J.M. Dawson, or simply just Dawson, is the chief of the Police of the International Settlement of Shanghai and a minor antagonist in the instalments he appears in.
History[]
Dawson makes his debut in The Blue Lotus. In revenge for Tintin's rebuking of his friend Gibbons, an American businessman, Dawson attempts to have hulking Indian prison guards torture the young reporter, although his passing remarks still show that he has some sort of pity for Tintin. Dawson subsequently turns him over to the Japanese of the story who have a price on Tintin's head, calmly dismissing Tintin's protest that he is on neutral ground by pointing out that since he does not have papers allowing him to be in the settlement, Dawson has every right to throw him out.
Dawson later returned in The Red Sea Sharks. This time, he sells weapons to both General Alcazar and General Tapioca using the pseudonym "Mr. Debrett", and is patronised by Rastapopulous. He was also responsible for organising Tintin and Captain Haddock's denied entry to access the nation of Khemed and is whom plants the bomb on their return plane. Fortunately however, his plan ultimately fails.