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5. Prejudged and prejudiced as the matter has been from the first under a aisapprehension of the circumstance, as set forth by interested parties before the Captain Superintendent, it has been unfortunately farther prejudiced by certain cases that have cropped up recently against men of the type of Guada Singh, but your Petitioner unflinchingly believes that his conduct in the matter of the alleged transaction with Da Rocha will bear thorough investigation, and that he also confidently believes that he will come out of that inquiry without the slightest tar or tarnish on bis character, and that he will be saved from the ignominy attaching to a dismissal.
6.--Your Petitioner, therefore, carnestly prays that, taking all the circumstances respectfully arged by him in this and the previous Petitions, your Excellency will be graciously pleased not to condemn a servaut of the Crown in the position of your Petitioner unheard, but that your Excellency will bo pleased to appoint an independent Commission of Inquiry to foxually investigate the conduct of the Petitioner in the transaction attributed with Da Rocha, and to act on the Report of the Commission. Your Petitioner cannot but entertaiu an honest belief that such an inquiry will prove him not guilty of any breach attributed to him of any of the Rules and Regulatious, in forec at the time the alleged transaction was said to have taken place, for the general government and discipline of the Police.
7-Or, if the appointment of an independent Commission of Inquiry be doomed inexpedient by your Excellency, your Petitioner humbly prays that your Excellency will be pleased to review, on the grounds arged by him, you Excellency's decision as to the dismissal of the Petitioner from the Police Force, or to so far modify your Excellency's decision as to grant to your Petitioner the pension honestly accruing to hiru after almost the service of a lifetime, and to which your Petitioner ventures to say in this Petition atau hardly any member of the Indian Police Force can now lay claim.
8. And Your Petibona will ever pray, de., &c.
Si
Dated this 24th day of April, 1897.
|||
UTTER SINGH,
LATE INDIAN SERGEANT-Major
HONGKONG POLICE FORCE.
HONGKONG, 4th June, 1897.
On behalf of myself and the signatories 1 have the honour to forward the enclosed Petition respecting the case of Ex-Sergeant Major Utter Singh, of the Police Force, which I beg you will please place before His Excelleney The Governor for his favourable consideration.
I have the honour to be,
Sic,
Your most oberlient servant.
E. PABANEY.
To
THE HONOURABLE
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
COLONIAL SECHETARY.
3-Your Petitioners heard with grent regret that on the 3rd day of December, 1896, the said Utter Singh was dismissed from the said Police Force by the Honourable the Captain Superintendent of Police for an alleged breach of the Police regulations, and that he was thus not only deprived of the pension and gramity that had accrued to him after any years of hard and faithful service, but that also the ignominy of a dismissal was inflicted on him.
4.-Your Petitioners believe that the circumstances which led to the dismissal of Utter Singh were arr alleged implication in some money-lending transaction, said to have transpired some three years ago, and that being implicated, as alleged, in such transaction was and is against the regulations of the said Police Force.
5-Your Petitioners are informed that all the circumstances attaching to the alleged money-leading transaction have been duly set forth in representations made to your Excellency by Utter Singh, but your Petitioners extremely regret that the redress which the said Utter Singh seeks, on the plea of not guilty, has been absolutely denied to him. Your Petitioners further regret that, beyond a certain informal procedure of inquiry adopted by the Captain Superintendent of Police, Utter Singh was never definitely informed of the exact nature of the charges nude against him, and your Petitioners, therefore, respectfully submit that he had not had those opportunities of meeting those charges as could have thoroughly exculpated him in the eyes of his superior officer, though in the informal inquiry roade as to an alleged lending of fifty dollars some three years ago to one Da Rocha, a telephone clerk in the Central Police Station, it has out failed to come ont most prominently that Da Rocha repeated ono story before the Captain Superintendent under that officer's previous inquiry in Utter Singh'e abscnee, but radically subverted it when confronted with him, so much so that the Captain Superintendent was not slow to tax him severely for so prevaricating. This circumstance cannot but have a double bearing. First, that the informal inquiry had not been sufficient enough for eliciting the facts of the case, and, secondly, that the safeguards. instrumental to guarding against deliberate prevarication had been altogether wanting in the Captain Superintendent's informal inquiry.
6. Your Petitioners will not pretend to shield the said Utter Singh from the just penalty of any breach of Police Regulations, but your Petitioners feel that the exceptional severity with which he has been condemned and dealt with almost unheard, and the extent of the punishment indicted on him, have not been folly appreciated by your Excellency, and your Petitioners cannot but regret that that severity is further enhanced many fold whet Utter Singh's prayer for an independent Comission of Inquiry rentins altogether unheeded.
7-Your Petitioners canact bat be aware that under a misapprehension of the circumstances, as set forth by interested parties before the Captain Superintendent, Utter Singh's case has from the first been prejudged and prejudiced, and that. It has been farther prejudiced by certain aspects of the Sikh characteristica thur have cropped up against them in some of the cuses that were recently heard in the Sapreme Court. But your Petitioners beg to observe that, on the whole,. the Sikhs are not so very black as they are painted. That they are not exempt from certain failings your Petitioners can hardly gainsay. They have, as Sir Lepel Griffin, a former Licut.-Governor of the Punjab has described them, "as keen a knowledge of the value of money, and as great a love of saving us the Scotch." But that they are digráfied, sober, and orderly men, obedient to discipline, and devotedly attached to their officers is also a certificate that goes from. the very same eminent authority.
8-Your Petitioners have all along observed that Etter Singh, like unto many others in the Police Force of this Colony, is a type representing the latter characteristics, and though possibly he may go under the former category as well, still your Petitioners believe that that being a trait common to many nations is no bar to a prayer for fair hearing on the true merits of his individual case, and that, therefore, your Petitioners venture to approuch your Excellency with a very respectful prayer that your Excellency may be pleased to review your decision in Utter Singh's case, and to grant that redres and that justice to him which the merits of his case, in conjunction with the consideration of his long and faithful service of nearly eighteen years, entitle him to as a servant of the Crown.
And Your Petitioners will ever pray, ke..
HONGKONG, 31st May, 1897..
E. PABANEY.
F. D. STNA,
B. L. RATTLIWALLÀ.
To
HIS EXCELLENCY
SUR WILLIAM ROBINSON, KCMEL,
GOVERNOR AND COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE COLONY OF HONGKONG AND
DEPENDENCIES AND VICE-ADMIRAL OF THE SAME.
THE HUMBLE PETITION OF THE UNDERSIGNED INDIAN BRITISH MERCHANTS, TRADERS AND OTHERS RESIDING IN THE COLONY OF HONGKONG.
STEWED:-
1.-Your Petitioners are Indian Merchants, Thaders and loyal subjects of Her Majesty Queen of Crest. Britain and Empress of India, and energing on business in Hongkong aut elsewhere.
2-They have known Otter Singh, late Indian Sergeant-Major of the Hongkong Police Force, for a uwaber of yours, aud have every reason to believe that as n Police Officer be has served Her Majesty the Empress in the Hongkong Police for upwards of eighteen years, and has daring that time by his good conduct deservedly crued the respect and confidence of all his superior officers, as he has done of your Petitioners, and that your Petitioners could not but feel gratified that such condnet deservedly rented him the promotion, in 1896, to the highest rank the Indian section of the Hongkong Police Force could aspire to, that is to the rank of Sergeant-Major.
P. N. DUALLA,
B. D. MUNSHEE.
A. B. T'ALATI,
D. D. TALATI,
E. D. KOTWAL.
C. B. MoWEAWALLA,
>
e. A. CAMROOINN..
C. II. EBRAHIM,
A. G. BUSRAJ
M. M. C. JONATY..
T. K. KAKAJIWALIA,.
H. M. S. ESAJL,
ABOOLA JOOSABROY..
P. PATELL,
C. M. BHESANIA.
NAORONEL BECCA PALSARA,.
RUSTOM BUMONJEE
II. RUTTONJEE,.
PESTONIER NANABHOY..
M. WANDRENALLA,
DADY M. D. LUNGRANA..
D. J. PETIGURAY,
E. HEPTOOLJA GANTIL
S. ABDOOLCADER BUSKAL
R. C. VANIA.
8. M. ACLIROSY.
F. RJRIM.
TYEZI MOTA HOY.
JAVFPERBOY. TYEBALL,
D. F. TUMBGY.
P. M. SHTONA
J. DUBAI,
M. M. MEITA.
J. M. CAMA.
H. M. H. NAMAZEE.
M. M. TACKEY.
M. HOOSEN.
C. E. META.
B. S. Meitra
P. M. VELVAN
H. A. SirRAXLE,
E EBRAHIM.
147
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