No. 119.
Sir,
ENCLOSURE
C.0.
51
10644
Police Office, LUN OF
16th. April, 1901.
The Honourable
I have the honour to address you on the subject
of the following matters in connection with the Indian and Chinese Police.
2.
Since the occupation of the New Territory the Indian Police especially those of the 3rd. Class have gradually become more and more discontented.
3.
The reasons are that the duties in the New Territory owing to the (1) bad state of the paths which do duty for roads, (2) the unhealthiness of the country, (3) the indifferent accommodation (except in the few permanent stations that have been built) and (4) the isolation, are much more trying and far less congenial than in Hongkong.
4.
Moreover, in order to enable the men to effi- ciently perform their duties in the New Territory which entail
I insisted upon their long patrols and considerable exposure, rations being weighed out to them under the eyes of the Officers in charge of the various stations. This is not done in the Old Terri- tory, but the men have since 1893 been obliged to form messes at each station and to draw their supplies from a common contractor. The latter's accounts against each mess are submitted to me at the end of each month and discharged, the amount being deducted from the men's pay. Before this was done each individual messed himself, and there is no doubt the majority of the men starved themselves in order to save money. Last Autumn while making a tour of inspections of the stations in the New Territory, I discovered that the Indian Police were surreptitiously selling to the Chinese large propor- tions of the supplies provided for them by the Officers in charge from the contractor in Hongkong, and this led to the further disco- very that in the Old Territory many of the Indian nesses did not really draw the supplies they were nominally debited with by the contractor. By these two methods was the object of ensuring that the men eat enough to maintain them in good health to a large extent defeated.
5.
When I discovered the practice of selling rations described above I took steps to prevent it, and then the following difficulty arose which there is no doubt has added to the discontent already induced by mere service in the New Territory. An Indian Constable of the 3rd. class receives $12.50 pay per
The Acting Colonial Secretary.
mensen,
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