CO129-188 - Governor Hennessy - 1880 [5-6] — Page 206

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1866 without

any legislative sanction

and without Lord Kimberley's Knowledge.

We alludes to an indignation meeting He

of certain persons held to protest - against the cessation of this illegal practice,

and to the statements made by the gentlemen concerned, as to the increase of serious crimes that would

follow the abolition of branding. The allegations put before Lord Kimberley in the speeches and the memorial of the indignation meeting, did not, ~ probably, carry very much weight, but the actual statements in the

were,

to all

Governor's despatch appearance, precise, and being seemingly based on the results of

save

deliberate investigation, pointed to the necessity of extraordinary measures to Hongkong from being overwhelmed by a flood of Chinese criminals from the mainland. In paragraph 4 of the despatch, the Governor says:-

#

"As soon as the effect of the

cessation of the measure had had

"

#

"

time to make itself felt in the

Colony,

erime began

to

once more-

gather

to a head until, by the

summer

of 1871, it had assumed

proportions probably hitherto unknown. A number of desperadoes

whose education in the arts of

crime had been perfected by

contact with other scoundrels in