242
THE POLICE AND CRIME.
THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND do not at all appreciate the liceuce allowed to their unworthy fellow-countrymen any more than the respectable Europeau residents admire the kiudness shown to beachcombers who have been dumped in Hongkong from other ports.
(Daily Press, 26th September.) Our contributor“ X." in his article on "The Wave of Crime in Hongkong" yesterday dealt with one aspect and a very important aspcos,of the question of safety for person and prope ty in this Colony; and we trust that what he says with regard to the local - police force will receive the attention which is due to it. Particularly would we point to the last paragraph but one in "X.'s" article, which ran as follows:-The unravelling "of the Colony's crimes is in the bands "of the few comprising the Detective Depart-reserve
"ment.
24
THE SUPPRESSED RICKSHA
STRIKE.
4
on
The weakness of pr. sent methods is not a matter upon which argument need be expended. The consensus of opinion is very strong in the resident community, and it is only to be wondered at that it has not found more wide and public expression. But the manner in which improvement should be sought is open to discussion, and we must ita consideration for another The heads of this Department occasion. In the meantime perhaps some depend mainly on their Chinese assistants of our readers may be inclined to give the "for information, not alwava reliable. benefit of their ideas on the subject. "There are only two European officers of this Department who can be said to possess a working knowledge of the Chinese language "and habits. The remaining officers are dependent upon their Chinese assistants." The state of affairs described is the re.• ́sc
(Daily Press, 28th September.) of satisfactory, and it is difficult to see After having been compelled to criticise how the authorities propose to make much unfavourably the police force of this headway against the forces of crime with Colony during the past week, we are glad only such detective agency as they possess to take the opportunity of complimenting at prescut. However, it is plain that in the then, and the authorities generally, on the present situation it is not a case of coping way in which an incipient strike among the
dealt with with normal lawlessness in Hongkong by local ricksha-coolies was means of the usual weapons at the command. Saturday. Early in the afternoon of that of the law. There is at present one of day the eutire body of ricksha-pullers in those epidemics of robbery and lawbreaking Hongkong went on strike, by instructions generally, which priodically trouble this from their guild, owing apparently to certain Colony Why we should get theзc penalties recent y iafficiel upon offending doubt, oue case epidemics is not altogether to be explained. coolies, including no Of course crime does tend, like any other reportel in our Police Court columus on disease, to increase and decrease" perio. Tuesday, when a coolie was ordered to pay dically, and the example of successful compensation to his fare, whom by faulty robberies, etc., inspires wavering wrong stering he had thrown from his ricksha duera with confidence to imitatë. But and bidly injured. The strike caused n it is clear that to meet unusual troubles wi hgreat deal of inconvenience all over the remedies which hardly do more in ordinary Colony, people desiring to get to either end times than just keep the floating criminal of the city having to walk or, in the case gharries population in check is not a scientific course of natives, to crowd into the of procedure. There has en for the last which turned out in extra force to take few months a larg. r number than usual of advantage of the absence of other vehicles. bid characters arriving in Hongkong from The whole passenger service on the lower the mainland, to stop bere as long as the levels was disorganised, while the pullers place is not too hot to hold them. Some noisily debate the situation among them- have the intelligence to pass the nselves off selves.
'boys," others are coolies or merely loafers. All are ready to come out in their true light of thieves when a favourable opportunity offers. At their hands the Euro- pean popula iou and the reactable Cainese community alike have been suffering very heavily of late. Snatching in the streets, burglary with personal violence, both by day and by night, ordinary purloining of jewelry and valuables, such offenc s have be come so common that it is almost impossible for the newspapers to record all ca cs of the kind. Truly it is a wave of crime under which we are labouring at present. Is it, then, impossible to do anything but wait until that wave has rollel back once more, in accordance with past experiene 8, and to hope that it will at trouble us again very soon? This is not to be believed. There must be something wrong with the present system of treatment of the criminal, apart from the failure of the police to catch him, Those who have experience of other not besitate poris in China, etc!," do
suffers to say that why Hougkong
tre it the so heavily is because we convicted evil-doer tab lightly—that is
Twenty-four Chinese employees were taken to say, when he is not proved guilty of the US. charterel transport Kingsley on the 21st ult. because the British Consai refused of the more heinous offe.co8. man is merely an habitual bad character, to be any longer responsiblə for them, as a transport wills, while ou inter-island duty, in a constant criminal of the minor type, ws deal with him in a most considerate but many ports where an illegal landing could easily be effected. The Chinese were taken in charge entirely ins lequate manner. And the by the Immigration Bureau, and they will opinion of such people is backed up by that returned to Hongkong at the earliest of the better-class Chinese, who, it is certain, opportunity.
8.3
CE
When
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The authorities, however, very properly decided that the matter was not one to be dealt with in the usual mild way, and therefore, about 4 o'clock, the order was given to the strikers to re urn to work within three hours, u der penalty of having all their licence, cancelled. This exhibition of firmness soon brought the malcontents to their senses, and by 8 o'clock rickshas were procurable in most parts of the city; nor was any trouble experienced. Thus by a proper display of firmness a troublesome matter was brought to a satisfactory end. Such an affair does much to raise the local Government in the eyes of the community, and we trust that the lesson will not be lost, as it is only by prompt and vigorous action that a combined revolt among the more ignoraut All classes of the natives can be overcome. com aity will join in congratulating the resposible authorities on the way in which they grappled with the trouble on Saturday, and will trust that the line of action is not merely an isolated break-away from the usual policy of submission by the Govern- meat to the noisiest section of the populati ou.
•
[October 5, 1903, TRAMWAYS IN HONGKONG.
car-
(Daily Press, 30th September.) The strike of the jinricksha-coulies on Saturday was, as we have already pointed out, promptly and firmly dealt with by the police; but the incident serves to suggest a possible danger in the future, against which the Colony would like to be insured. Just as competition is the life of trade, so a little healthy rivalry in the transport of passen- once a wholesome gers would prove at stimulus and a desirable restraint upon the propellers of the little man-power riages. These vehicles have almost entirely driven the sedan chair off the roads on the lower levels, though the latter is really more comfortable and affords better protection against the weather. But time has become of importance here as elsewhere, and the little carriage can get over the ground in about half the period it takes the chair borne by coolies to make the journey. The jinricksha can, moreover, be pulled along by one man; the sedan chair has to be carried by two bearers. The former can, therefore, not only accomplish a journey in half the time a chuir takes to do it, but it can make it for about half the fare. wonder that in the race the chair has fallen out, and left its competitor master of the situation on all the low levels. In their turn, however, the jinrickshas will soon have to meet competition, and will, as in the case of the chairs, have to be content to share traffic with the electric tram-cars, which it is now intendel to run in Victoria. Unlike the chairs, however, the jinrickah s to give place entirely will not have to the newcomer. They will still be used for short journeys and to places whither
It is probable, too, the trams do not run. that with the natives they will remain favourite mode of conveyance on account of But for the cheapres of the transpor". distances, and for other reasons, such as shelter from sun and rain, the tram-cars will undoubtedly be popular and secure a large share of the traffic, pssibly more even than we anticipate.
the
Small
a
The tramways have been determined upon; the capital subscribed; the ordinance authorising their running has bean passed by the Legislature; the rails have arrived and lie along the sides of the streets; and considerable sections of the line even have been laid down; but beyond this point, which was reached months ago, no progress appears possible. Why this unace untable and on every account regrettable delay ? The question has been asked before: we now repeat it with emphasis. We ask the Government-and we trust the independent Member of Council for the Chamber of Commerce will repeat it in that assembly- why is the work of laying the tramways suspended ? who is responsible for it ↑ and will not the executive see that the obstacle in the way-whatever i; may be-is at once removed? We believe that it is some dispute between the Public Works Department and the company as to who is to hear the cost of relaying some portion of the road. A paltry matter likethis ought not to be suffered to delay for months or years—the months soon grow into years in this paradise of procrastination-the institution of a system of locomotion so much needed to convey the working population to homes in the out- skirts and thus solve the pregnant question of overcrowding. This is, it seems to us, a question for the Governor to take in hand and decide. If things come to an impasse in a commercial body, the laipan or director quickly solves the problem and decides it "off his own bat." It is for the Governor to
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