Sessional_Paper_1885-1886 — Page 116

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No. 10.

HONGKONG.

REPORT OF THE CAPTAIN SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE FOR 1885.

Presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government.

No. 12.

POLICE OFFICE,

HONGKONG, 9th January, 1886.

SIR,-I have the honour to forward, for the information of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, details of the Police Establishment, the list of Pensioners, and the Criminal Statistics for 1885.

2. The Criminal Statistics show that 6,775 cases were reported to the Police during 1885, being a decrease of 3,428 cases or 34.18 per cent. on the returns of 1884. In the subdivision of these cases into Serious Crimes (so-called) and Minor Offences, a decrease of 186 cases or 7.01 per cent. is found in Serious Crimes, and of 3,242 cases or 42.93 per cent. in Minor Offences.

The

3. During the past year two attempts at rioting were frustrated, and whilst only three murders occurred in the Colony (one in Lyndhurst Terrace and two in sampans off Tai Kok Tsui) yet there were several cases of manslaughter, and the reports of cutting and wounding were numerous; as also at one time were the cases of people being hustled and robbed by a party of five or six men. assailants have gradually been arrested, and, it is thought that this branch of crime will be checked for the present. The Police have also been successful in forestalling several intended raids on houses for the purposes of robbery.

4. Another proof of combination was shown in the piratical seizure of the S. S. Greyhound on the High Seas and the murder of the Master. The pirates embarked as passengers, an old device of the Chinese, whose soldiers resorted to a similar practice in the war thirty years ago. The opening of telegraphic communication with Macao and Canton enabled me, as the circumstances led me to expect that the Pirates would go to the former place, to speedily inform the Local Authorities, and owing to their willing exertions and hearty co-operation two junks and ten of the pirates were subsequently seized.

5. The Detectives, both European and Chinese, attach great importance to the growing power of the Secret Triad Society. It is alleged that its influence is being largely used to screen criminal offenders and to make the procuring of evidence difficult. My recommendation made in letter No. 262 of the 24th August, 1885, that this Society should be registered and brought under control is, I am informed, under consideration. In view of the recent attempts at riot, it is expedient that Guilds should be similarly registered. From the statements of the Detectives it would appear that all the lower criminal classes of the Colony have joined the Triad Society, and look to the heads of it for assistance when they are arrested. Hence it would appear probable that unless deterrent measures are promptly carried out, the Government will find that it has eventually to stamp out an Association whose ramifications certainly even now embrace nearly all the Hakka population, and are being strengthened by the enrolment of the thieves and rowdies of the lowest Chinese classes.

6. At the end of June a system was introduced under which numerous Chinese convicts were banished on the expiration of their terms of imprisonment. From papers that subsequently came before my notice, it would appear that the leading idea was that all non-British subjects who had been twice convicted of felony should be banished. As in several of the cases sent down to me for report it appeared that many of the prisoners had only been dealt with by the Magistrates, I pointed out that the powers given to the Supreme Court in Criminal Jurisdiction, of sentencing an offender after one conviction for felony to Penal Servitude for any term not exceeding 10 years, and after two summary convictions for any of the offences punishable summarily a term not exceeding 7 years Penal Srevitude for offences under the Larceny Ordinance, had not in these cases been exercised. It appears that since the 24th June, 1885, 64 old offenders have been banished, of whom 18 have been arrested for returning to the Colony, for each of whom the sum of fifty dollars has been paid. The maximum penalty for returning from banishment is one year's imprisonment with hard labour. In the face of the fact that so many deportees have returned, I must respectfully submit the question, whether, as was done in former years, the additional penalty of personal correction is not desirable. I estimate that this system will cost the Government about $3,000 for the first year. Whether it will be successful will probably depend on the experience of prisoners in Gaol. It is undoubted but that to many Chinese the Gaol with its ample diet, and its numerous provisions for the comforts of prisoners, has been a palpable improve- ments on their experiences outside. The present Superintendent has done a great deal towards the enforcement of salutary discipline, and the new regulations which come into force this year will probably strengthen his hands. But in the absence of any system of personal correction for offenders returning from banishment, it will become necessary, if the system is to have any success, that their gaol life should be more irksome than it has hitherto been.