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1. We believe that a large proportion of the Chinese population of this place Its introduction will have a seriously demoralising effect on the Chinese resident in the Colony.
are opposed to this measure.
5. Gambling is at present equally illegal by British and by Chinese law, in every part of the two Empires. Only last Year the Governor of Canton took stringent measures for the suppression of Gambling in that City. The proposed measure will degrade both our civilization and our Christianity in the eyes of the Chinese people.
vice.
6. We believe that the Government has no right to countenance and sanction
By licensing Gambling Houses the Government will not only do this, but will actually protect and patronise that class of sharpers who make Gambling their regular profession, and live by praying on the community, and (which is still worse) will itself take a share of their ill-gotten gains.
For the above reasons we are compelled, though with much personal reluctance, to enter our solemn protest against this proceeding. We again thank Your Excellency for the patient hearing you gave to arguments opposed to your policy; and are sorry to be constrained to announce to you, that we cannot but take every possible measure, both here and in England, to obtain the reversal of this
scheme.
We
are, with great respect,
Your Excellency's
(Signed,)
Obedient humble Servants,
CHARLES J. WARREN, C.M.S.
JOHN PIPER.
RUDOLPH LECHLER.
11
JACOB LOERCHER.
19
DAVID B. MORRIS.
F. S. TURNER.
The Honorable Cecil C. Smith, Acting Colonial Secretary, to Reverend Charles J. Warren and Others.
GENTLEMEN,
1.
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 29th July, 1867.
I am instructed by His Excellency Sir RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL to that pressure of business has prevented his earlier acknowledging receipt of your letter of the 24th instant.
Say
2.
His Excellency is obliged to you for bringing before him once more your reasons for condemning the policy of liceusing Gambling Houses in this Colony. At the same time he cannot help remembering that Three of your number, at a recent interview, quite failed to give any satisfactory answer to his arguments in favor of that policy, and appeared entirely unprepared with any suggestions to meet acknowledged existing evils.
3. The Governor does not feel called on again to discuss the question at length, but is bound to give a direct denial of your assertion that "the measure has been "introduced in an underhand and un-English way." Such a statement is as untrue, as it is unreasonable to assert that a Law for the "maintenance of Order," is a title "under which no one would look for such a measure,"-i. e. for a measure designed to suppress illegal Gambling,-the present most fruitful source of disorders in the Colony,
4.
The Ordinance No. 8 of last Year was introduced publicly in Council, discussed publicly before Reporters of the Press, and contained the very same words as the amended Ordinance passed on the 17th of last Month, viz.: "to frame such "Rules and Regulations and conditions, as may be deemed expedient for the total "suppression, or in the meantime, for the better limitation and control of Gambling "in this Colony."
5. The Ordinance of last Year, like that of the present, contemplated if possi- ble the suppression, and, failing that, the limitation and control of Gambling. The Governor had then hopes that by increased exertions, Gambling could be put down, hopes which, after the greatest personal efforts, aided by equal exertions on the part of several Officers of the Police, he has been obliged to abandon, as he found the attempt only led to the continued corruption of the Police on whose efficiency the security of the lives and property of the community mainly depends.
6. Those efforts moreover drove the incorrigible and numerous Chinese Gamblers of the Colony to resort to secret lairs, to live in a perpetual defiance of the law, and thus established numerous rendezvous of the worst classes, where nine-tenths of the burglaries and daring crimes perpetrated were planned.
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