CO129-188 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [5-6] — Page 113

110

end of 1879.

after

3.

I wo or

three months

I had assumed the

Government of this Colony, I drew Lord barnarvon's attention to

the large number of floggings in Hong Kong and to the undue severity, in

some cases leading,

in the opinion of the Colonial Surgeon, to loss of life, with which

the lash had been applied.

observed

that in

no other part

of Her Majesty's Empire was -

there

a

code of laws giving -

such extensive power of flogging,

but, I added

"Looking however to the

"theory held by intellegent Europeand

" here as to the specially criminal

"

character

of

the native population

of the bolony, and to the views

" of experienced European officials "and other gentlemen who have "lived in Hong Kong for many

that flogging years, that

flogging is one of the

"best modes of dealing with “Chinese criminals, I am not

prepared, without careful

very

"enquiry and much greater. "consideration than I have yet "been able to give to the subject.

to recommend a

more humane

Looking