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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 22ND SEPTEMBER, 1877.
Subsequently, in visiting the prison with Dr. AYRES, the Colonial Surgeon, he explained to me that WONG-A-KWAI, who is now so decrepid and broken down, had been, when first committed to the Hongkong prison, a man of powerful frame and robust health, but that he had been brought to his present state by the punishments he received. Dr. AYRES said the prisoner was now labouring unde an incurable pulmonary disease; that he frequently suffered from hemorrhage of the lungs, and that this was owing to the way in which he had been flogged.
I requested the Colonial Surgeon to make a written report on the case for my information, and called for a report from the Acting Superintendent on WONG-A-Kwar's prison history. The latter I have not yet received, but I have now the honour to lay before your Lordship a copy of Dr. AYRES' report In addition to what he says about the case of this particular prisoner, the Colonial Surgeon makes the following statement:--
"I have noticed that in all floggings of Chinese by the cat, that they suffer, besides the extemal "injury of the skin, more or less from congestion of the lungs afterwards, and in old case: "where the floggings have been severe, irreparable injury has been done.'
He shows that owing to the peculiar physical constitution of the Chinese, this mode of punishment, though so fatal to them, is not similarly injurious to Europeans.
He points out another objection to the mode of flogging on the back, that it leaves scars, which, in this climate, where the lower classes are stripped to their waist at work, expose a discharged prisoner
to a sort of permanent punishment; and he suggests that the discipline of the Indian prisons, which be considers more humane, should be adopted here.
He adds: take it that the intention of the punishment of flogging is not to inflict a lifelong
“injury, which, as at present conducted upon Chinese prisoners, it does, as I have shown u
more ways than one.'
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Pending your Lordship's decision on Dr. AYRES' suggestions and on the points raised in my despatch No. 55 of the 6th July, I have suspended all public floggings and all floggings of the Chinese on the back. The only punishment of this kind to which I now give my sanction is flogging with a rattan in the way suggested by the Colonial Surgeon.
(Signed)
I have, &c.,
J. POPE HENNESSY,
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 22ND SEPTEMBER, 1877.
His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy to The Right Honourable the Earl of Carnarvon.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 30th August, 1877.
421
MY LORD,-In connection with my despatch of the 22nd of August, respecting the increase of crime in Hongkong for the last ten years, I caused a return to be extracted from the books of the Gaol, showing the number of floggings, and of prisoners flogged, during the same period.
I have the honour to lay a copy of this return before your Lordship. It will be seen that the total number of floggings from 1867 to 1876 inclusive was 1,945.
Taking the average for periods of five years, it appears that the annual number of floggings from 1867 to 1871 was 173; and that the annual number from 1872 to 1876 had increased to 215.
I have, &c., (Signed,) J. POPE HENNESSY,
Governor.
Governor.
His Excellency Governor Pope Hennessy to The Right Honourable the Earl of Carnarvon.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 23rd August, 1877.
MY LORD,--Seeing in the Times of the 23rd of June an abstract of a Parliamentary Paper that appears to have been issued last session, showing the number of corporal punishments inflicted o prisoners in the United Kingdom from April, 1871, to July, 1876, inclusive, I caused a similar retur to be prepared, for your Lordship's information, respecting floggings in this Colony.
The number of floggings of criminals in Hongkong from April, 1871, to July, 1876, amounted to 1,149. As some individuals had been sentenced to two or three floggings, the actual number o prisoners flogged was 902.
Appending the number of floggings here, to the abstract published in the Times, the comparativeļ statement stands thus:-
Number of Floggings from April, 1871, to July, 1876.
England,
Scotland,
Ireland,
Hongkong,
Population.
.4.988
24,000,000
679
3,400,000
34
5,250,000
..1,140
140,000
I have, &c.,
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY,
Governor.
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