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sub, were quite unable to continue the struggle against the Chinese Imperial forces after these were once fairly established. The followers of the Prophet in the North- west provinces, though unquestionably hardy and courageous, are destitute of any reserve of war matériel, and though they may possibly receive some assistance from the Central Asian Khanates they cannot hope to long withstand the Central Government. It is therefore to be hoped that they may soon become convinced of the utter hopelessness of their undertaking, and 'submit before the patience of Peking has been tried so long as to again evoke the merciless severity which distinguished the suppression of the Mahom- medan rebellion in Yunnan, wherein the whole of the rebellious districts were laid waste and depopulated.
THE FLOGGING FATALITY.
I.
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[June 18, 1896.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
they must be regarded as an accident, as wilfu misrepresentation" of the scope and much so as the contraction of a contagious object of his writings "with reference to disease by a smoker through holding in his this unfortunate man, who, for a trifling lips a cigar carrying the infection from the" theft, has been punished with death, and man who made it. A case of that kind was "with such a horrible death." The reference recorded in the Customs Medical Reports a is apparently to an article which appeared few years ago, if we remember rightly, but in this column on Friday last. In that article no one would think of saying that the un- we did not directly join issue with fortunate sufferer in that case contracted the the Telegraph nor make mention of disease by smoking.
that journal, but our contemporary is cor- It has not been found expedient to abol-rect in assuming that our remarks were im- ish flogging as a punishment for gaol of spired by what had appeared in his own fences in England, and the general opinion columns. There was little or nothing in in Hongkong, we believe, is that it is desir- what our contemporary said that we could able to maintain it here. Even the late Sir directly join issue upon, for the general JOHN POPE HENNESSY, strongly opposed as propositions that flogging should only be he was to flogging as a form of punishment administered according to law, that it should to which criminals should be sentenced by be surrounded by close safeguards, and that the Courts, did not. go so far as to propose the men subjected to flogging should there its abolition as a means of preserving disci- after receive such medical attention as they pline in the gaol. We take it, however, that may require, are incontrovertible. But it everyone would be glad to see flogging totally seemed to us that the general impression likely abolished if any efficient substitute could be to be produced on readers at a distance was a found for it, or if it could be shown false one, and that it was desirable to put that the punishment fails to effect the forward what we conceived to be a more purpose for which it is intended. On correct view. That we were not mistaken this point we have pleasure in refer- is, we think, shown by our contemporary's ring the opponents of flogging to a passage article of Saturday evening, in which we are in a contemporary which may possibly told that the unfortunate man who died suggest to them some points they may for a trifling theft has been punished with use in argument. Writing on the reduc- death, and with such a horrible death.” tion' in the calibre of service rifles, the Asian What a picture of the inhuman treatment says "We find the deterrent result of a of prisoners in Victoria Gaol this is likely to "wound greatest in the civilised white man, conjure up before the mind's eye of the "and broadly speaking, least in the yellow, enthusiastic humanitarian thirsting for a brown, and black races, taking that order new sensation!. Presumably this is not the "in the scale of sensibility between the two. class intended to be indicated when our The ingenuity which has evolved the hor- contemporary tells us, in his previous "rible tortures inflicted upon Chinese cri- article, that "the people of England will "minals [in China] is neither more nor less want to know the why and the wherefore "than the deliberate endeavour to get ahead
The reports have already "of the insensibility to bodily pain for which gone to those who will look closely into "the yellow man is so remarkable." Sur- the affair and have it fully cleared up." geons who have operated upou Chinese But who are the people to whom the.. patients also speak of their comparative in reports have already gone? If the reports sensibility to pain and of how they can fall into the hands of sensation mongers. stand operations, without chloroform, under we well know the use that will be made which a white man would almost surely of them and how it will be represented that succumb. It may be argued that if the the man was flogged to death, whereas death Chinese are so insensible to bodily pain it is resulted from blood poisoning, an accident a mistaken policy to try to reach their feel-which may follow upon any injury to the ings through their skin, and if some better way can be suggested, well and good.
The recent death in Victoria Gaol of a man who had been subjected to corporal punish ment may possibly be used by the opponents of flogging as an "awful example." Locally, where the facts are known and correctly appreciated, it would be difficult to create much excitement in the matter, but at home it may be otherwise, and to prevent mis- apprehension stress should be laid upon the fact that the man did not die directly from the results of flogging, but from blood-poisoning, an accident which may under certain conditions follow upon any abrasion. of the skin, however slight. The late M. LOUMYER, the Belgian Minister to China, died the other day from blood- poisoning following upon a scratch while suffering from a boil. We believe we are correct in saying, too, that deaths from blood poisoning have taken place with mosquito bites as the remote cause, as in the Gaol case the flogging was the remote cause. Whether the man was in a fit state to receive a flogging and whether he received proper medical attention after its administration are questions on which some inquiry may be deemed desirable, though there appears no prima facie reason why the discretion or watchfulness of the medical officers should be called in question; but the case has no bearing whatever on the question of the advisability or otherwise of using corporal punishment as a means of maintaining discipline in the gaol.
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skin, however inflicted. The question is purely a medical one-was the man in a fit state to receive a flogging, and did he re- ceive proper attention after the flogging?- and that, we think, can be sufficiently sifted locally without any appeal to popular and uninstructed opinion at home.
It is to be hoped, however, that we will have no maudlin sentiment introduced into the discussion. Prisoners are not sent to gaol to enjoy a holiday or to be coddled But though the flogging in the case up, though as a matter of fact when they under notice was only a remote and not the get there they are uncommonly well off, On the general administration of the gaol proximate cause of death, the circumstances receiving first class board and lodging, while we agree with our contemporary that a pri- are likely to lead to a re-opening of the tasks they are called upon to do souer "has certain clearly defined rights,” the whole question of flogging. This was
fall far short of the amount of labour anand we furthermore believe that those discussed ad
nauseam some seventeen honest coolie has to perform in order to earn rights are 'most scrupulously respected. or eighteen years ago, but there is his livelihood; but some of them are Our contemporary, on the other hand, no reason why it should not be re-opened so averse to work that they decline to per- says he has " every reason to believe and the judgment then arrived at form even the slight tasks allotted them, "that men are frequently flogged in reviewed if it be found mistaken. For and on these, and on refractory prisoners in "the gaol for offences not within the our own part however, we do not see how general, it is necessary that punishment scope of the rules and regulations." discipline is to be maintained amongst five should be inflicted, as a means of reducing That is a very grave charge, which calls for hundred hardened criminals without the use them to obedience and maintaining discipline. evidence to support it. That mistakes may of corporal punishment, unless by the adop- The choice seems to lie between flogging occasionally be made is very possible; tion of means which may possibly prove and semi-starvation, and of these flogging miscarriages of justice are not unknown more dangerous to health, as, for instance, seems to us the more humane and probably in courts of law where the trials are starving recalcitrant prisoners into submis- the more effective. It may be that a China- conducted in full view of the public and man does not feel or dread a flogging as with the assistance of highly trained law- much as a European would, but the difference yers; and in all human affairs, however is only one of degree, and the prisoners great the care taken to avoid mistakes, in Victoria Gaol have after all a wholesome mistakes will nevertheless occasionally occur.. aversion to the rattan.
A mistake has, according to our view, occurred in our contemporary's columns Our evening contemporary, the Hongkong on the present occasion. Wishing to Telegraph, complains that we have done him draw attention to a particular case as aud his correspondents a gross injustice in one calling for investigation, which was our comments on the flogging fatality and quite right, he has represented the discip that we have endeavoured to stir up public line of the gaol as being ordinarily charac feeling against him by an "apparentlyterised by unnecessary cruelty and neglect
sion.
A man who has been on reduced diet for some time naturally becomes somewhat reduced and it is conceivable that turning him on to hard labour again while in that condition might lead to permanent though possibly for a time obscure injury to health, whereas a flogging, properly administered, leaves no ill effects as its direct consequence, though of course it breaks the skin and so exposes the sufferer to the dangers every- one incurs who sustains an abrasion. When such consequences ensue, however,
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