October 19, 1908.]
we are not contemplating war with Russia, and that Japan,with her great navy, is our ally. But the situation is nevertheless one calling for immediate attention. If Britain has decided to witness with equaui- mity Russia taking the leading place among foreign Powers in North Chiua waters, then there is no hope that any effective policy can be carried out with regard to China north of the Yangtsze region. Russia's ships will "talk, as much as have her troops have "talked in Manchuria.
(+
MR. IRELAND ON HONGKONG.
Hi
(Daily Press, 15th October?)
on
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
The last suggestion which Mr. Ireland makes, in his concluding paragraph, is rather striking. We do not know whether it is new; it is, at least, unfamiliar to us. He recommends the appointment, as servants of the Colonial Office, of two or three Inspectors of Colouies. The duties of such officials would be to visit in rotation all the Crown Colonies and those of similar type, like British Guiana and Jamaica, and to investigate the work of the local officials. The men most suitable for the work of colonial inspectors would be those who had shown marked ability as colonial secretaries in the Crown Colònies ¦ and in other parts of our tropical empire. At present the Colonial Office, as the writer points out, has to conduct its enquiries into the government of Crown Colonies at too great a distance from the spot, and through men who have no knowledge of local conditions. The suggestion is well worthy of consideration. We must wish that Mr. IRELAND had not marred his criticism of Hougkong's administrative system, in which it must be admitted that there is very much which calls for criticism, by allowing his bias too full play.
CRIME IN HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 13th October.)
of punishment of criminals. A few extracts from this report, which met with general approval among the lending residents at the time, may be made. First, as to flogging, the Commission says:-
Mr. ALLEYNE IRELAND'S article Hongkong in the Loudon Times of the 14th September must be the strongest denuncia- tion which has ever appeared at home of the Crown Colony system of government in Hongkong Mr. IRELAND unfortunately writes with considerable bias on some points. It is very far from being just to say that it is the worst of bad form" in the Hongkong Civil Service to be interested in one's work-it would be easy to point to many most conscientious officials here; and there seems to be at least a little exaggeration in the impeachment of the whole clerical service in government offices. But with regard to the general criticism of the administrative system, Mr. IRELAND'S arguments are too solid to be It may not be uninteresting, at a time passed over. The most honourable among when the question is very prominently in civilians here can feel no reason to deny the minds of Hongkong re-idents whether that, as the writer says, the prosperity of ineffective treatment of criminals and bad Hongkong has never depended on the characters in this Colony may not be con- efficiency of the Government; that Hong-tributing largely to the excessive amount kong has been most unfortunate in the lack of petty theft, robbery with violence, etc., of a fixed policy on the part of those nov prevailing here, to look back to the charged with controlling a large Chinese earlier days of Hongkong and see what was population; that the continual shifting of thought then. In 1872 a Police Comunis. officials from one department to another aion sat in the Colony and produced a and the constant evil of acting appoint-report which dealt largely with the matter ments lead to anything but efficiency; that the Government offices as buildings are absurdly ina lequate; that the junior clerical service, in the hands of underpaid Chinese and Portuguese, is in urgent need of reform; and that there is an insufficiency of cadets in the Civil Service. There are other points on which a majority of those who have considered local administration impartially will endorse Mr. IRELAND'S view. There is, for instance, the Naval Yard question, as to which the civil com- munity of Hongkong bas at least a right to free infliction of the penalty which the complain that it has been treated with scant "Chinaman particularly dreads, that of the courtesy and consideration. Then there is "lash. Its inexorable application to one the question of the administration of the." class of offences exceedingly common in Colony during the absence of the Governor, "former years, that of wrenching ornaments This now falls to the officer commanding "from women's ears, has caused that crime the troops. Now Major-General GASCOIGNE was a popular administrator during the periods in which he was called upon to fill Sir HENRY BLAKE'S place; but this should not blind our eyes to the inadvisability, as a general rule, of putting a military man, however capable in his own line, to take up the civil alministration of so difficult a cololly to rule as this is. Mr. IRELAND, thinks that the proper official to adinius'er the government in the Governor's absence is the Colonial Secretary. Here we agree with him, and we think that the majority of the civil community will agree that this is so, unless there is some particular reason (and it must be a very strong oue) why the Colonial Secretary should not be allowed to act. The appointment of the head of the troops to govern the Clay in the Governor's absence is the reductio ad
"It is in its deterrent aspect that the "Commission regard our system of punish. "ment as altogether failing. A sentiment "of humanity, very much misplaced when we come to deal with a race that mis- "understands it, and regards it as a sign of "weakness, has always stood in the way of
LE
希嘉
+
"to disappear almost entirely from the "criminal calendar, and highway robberies "with violence have undergone marked "diminution from the same cause. The Commission can see no reason why this "useful mode of punishment should not be extended indefinitely, and they do not “hesitate to recommend that power should be entrusted to the hands of the presiding judge at any Criminal S28 ions to order a flogging in any case of felony which, in his "opinion, disclosed circumstances to deserve it, in addition to the punishment already imposed by law. Experience shows no reason to fear that such a power would be "abused, while, even if sparingly exercised, "the fact of its existence could not but
have a salutary deterrent effect."
总喜
་་
""
14
"
As to branding and deportation, the report contains the following passages :-
Many difficulties exist in the way of a absurdum of the acting appointment ready identification of thieves who have "been already convicted. It not infre- quently happens that a few desperate
system, which Mr. Ireland rightly fixes upon as one of the great evils of Hongkong.
落幕
**
270
“characters, whose education in villainy "has received the completion given by one
C
44
14
"
"
(4
or more terins of incarceration, come out - "of gaol and terrorise the Colony for a long time before they are again captured. It also happens that men who have been discharged from imprisonment for some "heavy offence leave the Colony, only to return when the fluctuations to which the police force is subject have rendered their recognition altogether improbable. Were "such men as these conspicuously marked, they would doubtless be compelled to. seek their livelihood elsewhere, or their career of evil would be cut short here. The Commission think that the beneficial nature of the scheme of branding, which was devised and carried out by Sir RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, WOS unquestionable, and that to its abandon- ment may, in some degree, b: traced the "outburst of violent crimes which agitated "the Colony in the summer and autumo "of 1871."
"
14
And again:-
"Of course branding should be resorted "to only in the cases of those men whose
<
SE
career or the nature of whose crime makes "it evident that no reasonable hope of their "reformation can be entertained. It must uot be supposed, however, that the effect 'of fixing a stigma of the kind would be 'the same here as in England. Within the Colony it might, and in all probability would, deprive the branded mau of the "chance of honest employment. But there "seems no good reason to suppose that it "would have much weight of any kind on "the mainland, except to arouse sympathy "with the sufferer from the punishment of "the foreigner. There are only too many, "at any time, within the walls of the gaol, to whom, the Commission believe, it is "idle to offer any locus pœnitentiæ. For "the most part, such are migratory strangers, "whose only tie to this or any place is the "opportunity to plunder. It is not to our laws or mismanagement that these ruffians owe their criminal education. Many of them before they come here are too deeply "stained with crime, and it seems, to say "the least of it, somewhat hard that the honest industry and enterprise of the Colony should, in deference to an over- "strained sentiment, be heavily burdened "to keep up enormous police and gnol "establishments, to look after and provide “board and lodging for immigrants of this
description, when a little more judicious? severity might afford reasonable means of "getting rid of them altogether. Branding "would, without doubt, greatly assist this "desirable object."
*
"
**
*
"
We note
We do not quote these passages because they have our unqualified approval, but as being a strong and consistent statement of the case as it appeared to a public commis. siou appointed by the Hongkong Govern- ment more than thirty years ago. by the way that a few years later, in 1878, the Daily Press, discussing the subject of punishment of criminals in connection with the great public meeting on the 7th of October of that year, said:–“ Hongkong 'ought not to be made the prison-house of "South China. Such, however, it must
(4
"
愿
inevitably become unless steps be taken "to keep the Colony free from the habitual "criminals from Kwangtung, instead of by ten ler treatment and by good board and lodging, practically holding out to them an invitation to pay the island periodical "visits for purposes of plunder. It is not our province to reform the criminals' of “South China, and the task is utterly "beyond our powers.” There is not word in the above which requires to be
#
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.