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Q. Are you in favour of the bill in its present shape?
A. Has it been modified? If it has not been modified, I am not.
Q. Are you in favour of a Governmental status being conferred on the Pó Léung Kuk?
A.-I am not.
Q. Are you aware whether any such Society in England, America, Australia or the other colonies, or elsewhere, has such Governmental status given to it as is proposed by this Bill?
A.--I think not; I have never heard of one.
Q.-If the proposed Ordinance was passed, could the Committee and Board of the Society sit in private and exercise police functions?
A.-I contend so, from the internal evidence of the Bill; from the absence of any provision for them doing otherwise.
Q.-Seeing that the Bill provides for the loan of constables and detectives, is there any security that the Society's functions will be exercised properly and without injustice towards any one whom the members of the Society or its employees may think proper to suspect?
A:--I do not think that there is any security. I may mention that I have said all these things in my letter.
Q.-Will the return of annual accounts and reports to the Colonial Secretary, or the inspection of the Society's premises by the Governor, or the presidency of the Registrar General provide the necessary security?
A. I do not think so.
Q.-Does the proposed Bill give power to the Society to deal with the liberties of person in this Colony and establish a secret system of espionage over them which is repugnant to the principles of British Government?
A.-I think it does.
Q.--Is the enactment in direct violation of the principles of British liberty which purposely provides the great safeguard of publicity in all such matters?
A.--Certainly; that is my opinion.
Q. Do you think it possible that the powers proposed to be given to the Society might be put to improper uses and that the liberty of the subject may be affected?
A. Certainly I think it is possible.
Q.-From the recent cases which have appeared in our Police Courts, do you think that the Society is exercising powers in excess of those conferred upon it at present?
A.--I think I recollect a case where the Magistrate, Mr. WODEHOUSE, expressed the opinion that they had detained some one in the Pó Léung Kuk and had no right to do so but should have handed them over to the Police at once, and that they had no power to exercise, I think he called it, judicial functions. I have not read the letter recently, but there was one case which I recollect in which the Magistrate expressed that opinion, and I certainly concur with him.
Q.-You read his remarks as they appeared in the press?
A.-Yes, I read them in the press.
Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD.-I have here a copy* of the Daily Press of August 1st, containing a report of the remarks of the Magistrate.
* See Appendix 44.
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