ABOLITION OF THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT AND DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS
On the separation of the Straits Settlements from British India in 1867,
it was arranged that the Indian life convicts at Singapore should be
transferred to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. In the course of
correspondence which took place on the subject, His Excellency the
Governor of the Straits Settlements proposed, in respect of those
convicts who were to continue in the Straits, that a liberal use of the
power of pardon should be made in the case of such convicts, the nature
of whose crimes and whose subsequent character warranted it.
The Government of India agreed to this proposal, with the proviso that
pardon should be conditional on convicts not returning to India, or in
the case of Burmese to Burmah, without the special sanction in each case
of the Government of India; and that this sanction would not be given in
any cases in which the crime was "Thuggee" or "Dacoity," or robbery by
administering poisonous drugs, or other form of organized crime, or in
the case of mutiny or rebellion accompanied with murder.
Accordingly, the Straits Government authorities submitted lists of
convicts whom they recommended for pardon. After consulting the local
governments concerned, the Government of India issued orders in each
case, authorizing the release and return to India of some of the
convicts, granting conditional pardon to others, and refusing release on
any account to the remainder.
This decision did not commend itself to the Straits Government, and His
Excellency the Governor suggested the deputation of a special officer
from India to inquire into the matter.
Mr. Brodhurst, of the Bengal Civil Service, was accordingly deputed.
This officer extended his inquiries to the cases of other convicts
brought specially to his notice by the Straits Government; and on
receipt of his report, the Government of India granted unconditional
releases in certain cases, while in others the convicts were pardoned
conditionally on their not leaving the Straits.
On this representation by the Straits Government, His Excellency the
Governor-General in Council, having reconsidered the subject, decided
that any Indian or Burmese, who had completed twenty-five years'
imprisonment and bore a good character, should be released, with
permission to return to India or Burmah, provided he, or she, as the
case might be, was not convicted of one of the offences enumerated
below, viz.:--
1. Thuggee.
2. Dacoity.
3. Professional poisoning.
4. Belonging to a gang of Dacoits.
5. Belonging to a gang of Thugs.
6. Mutiny or rebellion with murder.
Of those who did not come under this category, some were pardoned
unconditionally; others were released after they had completed
twenty-five years' imprisonment, on condition that their conduct
continued satisfactory. Of those who were pardoned unconditionally many
returned to their own country; but when they arrived there they found
things so uncongenial that they returned to the Straits and settled down
as shopkeepers, cowkeepers, cartmen, etc., and most of them sought and
obtained employment either with private individuals or in the Public
Works Department. Several of the skilled artificers, who had been petty
officers, were employed as sub-assistant overseers and gangers on public
works, where their services proved to be of great utility, their prison
training having rendered them much more to be relied upon than free men,
and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, none of them have been
reconvicted.
Of the total number of convicts in the Straits at the time when the
convict establishment was broken up in 1873--
256 had been transported for Thuggee.
581 " " " " Dacoity.
21 " " " " Professional poisoning.
269 " " " " Robbery with murder, including
highway robbery and gang robbery.
-----
1,127
The remainder were nearly all for murder, for being accomplices in
murder, or for robbery with violence, and for felony.