CO129-128 - Public Offices & Others - 1867 — Page 715

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which the Government are aliout to introduce, especially inasmuch as those incasures harmonise with the policy which we believe to be the only one in conexion with Chinese gambling in accordance wit sound sense, that of regulating and tolerating under restrictions w It is ridiculous and hopeless to attempt suppressing.

The Home Government have of course been strongly averse to the concession which the necessities of such a case so gently requlei. To brave the puritanical element of English public opinion, so far us to consent to the legalisation of gambling-houses in any part of the QUEEN's dominions, must have been an effort, but in the case of Hongkong the peculiarities of the situation formed an irresistible arguiment in favour of making the colony an exception to rules which might be sound enough in application to other places. The popale- tion of Hongkong to be affected by any legislation relating to gam- bling is the floating Chinese population of 140,000 or so, for of course the European clement, though it might visit cambling-houses were they legalised, would not mainly support them. In precoding, therefore, to repress gambling on moral grounds, we have been attempting to wean the Chinese people from their darling sin. We say the Chinese people, because the very fact that the native popula- tion of Hongkong is of an unstable and changing a character makes it impossible to bring the same influences continuously to hear on the same set of people. Even assuming that this were possible, it might be considered that for practical purposes it would be sufficiently absurd to attempt reforming 140,000 people so wedded to the prin ciples of gambling that it has been said the humblest class of itinerant hawkers are frequently in the habit of gambling with their customers for the change out of a purchase amounting to a few cash. When. however, the question is raised into cue concerning the possibility of reforming the gambling tendencies of the Chinese race, we should sty that even Exeter Hall would be ashamed of the monstrous hypocrisy of pretending to sacrifice any substantial advantage on behalf of such a pharisalcal attempt. And it must be remembered that a very great deal has been sacrificed hitherto on the altar of Exeter Hall prejudices. The purity and honor of the police force have boon sacrificed, and the lower class of the Chinese population in the colony has been kept in a perpetual state of warfare with the authorities by the raids the police have made on the illicit gambling- houses, their respect for law being in this way undermined. The folly of persevering in the present system has been acknowledged more and more widely, and the Governor himself at lust, comminced that his Government was engaged on a hopeless and mischievou endeavour, kas, we suppose, been arguing the point with the Home

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Government until at lust the required permission has been obtained The Secretary of State has withdrawm the absolute orders against the toleration of gambling-houses, which previously embarrassed action of this Government, and the system of licensing gambling-houses will, we understand, he shortly--say within the next six wacks-introduced in Ilongkong.

This is a great event, a great revolution in the habits and customs of English communities, but whatever views we may hold as to the viciousness or otherwise of gambling in the abstract, it can scarcely be doubted that the great preponderance of opinion here will be in favor of the change. That the introduction of a new system will be the means of augmenting the revenue in on absolutely painless manner, und to a large extent, is a consuleration which need not be left out of sight when the change has been determined on, on other grounds, but we are perfectly sure that it has not been allowed to weigh to any appreciable extent with the Governinent as an argument in favor of adopting the proposed system of hoonses. That system. has been determined on because it has become necessary to regulate what cannot be suppressed, to put an end to the corrupt state of the police force by cutting the ground from under the feet of the men in receipt of bribos, to abandon a code of laws based on a morality. which the Chinese subjected to them could not comprehend. No British Government is likely to be accused eyes of a design to make money out of the sins and follies of lis subjects, but it is to be hoped that no British Government will remain the victim of folly which is worse than that of the gambler, the puritanical folly of people who would earn a cheap reputation for virtue at the cost of their neigh- bours, or, as Thomas Hoon phrases it

"Compound for sins they are incliner to

"By ding those they have no mind to." We are not yet aware of the exact details of the arrangements which the GOVERNOR has determined on in reference to the modo of carrying out a system of licenses, or, indeed, that those details have heen yet settled. It is said that the monopolist of the Macao gambling-houses has offered $300,000 a year for the monopoly in Hongkong, but the Government, we are disposed to think, will be reluctant at first, at any rate to take anything like as much money as will be offered, through a fear of being accused of rushing into this enterprise in defiance of principle in order to recruit the exhausted finurice of the colony. Indeed, there will be nothing in the nature of an open sale to one individual of all the gambling licences in the colony. The system will no doubt be introduced tentatively and under very strict police supervision. Still conscious of its own inte-