to dispossess these tenants, and succeeded in doing so within four months; (3) that the account given at pages 24 and 25 as to the escape of the women from Attai's brothel into Mr. May's house was false, and was known
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by Mr. Caldwell to be false when published by him in his "Vindication." As re- gards this misstatement the Council found that Mr. Caldwell had (in the words of the Chief Magistrate) "sworn before the Justices to a fact which the slightest care would have shown him not only did not take place, but which could not 'possibly have taken place;" that such statement was most prejudicial to the character of a brother officer (Mr. May) with whom he (Mr. Caldwell) was on unfriendly terms; that when shown his error he neither corrected his evidence, nor offered any apology to the brother officer whom he had unjustly traduced; and that he subsequently repeated the misstatement, before the Caldwell Com- mission of Inquiry, and again in his "Vindication," on both occasions knowing, as he now admitted, that it was incorrect.
With reference to the general question as to Mr. May's conduct in the matter of the Caldwell and Anstey charge, and the propriety of retaining him in the Govern- ment employment (subjects referred to His Excellency the Governor for enquiry and report in the Secretary of State's Confidential Despatches of the 11th January, and 27th July, 1860) the Council found that Mr. May's conduct in the case referred to, had already been made the subject of a very full and search- ing official investigation before the Executive Council in the year 1858, the result of which was communicated to the Secretary of State in Sir John Bowring's Despatch No. 144 of 1st November 1858.
This Despatch with all the papers connected with the enquiry in 1858 (printed in the Blue Book laid before Parliament, see pages 243 to 260) having been carefully considered by the Executive Council, as also a letter from Mr. Davies,* the late Chief Magistrate, attached to the Minutes of this day's proceedings, and no new facts as to Mr. May's conduct in the Caldwell and Anstey case and the matter of Mah-chow Wong's Books, having been elicited during the course of the present Investigation,--the Council concurred in the conclusion arrived at by the Executive Council on the 25th October 1858,-that Mr. May greatly erred in furnishing information of an important character to a local newspaper instead of submitting such information to the Government; but the Council considered that the censure then passed was a sufficient punishment for the offence, the more especially as Mr. May, when such censure was conveyed to him, "admitted the perfect justice and propriety" thereof, and "expressed his deep regret that his conduct had brought him under its weight."
As regards the further opinion expressed by the Executive Council in the Resolution of the 25th October 1858, that Mr. May "had been actuated by an unfriendly "animus in the part he took in the Caldwell Commission Inquiry," it appeared to the Council that Mr. Caldwell and Mr. May were on good terms until the year 1857, when bad feeling arose between them, in consequence of the part taken by cach with regard to Mah-chow Wong, who was in that year sentenced to trans- portation for 15 years for confederating with Pirates, and who was at the present time a Convict in Labuan. Mr. May, being firmly convinced of Mah-chow Wong's guilt, zealously and successfully exerted himself to bring him to justice. Mr. Caldwell, on the other hand, (who had been for years the steady supporter of Mah-chow Wong) expressed himself satisfied of his innocence, and exerted himself with equal zcal in his behalf, both before and after his conviction. Ile denounced Mr. May's exertions in the opposite direction as persecution of an inno- cent man, and resented them as personal to himself, attributing them to jealousy on Mr. May's part at his (Mr. Caldwell's) having been repeatedly able to obtain, through Mah-chow Wong, information for the Government which Mr. May had failed to procure.
To this disagreement could be traced all the incrimination and recrimination which subsequently took place between these two Officials, and which, pursued as it was with considerable acrimony, resulted in their private affairs being on several occasions unnecessarily and improperly dragged before the public. Under these circumstances it appeared to the Council unnecessary to enter into any investigation as to the extent of the "unfriendly animus" with which any one of these subsequent proceedings was conducted, but they considered it fair to Mr. May to record that Mr. Caldwell appears to have been the assailant in the first instance, and to have commenced by a most unjustifiable attack upon Mr. May in the matter of Attai's Brothel. As regards also the original cause of
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