Looking across the Shum Chun river to China.
Caine's Men Go Marching On...
It is more than 120 years since Captain William Caine, of Her Majesty's 16th Regiment of Foot, took on the £600-a-year job of organis- ing Hong Kong's first police force.
He started out humbly enough with 11 Europeans and 21 Chinese but they made little impression on the British Crown Colony's three-thousand-odd population who nick-named them "errand men". Crime flourished.
Highway robberies and burglaries went on daily even the Governor was robbed-and in 1844, British and Indian ex-army recruits were brought in to reinforce Caine's men. But it was not until the following year that the unit began to take shape as an efficient law-keeping body.
Supt. Charles May of the London Metro- politan Police was brought out to reorganise the force. He wasted little time. Before long the ranks swelled to a total of 171 officers and
men.
Hong Kong, in those distant days, was any- thing but a haven of peace.
Piracy flourished. The menace of Triad Societies was everywhere.
Chinese were not allowed out of doors after midnight unless they had a pass and carried a
lantern.
By nightfall streets were deserted and Indian police patrolled with loaded muskets.
Many householders employed private watch- men as protection and Europeans supplemented the poor street lighting-by order—with lamps hung over their doors.
In an attempt to counter crime, punishment was severe the "cat" was administered freely, even for minor offences.
But the fairness of British justice was often demonstrated, like the time in 1857 when a Chinese baker was accused of trying to poison British residents with arsenic-laden bread. Nearly everyone who ate the bread—including the Governor was ill. But the baker was acquitted because of lack of evidence.
Through the years, as the Colony expanded, the police force grew. Recruits came from Bombay and Madras. A Water Police unit was started.
But crime kept the upper hand and in 1865, with people being attacked and robbed in broad daylight, the Chinese community pete- tioned the Government and were given permis- sion to organise a force of watchmen to help the police. Two years later the first contingent
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