I
294
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 4TH JUNE, 1879.
for another offence, to commence at the termination of the former sentence. That also, it occurred to me, was not lawful. I found, on asking the opinion of the Attorney General, that he agreed with me. I found also that Mr. TOMLIN was in habit of ordering prisoners to be flogged who were in the prison only for security. The Ordinance says he has only power to do so when the man is in for a felony. The Committee have printed in their Appendix a despatch which I felt it my duty to address in 1877. to Lord CARNARVON on the subject. In that a reference is made to some of these illegal floggings. say these floggings were inflicted with the regulation cat, whereas the local Ordinances say that all floggings must be with the rattan.-His Excellency quoted extensively from the despatches printed in the report as to individual cases of flogging. Referring to one of the cases, His Excellency went on:- Her Majesty's Government are aware of the fact that a Chinaman was five times flogged in this gaol, illegally according to the opinion of the Attorney General, that he was flogged when he was suffering from phthisis, that he was flogged with the regulation cat on the back by the order of the Superintend- ent in spite of provisions of our law. I am sure every Visiting Justice present will forgive me for saying I regret that no one called attention to the case of this man until I myse, seeing the Coroner's inquest, and seeing the records of the Gaol, felt compelled to do so. However, the facts such as they are, have been in the possession of Her Majesty's Government since 1877. They were laid before the Medical Committee. That Medical Committee was composed of Dr. WELLS, a Deputy Inspector of Hospitals, and Dr. O'BRIEN, who I suppose I may say, without creating professional jealousy, is the most eminent physician in private practice in this Colony-Having expressed his obligations to these gentlemen, His Excellency went on to say they were requested to inquire into the physical effects of the punishment by the cat and also the prevalence or otherwise of pulmonary complaints among the prisoners in the gaol; also to make special inquiries into the cases of one or two prisoners who had been flogged in the month of March immediately before his arrival. He also requed them to inquire as to the case of one man, LEONG A-LOI, whether the flogging he had received had any way affected his health. He said :---I called upon them to do so because I was requested by Lord CARNARVON to do so, but from that time to this I have not known why the Secretary of Statę selected LEONG A-LOI, who was flogged in 1877, as a case to be brought before this Committee. His name was never mentioned in any despatch of mine, and I have no idea how it was his case was brought to my special notice, and I was instructed to have the Committee investigate it. However, the Committee express their opinion upon the subject. They state, which is very true, that the records in the gaol with respect to flogging were extremely meagre, they found it very difficult to find reliable statistics; indeed they say
in the absence of reliable statistics it is difficult to say whether phthisis is prevalent in this Colony or not.' They found a great absence of statisties, they say, in the gaol itself. With respect to this particular man, whose case they were asked to investigate, they state that on examining him they found that he was suffering from phthisis. They go on to say that they cannot say whether the phthisis was excited by the flogging he received on the back or not. Dr. AYRES, to whom the report was sent, inakes this
minute:
"
MOK A-KWAI, released from gaol in a dying condition, and Leoxo A-LOI still in gaol suffering from phthisis, were both, when they entered, healthy, powerful, muscular men, presenting no indications whatever of hereditary disease. LEONG A-LoÍ in his present condition weighs 138 lbs. and is 34 inches round the bare chest, a weight and size far above the average of Chinese prisoners. After they arrived in the gaol, their diet, clothing, and lodging were far superior to anything they had before been accustomed to as regards sanitation. To what then can the disease they were attacked with be attributed? I cannot myself regard it otherwise than as caused by the punishment they had received, both of them were horribly marked, their backs having sloughed from the extensive bruising.
Now the Commissioners had before them as they say very slender evidence indeed upon the subject. They say:-
Apart from the questions put by us to the Colonial Surgeon and the examination of the four men who had been flog- ged on the back, with imperfect statistics, we have little to guide us in the solution of the main question-“Does flogging on the back produce phthisis."
They then discuss the question, and in doing so they touch upon a point of great importance. They say:
”
In regard to air space, we find that in the cells where many prisoners are locked up together for the night, instead of at least from 1,000 to 1,200 cubic feet per man, the allowance is actually only from 482 to 775, and even bearing in mind the fact of only barred gates separating the cells from the corridors, we do not consider the air space and ventilation what it should be.
The figures they give are figures taken from Dr. AYRES's evidence, and as he explains in a note, they include the average cubic space of all cells, include European and Chinese, but the Committee had to examine, according to the wishes of the Secretary of State, and give an opinion, as to phthisis among Chinese, and accordingly it is Chinese we have to do with. The Commissioners give the air space in the appendix and the result is that instead of having 400 and odd cubic feet, as it would be on the average of the minimum for all the prisoners, it turns out that in some cases the prisoners had only 237, in others 277, in others 285, in others 265, and I find that before my arrival here, in November, 1876, according to a note of Mr. TOMLIN'S, there was 184 cubic feet of space only in some of the associated cells, and 281 in others. That man LEONG A-Lor had only 200 cubic feet of air space. Dr. WELLS and Dr. O'BRIEN say it should be 1,000 or 1,200, That is also the opinion of Her Majesty's Government. I must confess
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.