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Q.-You say that the Police could as efficiently perform this work as the Pó Léung Kuk detectives?
A. Yes, if the Pó Léung Kuk Committee or officers were to give information to the Police. I think in that case the Police could do it quite as efficiently.
Q.--Instead of having Pó Léung Kuk detectives you would have the Pó Léung Kuk Committee to give information to the Police ?
A.--They might have informers.
'Q.--Don't you think that informers would be even more dangerous than detectives? A.—They would never have the power to make any arrest. They would have less power.
Q.-But would they have less power of squeezing?
A.—I should think so, because they would have less power to suppress kidnapping. Q-But they give the information and it seems to me that the information is the important thing-the arrest is merely final.
A.—If a man is an informer and kept as an informer, he ought to be in the back ground so that no one should know him.
Q.-What is your experience of informers ?
A. That they are anxious to keep in the back ground.
Q.-Have you found that they have been open to receive squeezes ?
A.--I have never known of any case in which they have done so.
Q.-You say that the reputation of the informers is not so bad for squeezing as the reputation of detectives?
A. The only informers that I have ever heard of connected with squeezing are those in gambling cases.
Q.-You have told us about money having been paid by emigrants. Have you as head of the detective force bere ever attempted to get information to prove that?
A. Yes, I have tried to get information both against Police detectives and Pó Léung Kuk detectives that I heard were about equally mixed up in the same kind of goings on.
Q.-The Police and Pó Léung Kuk equally implicated?
A. Yes, I heard so.
Q--If that is so, if the Police detectives are open to this squeezing in what way would it be advantageous to transfer the work from the Pó Léung Kuk to the Police?
A.--There would be more of them for one thing, and the more there are the more difficult it is to squeeze. It would cost a great deal more to bribe 100 men than 2 or 3. Q. In the Police Force how many Inspectors are there who speak Chinese ?
A. There are five now who hold certificates,
-Who can speak and act independently of interpreters ?
A.-Some of them can do that.
Q. How many would you say?
A.-Inspector HANSON, Inspector QUINCEY, Inspector MANN and Inspector
MATHIESON.
Q.-I mean those who can act independently of interpreters. Is it not a fact that if this matter was referred to the Police there would only be two European Inspectors who could exercise a direct check ?
A.--Some of the European Constables and Sergeants speak Chinese.
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