copy of Mr Reade : Merate on Hong Kory.
hu. 0.5306
"Please note the passage I have
i pencil as to treatment
uncommitted
"macked in
itted fuisoners
to have ho
"of Chinese
"Sweely we orglt "Extradition reaty with People of this description. I doubt the
e that
an ass cance
Value of an
" torture (ie legal torture) will.
not be afflied."
beeley
copy of minute by Lord Kimberling
"So do I. "
CT. 4, 1881.
The A.-C. Herald and C. & C. Gazette.
(3) To Juí-lien, Governor of Yunnan, reports that the weather throughout his jurisdiction has been, generally speaking, favourable this year. The rains ΠΟΣΟ reasonable, except just at the commence- ment of summer, when they were slightly excessive, rendering the working of the copper mines a matter of some difficulty. Some parts of the province however were not so fortunate, notably La-meng in the Sub-prefecture of Long-ling; for the hills in that vicinity suddenly last April gave birth to a water-dragon (H), and great destruction of property and devastation of crops together with the loss of over sixty lives was the result. A similar phenomenon occurred at Ho-shi Hsion, and was followed by a disastrone inundation. Memorialist is waiting further reports from the districts in question before suggesting to His Majesty the expediency of granting them extra time for the collection of this year's land-tax.Rescript: Noted.
September 2nd-(1) The censor Hsü K'o-kang brings to the Imperial notice the nature of the judicial procedure at the Office of Gendarmerie.. The preliminary hearing of any case, whatever may be its gravity, is entrusted to the hired clerks of the office, who give in their report to the Secretaries when these latter arrive at the yamên, which is seldom before 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Of the two rooms pro- vided for the detention of prisoners or witnesses in any pending suit, that label- led No. 4 contains a bucket and a rope bed, and No. 5 a bucket emitting a most offensive amell and a kong swarming with vermin. The men who are so unfortunate as to be confined in No. 5, what with the darop and stifling atmosphere and the horrible stench, despair, on entering, of being able to endure their sufferings for a single day. In the hearing of any case before the Secretaries, a quens of twisted hemp is wound tightly round the prisoner's forehead and he is made to kueel upon chains, this method of examination being styled the slow process of obtaining evidence # and lasting as a rule six or seven hours, throughout which time the queationers appear utterly indifferent to the pain the prisoner undergoes. Memo- rialist will take one case as an illustra tion. A certain Sun T-ch'ing, a youth not yet twenty, has been the victim of a plot entered into by Chiang Tuau-mu and à cashiered ounuch, who have forged a document purporting to be an acknow- ledgment of a debt of Tls. 10,000 odd due to them from Sun Tô-ch'ing, whom they have indicted at the Office of Gendarmerie. The case has been pending for eight mouths and during the course of his examination the unfortunate man has been subjected to severe torture no less than 30 times, not rockouing the form of torture known as ying ko chia and that which con- sists in being made to kueel on chains.
He has fainted frequently under his sufferings and his life is now despaired of. All this has taken place in open defiance of two laws, one of which forbids the excessive use of torture during the hot weather, and the other of which provides that the hearing of no case at the aforesaid yamên is to extend over 40 days. Memo rialist bags that the Board of Punishments may be directed to institute a thorough in- quiry into this case, and that the Office of Gendarmerie be forbidden to use forms of tortura aot recognised by law. Decree has appeared.
RECP
353
C. O.
5754
REGO 31 MAR 12
69
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