126
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY. PRESS AND
INSPECTOR WITCHELL'S CONVIC- TION AND THE BRIBERY
SCANDAL.
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The conviction of Inspector WITCHELL, of the Hongkong Police Force, on a charge of neglect of duty and receiving bribes in con- nection with gambling, will be regarded with mixed feelings by the community. On the one hand, seeing that bribery and corruption have existed in the Force, satisfaction must be felt that it has, in one case at least, been successfully hunted down and dealt with; on the other hand, to have a European officer convicted of such a charge not only throws discredit upon the service to which he belongs "but must tend to lower the Chinese estimate of Euro- per integrity in general. Foreign news- papers in China are continually writing about the rottenness and corruption of the Chinese public service, and to find that our own public service, has been attacked by the same vice is painfully humiliating. Under the circumstances the sentence passed upon WITCHELL cannot be complained of on the ground of undue severity. The offence was one that merited severe punishment, provided it was clearly brought home to the accused. On the latter point the jury were unanimous, and there seems no good reason to question the justice of the verdict. The case, it is true; rested almost entirely on the evidence of Chinese witnesses, who were of known bad character, and Chinese evidence always requires to be sifted with great suspicion; we may take it for granted that it was so sifted by the jury in the present case, and that they were satisfied that the statements made by the men were in the main correct. To form a correct judg- ment of the reliance to be placed on the evid- ence of a Chinese witness it is necessary to see him actually under examination and watch his demeanour, an ordinary news- paper report being incapable of conveying fully or correctly the impressions that may be produced thereby. In WITCHELL's case, however, there was a strong piece of corrobor- ative evidence that can be appreciated by every one, namely, that one of the Chinese witnesses mentioned the contents of a letter which was supposed to be known of only by the Hon. F. H. MAY and his wife and In- spector WITCHELL, and knowledge of which must have come to the witness improperly through WITCHELL, thus showing that the latter had been in communication and on friendly terms with the gamblers. WIT- CHELL was looked upon as one of the most capable and reliable meniui the Force, and in all ordinary matters we have no doubt he lived up to his reputation, but he suc- cumbed to the temptation to augment his income by winking at gambling, an offence which it was his duty to put down, but which he possibly considered venial. If a man like WITCHELL cannot be relied upon, how far are we to suppose corruption has eaten into the Force? The salaries the men re- ceive are small and the temptation held out by the gamblers is great. It is the duty of the Government as far as possible to remove that temptation, which could be done by licensing a limited number of gambling houses, as was done in Sir RICHARD MAC- DONNELL'S time. It is objected to that system that it leads to dishonesty amongst shroffs, domestic servants, and others, who are tempted to rob their employers in order to secure the means to gratify their craving for gambling. When the system was in force it was the fashion amongst its oppon- ents to attribute every case of dishonesty to the influence of the gambling houses, but
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without any sufficient warrant. Gambling has been legalised at Macao time out of mind; in Hongkong the efforts of the Gov- ernment have, with the exception of the short existence of the Gambling Farm, been directed to the suppression of the practice; but we venture to think that the honesty of. the native community of Macao compares favourably with that of the native community of Hongkong, and they cer- tuinly get along with a much smaller police force. Whatever may be the decision of the Government on this point, however, it is a matter for satisfaction that the cor- ruption which had attacked the Hongkong Police Force has been successfully tracked down, a result which we owe to the firmness and ability with which the Hon. F. H. MAY, the Captain Superintendent, faced an exceedingly disagreeable duty. To that officer, and to Mr.. J. J. FRANCIS, Q.C., through whom the original information in the case reached Mr. MAY and who assisted in the subsequent investigation, the thanks of the public are due.
THE PRESS AND THE DETECTION OF CRIME.
44
[August 12, 1897.
have a notable instance in the BUTLER case in Australia. In commenting on that case the Sydney Morning Herald made the following remarks, which we would commend to the attention of police authorities everywhere: "In glancing back over the successive stages of investigation and revelation "which led to the full detection of this crime, one of the reflections which most strongly "arrest the attention is the large share in ̈ "the work of discovery and proof which was "taken by means of the agency of the press. "While the work of search and collection "of evidence was still in progress it
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largely assisted by the eager co-operation "of the public. Information was spontan- "eously supplied, deficient links of the chain "of proof were contributed, valuable indica- "tions were made known to the police, and "the whole community, under the influence "of a stern desire for justice, resolved itself "into a kind of volunteer organisation for 'assisting the police in tracking the mur- derer. By what means did this strong "sentiment take possession of the mind
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香露
of the public, and how did it become known "what were the points of evidence requisite "to complete the chain of proof? The senti "ment and the knowledge were due to the publicity given to all known particulars by the press. Day by day, as the fabric "of criminating evidence was built up by "the information and researches of all in "the community who had come in contact "with BUTLER, the latest particulars were supplied to the public, and all who saw "themselves in a position to add anything to the story promptly put their informa "tion in the hands of the police. And thus, "by the co-operation of the whole com- munity, the complete narrative of crime grew up. One salient instance of the effect of the press in aiding the detection of the crime was that of the mountain resident who, at a distance from the scene of the crime, read of the searches of the police, and returned to the spot with the "firm conviction that he could discover the missing body, and at once succeeded in doing so."
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RAILWAY PROSPECTS IN CHINA.
Now that the WITCHELL case has endedew may be permitted to refer to a personal matter in connection with the circumstances out of which the case arose. The existence of the scandal was first publicly mentioned in the columns of this journal, and we were blamed for prematurely blurting it out," to use the elegant expression of one writer. It was not, however, until the matter had" become a subject of conversation, not only in a limited circle of Europeans, but amongst the Chinese community, that it found its way into print. If the appearance of the article in question was the first in- timation the authorities had that knowledge of the matter had travelled beyond the small circle to which it was in the first instance confined it must certainly have served a good purpose, as the inquiries of the Captain Superintendent of Police and others interested might have been to some extent burked had they proceeded on the mistaken assumption that the matter was known only to those officially acquainted with it. Furthermore, the case was not one which admitted of any hushing up, even temporarily. The Chief Justice in his summing up on Tuesday said:-"I think myself that the moment Captain MAY made "that seizure and had prima facie ground for 'thinking that the No. 12 mentioned in the "list was the defendant, his plain duty was "to have this case investigated fully before "the Magistrate and, if the Magistrate "sent it forward, in this court also." Paraphrasing his Lordship's words, we may say that the moment a public journal has prima facie ground for believing that a scandal exists in the public service it is the duty of that journal to bring it forward in order that it may be investigated at the bar of public opinion. In the present instance we do not suppose the publication in our columns of the report that corruption had been discovered in the Police Force had much actual effect in promoting the interests of justice, but it certainly had no effect con- trary to those interests, As a general rule, however, the efforts of the responsible au- thorities to keep the knowledge of crime back until they have a case ready for trial is to be deprecated. The official theory is that publication might put the criminal on his guard and give him information that might facilitate his escape. The assistance to be derived from publication, however, far outweighs the disadvantages, of which we
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As we have stated on previous occasions, we have little faith in any material pro- gress in China. The Peking Government have, by the inexorable logic of facts, as forced on their notice through the humiliat- ing defeat of China by Japan in the recent war, been compelled to admit the de sirability of railways as a means of rapid communication and therefore a strategic necessity. But neither this admission, nor the Imperial sanction of certain projects for main lines, can be counted upon to ensure their early construction. The years and the decades slip by and China is still with. out any internal means of communication save those natural ones afforded by her magnificent system of waterways. The rail- way has at last been constructed which brings the capital into communication with its port, but beyond this line and another military road to Shan-hai-kwan there are still no railways in the Celestial Empire, and were it not for foreigu money we doubt whether any really great trunk line would be made. And therein lay a difficulty. The foreigner was not likely to lend good hard cash without excellent security: he would advance on the security of the rail- way itself, especially if allowed to construct and provide the material. But the Chinese Government are averse to allowing for- eigners to acquire any interest in the soil or public works of the empire, and jealously
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