Newsgroup: it.scienza.ambiente
Titolo: Re: Good News Mr 142.179.22.210 flood 5col.general

we examine closely into Chinese slavery and
    servitude," declares Dr. Eitel, "from the standpoint of history
    and sociology, we find that slavery and servitude have, with
    the exception of the system of eunuchs, lost all barbaric and
    revolting features." (!) "As this organism has had its certain
    natural evolution, it will as certainly undergo in due time a
    natural dissolution, which in fact has at more than one point
    already set in. But no legislative or executive measures taken in
    Hong Kong will hasten this process, which follows its own course
    and its own laws laid down by a wise Providence which happily
    overrules for the good all that is evil in the world."
There was, indeed, a certain justice in defending the Chinese as
against the foreigner, on Dr. Eitel's part. But two wrongs do not make
a right. From this time onward, the word of sophistry is put in
the mouth of the advocate of domestic slavery, just as the word of
sophistry had been put in the mouth of the advocate of the Contagious
Diseases Ordinance. Mr. Labouchere had spoken of the latter as a means
of protection' for the poor slaves, and the expression, 'protection,'
has been kept prominently to the front ever since Dr. Eitel suggested,
likewise, not a change in the conditions, but a change in the name by
which they were known. Let it be called 'domestic _servitude_' instead
of 'domestic _slavery_.' All the advocates of this domestic slavery
from that time have called the noxious weed by the

Canton to
spend the night with her and seek for employment. The middle room
was occupied by Tai Yau, the woman who had sold her little boy into
slavery, and her servant. The back room was vacant. Tai Yau was about
twenty-six years old, and her servant nearly sixty.
[Footnote A: The evidence does not make it clear how so poor a woman
should have a servant. Might she not in reality have been acting the
part of "pocket-mother" to the girl?]
On the evening of October 16th, 1877, Inspector Lee gave ten one
dollar bills to his interpreter, telling him to go out and use it in
catching unlicensed women. The interpreter found two friends and gave
one three dollars and the other seven dollars to help him in his
errand. Think of it! The man to whom the three dollars were given was
a worthless fellow who in his own words, lived "on his friends." When
he worked he earned about 14 cents a day. The other man to whom was
given seven dollars for a night of pleasure, earned five dollars a
month when he worked at his trade--painting.
These men went to an opium shop where they found a pander. Apparently
they did not know where to find unlicensed women without his help. Two
other men joined them, and they all went to No. 9 Lyndhurst Terrace,
the interpreter lingering about in waiting somewhere outside. When
two of the men learned that they had been brought with the purpose
of using their testimony against the women they withdrew. There were
three women in the house. One was of loose morals, or at any rate she
trifled with temptation; the other two managed to withdraw. A supper
of fowls, stuffed pigs' feet, sausages, eggs, and plenty of native
wine was brought in, and they feasted, the men getting under the
influence of drink. A-Nam, the pander, went out and hunted up two
more girls for the feas

existence or non-existence of
_slavery_ in America, is a thing that ought not to be tolerated for a
moment.
We have shown how every Chinese girl who has escaped from her
servitude to the city of refuge,--the mission home,--is received and
welcomed. How the rescued and rescuer run the race for dear life, and
the pursuers are obliged to turn back at the door. But what a state
of things in this country which we call free! Should not the entire
country be one great city of refuge? Do we not pretend that it is such
to all who are oppressed? Why should not the pursuer be turned back at
the Golden Gate, rather than at the door of an exceptional home in
San Francisco? We are fond of saying that under the stars and stripes
slavery cannot exist. We must make it good, or acknowledge, in dust
and ashes of repentance, that we are hypocrites. Idle words will not
do in place of deeds; we must make good our profession at any cost.
Everyone of these Chinese women should be removed from the brothels,
wherever these exist, consent or no consent, placed in houses of
detention, instructed as to the condition of liberty of the person in
which she _must_ live, and then, if she _prefers_ a slave's life,
he deported to China,--a land in which slavery is permitted. Every
Chinese man who attempts to interfere with this radical treatment of
the situation, should be imprisoned or driven from the country. These
"Watch-dogs," who are perfectly known to the police, both by name and
by face, should be put behind bars and in stripes, for a long time to
come. This is not prostitution, _merely_,--Oh, how tenderly men are
inclined to deal with the male harlot! but for once the libertine
has not a shadow of a shade of defense,--the patrons of _slaves_ are
something 

the brothels. Reports of conditions at Hong Kong which we
have already quoted, speak of the special celebration of the entrance
of a virgin into prostitution, and the high prices paid by patrons for
this initiation, but leave it obscure as to the nationality of the men
who initiate girls into the life of a brothel slave. But Chinese in
San Francisco do not hesitate to make the charge that Chinamen recoil,
through moral sense or superstition, from deflowering a virgin, and
that this horrible privilege is purchased at a special price by the
white, not the yellow patrons of Chinese houses of ill-fame. Baker
alley has probably been the scene of more terrible brutality of this
sort than any other part of San Francisco. Before the rubbish was
cleared away, in the oasis of a broad desert of ashes in the burned
city, we visited this region, and found carpenters busy at the work
of reconstructing brothels. The slave pen was existent again, and we
entered the gateway leading to it and gazed upon the rapidly growing
structures within. Two white men of a class called "Watch-dogs," in
the days before the fire, occupied a sort of look-out and kept guard,
more especially upon the entrance to Baker alley. This region,
so largely of American manufacture, like other sections of San
Francisco's Chinatown, was displayed, by m

then the girl must be returned to the master she has
informed against, to be in his power for him to vent his wrath upon
her. A case in point occurred in Oakland only a few months ago, and we
had a chance to interview the girl. The Captain of Police went through
the brothels of Oakland's Chinatown, accompanied by some missionary
ladies, in order to discover if possible any girls who would
acknowledge that they wished to come away. Every girl was questioned,
in the absence of the keepers, and not one, or perhaps only one, said
she wished to come away. There were some one hundred and fifty Chinese
slave girls in Oakland at this time, and one might say they all had a
chance to escape, and of their own will chose to remain. But was that
the truth? Not at all; the result did not prove at all that one, and
only one wished to come away. It proved merely that only one was
inspired with sufficient confidence and courage, after her long,
hard experience with foreigners, to _say what she wished._ It is the
universal testimo

would be left without "protection."
Since each registered house was to pay a fee to the Colonial
Government, which was turned into the fund to meet general expenses
(although the express reading of the Ordinance was against this
practice), this gave additional reason for registering all immoral
houses, beyond their being listed for the compulsory examinations,
hence all houses of prostitution were registered whether for
foreigners or for Chinese.
The Commission's report says: "This Ordinance seems to have been
worked with energy by all concerned. Dr. Murray, who assumed charge of
the Lock Hospital on the 1st of May, 1857,... discharged his duty with
undoubted zeal. The Magistrates certainly threw no obstruction in the
way of the working of the Ordinance; and the Government having, at a
very early stage, determined that its efficacy 'should have a fair
trial,' it doubtless received it at all hands."
During the ten years this law was in operation, there were 411
prosecutions, of which 140 were convic

large extent the comfort or
misery of the chattel, but the forbidding that one human being should
be allowed to deal with another _as a chattel_ at all.
This attitude of the Chinese merchants who allied themselves with the
British officials for the Protection of Women and Children gave no
omen of good from the very first. Yet from that day to the present
these men have had a large share in the government of the native
women of Hong Kong and Singapore, rendering it very difficult ever
to elevate the standard of womanhood, or to educate Chinese women in
principles that should be the common inheritance of all who live in a
so called free country.
The statement continues:
    "Since the last few years many Chinese have brought their
    property, wives and families to the place, supposing they would
    be able to live here in peace, and to rejoice in their property.
    ...Chinese residents of Hong Kong have, therefore, been in
    the habit of following all native customs which were not a
    contravention of Chinese statute law [but it seems _this sort_ of
    buying and selling of human beings is contrary to Chinese law.
    This is a misrepresentation]. It is said that the whole increase
    and prosperity of the Colony from its first foundation to the
    present day is all based on the strength of that invitation which
    Sir Charles Elliott gave to intending settlers, and that this
    present intention of applying, all of a sudden, the repressive
    force of the law to both the practice of buying or selling boys or
    girls for purposes of adoption or for domestic servitude is not
    only a violation of the rule of Sir Charles Elliott, but moreover
    will, it is to be feared, not fail to trouble the people."
They speak of infanticide as an evil that
    "must

to the Council an
amended Brothel Ordinance, conferring _necessarily_ almost despotic
powers on the Registrar General." ... Be it said to the honor of
Attorney General (now Sir Julian) Pauncefote, that in the face of this
he urges the most weighty objections to the policy of "subjecting
persons to fine and imprisonment without the safeguards which surround
the administration of justice in a public and open court." But these
objections were not allowed to prevail.
It appears that some hesitation was felt on the part of the home
authorities in giving approval to the new ordinance. It may have been
the warning given by Attorney General Pauncefote, it may have been
something else. Whatever it was, the Commission informs us: "The
Ordinance 10 of 1867 received its final sanction when the conclusion
arrived at by the Colonial Government was before the home authorities,
showing that in the event of the ordinance becoming law, _revenue
would be derived_ from the tainted source of prostitution among the
Chinese." (The italics are the authors').
Ordinance 10, 1867 now came into operation, with the following
additional powers in the hands of the "Protector" of Chinese, the
Registrar General:
    1st, Not only were keepers of unregistered houses to be fined or
    sent to prison, but the women--"held in practical slavery for the
    purposes of prostitution"--when found in unregistered houses were
    also subject to fine and imprisonment.
    2nd, The Registrar-General, otherwise the "Protector" of Chinese,
    could break into any house suspected of being a brothel, and
    arrest the keeper thereof without warrant. And he could authorize
    his underlings to do the same.
    3

scourge to our
twentieth century civilization. Herein lies great peril to American
womanhood. Whether we wish it to be so or not,--whether we perceive
from the first that it is so or not, there is a solidarity of
womanhood that men and women must reckon with. The man who wrongs
another's daughter perceives afterwards that he wronged his own
daughter thereby. We cannot, without sin against humanity, ask the
scoffer's question, "Am I my sister's keeper?"--not even concerning
the poorest and meanest foreign woman, for the reason that _she is
our sister_. The conditions that surround the Hong Kong slave girl in
California are bound in time to have their influence upon the social,
legal and moral status of all California women, and later of all
American womanhood.
In considering the life history of the Chinese woman living in our
Chinatowns in America, therefore, we are studying matters of vital
importance to us. And in order to a clear understanding of the matter,
we must go back to the beginning of the slave-trade which has brought
these women to the West.
Four points on the south coast of China are of especial interest to
us, being the sources of supply of this slave-trade. These are Macao,
Canton, Kowloon and Hong Kong, and the women coming to the West from
this region all pass through Hong Kong, remaining there a longer or
shorter time, the latter place being the emporium and thoroughfare of
all the surrounding ports.
The south coast of China is split by a Y-shaped gap, at about its
middle, where the Canton river bursts the confines of its banks and
plunges into the sea. The lips of this mouth of the river are everted
like those of an aboriginal African, and like a pendant from the
eastern lip hangs the Island of Hong Kong, separated from the mainland
by water only one-fourth of a mile wide. From the opposite or western
lip hangs another pendant, a small island upon wh

have induced a less
    unfavorable view by Lord Kimberley of my judicial action as to
    these matters, and with the more important object of presenting
    what appears to me to be the great gravity of the evils I have
    denounced, as they affect the moral status of the Colony, in order
    that some remedy may be applied to them.... I am informed that His
    Excellency the Governor has been unable to obtain the opinion of
    the Attorney-General on the points raised." ...
It is impossible not to feel that this neglect on the part of someone
at Hong Kong to forward the Chief Justice's letters until the first of
these was a year old (for they were actually sent in August, 1881),
was a designed obstruction of his endeavors to set himself in the
correct light, and to enlighten the Christian public of Great Britain
as to the abuses existing at Hong Kong.
In this letter expressing regret at the delay of his letters, he
speaks of convictions of eight more cases of kidnaping, and "almost
unprecedented brutal assaults on bought children." "Considering the
special waste of life in brothel life, and the general want of new
importations to keep up the bondage class of 20,000 in this Colony,
the cases of kidnaping detected cannot be one-half of one per cent of
the children and women kidnaped."
    "Two cases of brutal treatment of young girls by purchasers, their
    pocket-mothers, one little girl having had her leg broken by
    beating her, and the other having been shockingly and indecently
    burnt,--both probably weakened for life,--illustrate the cruel
    passions which ownership in human beings engenders here, as it
    ever has done elsewhere. In a case now before the magistrate, the
    evidence tends to show that a girl thirteen years old was
    bought by a brothel-keeper for $200, and forced, by beating and
    ill-treatment, into that course of life in a brothel licensed by
    law. Subject to such surveillance as these houses are by law, it
    seems to me s

asked her why she had sold his granddaughter, she
    cajoled him by promising to take him to Singapore to see A-Ho.
    Later, the man who lived with Su-a-Kiu, came and threatened to
    accuse him of extortion, acknowledging of himself that he "lived
    by selling women into brothels of Singapore." The grandfather
    reported the case to the Registrar-General. The woman
    Su-a-Kiu stated: "I took A-Ho to Singapore. I took her to the
    "Sai-Shing-Tong Brothel" in Macao Street. She is still in that
    brothel." The Registrar-General ordered her to find security in
    the sum of $100 to appear to answer any charge within the next
    three months. The grandfather was also ordered to find similar
    security in the sum of $70.
    The girl A-Ho, in seeking to pay her debt contracted through
    sickness, by servitude for eight months, was entrapped and sold as
    a slave for life, and the Registrar-General, when acquainted
    with the facts, seems to have taken no steps to punish this
    slave-trader. Governor Hennessey, in calling the attention of the
    Home Government to these, out of many similar ones, says: "The
    accompanying extracts from the printed evidence [taken by the
    Commission] show that the Registrar-General's Department was not
    ignorant of the fact that Chinese women were purchased for Hong
    Kong brothels, and that the head of the Department thought it
    useless to try to deal with the question of the freedom of such
    women.... That the buying and se

for immoral purposes, this part of the
    subject will be dealt with separately. Turning then to the above
    mentioned Report, we find as regards male immigration, that out of
    the 111,164 who arrived in Singapore 23,647 proceeded direct to
    Penang, and 1,798 to Malacca, Bangkok and Mauritius, leaving
    85,719 remaining in Singapore, of whom 76,601 are classed as
    'paid passengers,' and 9,118 as "unpaid passengers received into
    depots." With the former class the Chinese Protectorate has
    nothing more to do, unless they come to the Protector to sign a
    Government labour contract with planters or other employers
    of labor, but with the 'unpaid passengers' the case is very
    different. These men are brought to the Straits to the number of
    about 15,000 a year, under what is spoken of in the Report as
    "the much objurgated depot and broker system," and the facts as
    presented below will speak for themselves as to whether the
    objurgations are warranted or not. The brokers are all China men,
    and are admitted to be men of the worst character. They have their
    assistants or partners in the chief ports of China, who scout
    the country round in search of men and are known to be not very
    particular as to the means they employ in obtaining them. Nothing
    is required of the recruit except a willingness to hand himself
    over with his scanty outfit to the tender mercies of the broker,
    who pays his passage and provides him with food and such things as
    he considers needful. While the vessels, however, with their decks
    crowded with emigrants, are leaving the Chinese ports, it is a
    common occurrence for the cry of "man overboard" to be raised, so
    common indeed that few Captains now take the trouble to stop their
    ships, leaving the fugitive coolie to his fate or to be picked up
    by one of the native craft which are usually close at hand. The
    readi

women at this point, but incidentally he has revealed a shocking state
of slavery perfectly known and not in the least interfered with by the
"Protector."
Mr. Pickering continues: "At that time the majority of inmates of
brothels were in the same condition; besides this, they were subject
to great cruelty and restraint." He professes a great improvement,
since then, but we may take his word for what it is worth on such
a point. "We, indeed ... have asked for, and trust to get, more
legislation to enable us to rescue the numbers of small children who,
purchased in China, are brought down here and trained for a life of
prostitution." Nothing of the sort. He knew perfectly well, as did
every Englishman in the Colony, that the Common Law alone of Great
Britain, if there were nothing more, was quite sufficient to deliver
every one of these children, as well as every slave girl, in the
country. If more legislation were desired it was for some other
purpose than to empty the brothels of their slaves. He goes on to
state that children born in brothels "in case of free women belong
to the mother, but when prostitutes, their issue is claimed by their
owners, unless their mothers complain to the Registrar," which of
course, he knew, they would never venture to do. "We know well that
even now there is a deal of traffic in young girls going on, and
that a number of inmates of brothels are really slaves.... The only
Europeans I have heard object to the Contagious Diseases Ordinance are
those who, in their well-meant zeal, would abolish prostitution, 

a prisoner
    for kidnaping, on the 10th of March, 1881, Sir John Smale said he
    was bound to declare from the Bench that, to the credit of the
    Chinese, a right public opinion had been growing up, and on the
    25th of March, 1881, (the last occasion when Sir John Smale spoke
    in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong), he said, in a case in
    which the kidnapers had been convicted--This case presents two
    satisfactory facts first, that a Chinese boat woman handed one of
    these prisoners to the police, and that afterward an agent of the
    Chinese Society to suppress this class of crime caused the arrest
    and conviction of these prisoners. These facts are indicative of
    the public mind tending to treat kidnaping as a crime against
    society, calling for active suppression. On the same occasion, in
    sentencing a woman who had severely beaten an adopted child, Sir
    John Smale said, 'In finally disposing of these three cases, with
    all their enormity, sources of satisfaction present themselves in
    the fact that, in each of these cases, it has been owing to the
    spontaneous indignation of Chinese men and women that these crimes
    have been brought to the knowledge of the police.' The Governor
    closes his letter with the statement, 'It is only due to Sir John
    Smale to add that his own action has greatly contributed to foster
    the "healthy" public opinion of the native community, which
    induced him, when quitting the Supreme Court, to take a hopeful
    view of the future of this important subject.'"
CHAPTER 12.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE ANSWERS HIS OPPONENTS.
The Acting Attorney General at the time of Sir John Smale's first
pronouncement against slavery had suggested 

to attend the (Chinese) theatre. One evening when at the
    theatre she had word conveyed to the Mission to come get her
    immediately. The rescuer did so, and the girl promptly arose, when
    the rescuer entered the room, from the front tier of seats, and
    seizing the hand of the missionary in the presence of them
    all climbed over the backs of two seats, regardless of their
    occupants, and escaped. Later she was married and returned to
    China.
    No. 5. In a dark, dismal room where the sun never shone lay a poor
    Chinese woman helpless with rheumatism. She had a baby girl 10
    months old and was too sick to care for it. The invalid felt
    forced to put the child in the hands of a friend she trusted, who
    promised to care for it, and advanced money for the sick woman.
    When the mother got better she worked two years and saved until
    she had enough money to buy the child back, but the cruel woman
    who had got possession of it refused to give it up unless paid
    three times as much as was originally borrowed. The mother could
    not do this, and finally, hearing of the Mission, reported the
    case there. The baby was traced to a horrible den in Church alley,
    where it was in the possession of a notorious brothel-keeper. The
    mother secretly visited the Matron at the Mission, who had secured
    the child, urging her to keep possession of the baby, saying she
    would not dare testify against the woman on the witness stand, as
    it would cost her her life. The case was a long time in court, but
    after six months the Judge committed the child to the Home, and
    the mother was made very happy.
    No. 6. She ran into the Mission leading her little son. She was
    chased to the very door of the Mission, but kept her pursuers
    at bay, by means of a policeman's whistle which she held in he

of girls both in Singapore and Hong Kong comes very
largely from Canton, let us first describe the conditions we found
there. Our Journal of February 14th, 1894, reads as follows:
    "We went in company with a missionary and a native, both of
    whom could talk both English and Chinese, and visited some
    'flower-boats' on the river. Many of these boats are quite
    pretentious, with their rich wood-carving, fine furniture,
    and gaudy display of tinsel. There were whole streets of
    them,--floating houses moored together; we walked along the length
    of the street on one side, stepping from the bow of one boat to
    the next, the bows of the boats constituting front verandahs. We
    called at almost every place, but a description of one will do for
    all. First, as we entered, was a couch for opium smoking; just
    beyond this a reception room, very gaudy, with dozens of hanging
    lamps, and at one end a shrine for the gods, and offerings before
    it. In a room back of the reception room, and also upstairs,
    there were girls in large numbers. A hard-featured old woman came
    forward from the back room, who, our interpreter said, was as good
    a specimen as we could possibly have seen of an old brothel-keeper
    of Canton, on

of the Gospel and missionaries; had he,
like ourselves, been introduced to the official by a minister of the
Gospel than whom none stands higher in British India, and that in
terms of eulogy of the Inspector's activity in Christian work. How
can we explain such a state of affairs? Just as we would explain the
religiousness of early days of America and England associated with the
monstrous cruelty of the slave traffic. There is often in connection
with great human wrong great moral confusion, and without judging the
individuals living under such conditions, we can say emphatically,
those conditions are most undesirable, and attended by moral peril,
especially to the young. It is a truly lamentable thing when prolonged
familiarity with vicious conditions leads to such lack of discernment
as to a man's true character, even among the best portion of a
community. We do not wish such a state of things as this in America.
California does not lack in excellent laws (as they read, in the
Statute Book), for the suppression of prostitution. There are laws
against procuring; against trading in Oriental women for evil
purposes; against buying or selling a female, with or without her
consent, for prostitution; against a husband forcing or influencing a
wife to lead an evil life; against a husband even consenting to his
wife practicing prostitution; against keeping a house of ill-fame; and
against knowingly renting a house for a place of prostitution. But all
these laws, almost the world over, as well as in California, are weak
at one point, namely, that they provide for imprisonment _or_ fine,
whereas they should provide for imprisonment _and_ fine. This is not
because the penalty would then be heavier, of necessity, but in order
that the law may not be prostituted into license. The alternative of
a fine instead of imprisonment defeats the object the public-spirited
citizens have in demanding a law for the discouragement of vice, and
places before the p

into the
hands of men like those we have."
Yet into the hands of men lower in character than the lowest of the
police force was committed, in large part, the operation of Ordinance
12, 1857, recommended by Mr. Labouchere as a sort of benevolent scheme
for the defense of poor Chinese slaves under the British flag, who had
"an urgent claim on the protection of Government."
CHAPTER 3.
HOW THE PROTECTOR PROTECTED.
Dr. Bridges, the Acting Attorney General at Hong Kong, who had framed
the Contagious Diseases Ordinance of 1857, had given an assurance
concerning it expressed in the following words: "There will be less
difficulty in dealing with prostitution in this Colony than with the
same in any other part of the world, as I believe the prostitutes here
to be almost, without exception, Chinese who would be thankful to
be placed under medical control of any kind; that few if any of the
prostitutes are free agents, having been brought up for the purposes
of prostitution by the keepers of brothels, and that whether as
regards the

or informs a rescue worker
where a girl will be found who desires her liberty, then some one from
the tong that has a special interest in the profits of that girl's
slavery, deposits a sum of money in a place mutually arranged for, and
the highbinder society undertakes for the sum paid to see that the
informer is assassinated within twenty-four hours. That is the length
of time usually claimed for the act. But sometimes years may pass
before the marked victim can be traced and killed.
We will next give a few cases from the records of the Presbyterian and
Methodist Mission Rescue Homes of San Francisco, which will clearly
show the similarity between the state of affairs in Hong Kong and
California.
CHAPTER 17.
STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM.
A Chinese girl of 14 was brought to this country, and served six
months as a domestic slave, and was then put into a brothel. She was
rescued. Her Chinese master got out a writ of habeas corpus, went to
the Mission with an officer and took the girl away at once to court
before a corrupt judge. It was just at noon-time, and the missionary
pleaded for a little time in which to summon a lawyer. The judge said:
"I have no time to fool with this case." The lawyer arrived in haste
and pleaded for a little time in which to prepare the defense. The
judge said to the lawyer: "You shut up, or I'll have you imprisoned
for contempt of Court." He awarded the slave to the care of her
master.
This and other such cases led to a valuable alteration of the law at
the point of the protection of minors. We will explain the change in
the words of Miss Camer

_patria potestas_ was in China before the
    controversy now raised, and from Mr. Parker, Her Britannic
    Majesty's Consul at Canton, as to its present state in China.
    After these quotations, I simply asked, Can greater tyranny, more
    unchecked caprice, be described or even conceived as inexcusable
    over wife, concubine, child, or purchased or inherited
    slave?'--the quotations I made being up to this time undisputed
    ... what I said was necessary to introduce the expression of my
    conviction ... that none of the elements of the system of _patria
    potestas_ exist in Hong Kong, including of course adoption. It is
    to this conviction that I point as the moral ground for enforcing
    English law against kidnaping and buying and selling human beings.
    The gravamen of all my complaints is, that the pauper kidnapers
    and sellers are punished, while the rich buyers go free. No case
    can come on for trial in this Court except upon an information by
    the Attorney-General. I have called on the Attorney-General of the
    day to prosecute a man against whom there was evidence that the
    boy he was keeping as a servant had been bought by him direct from
    a kidnaper. The then Attorney-General exercised his discretion,
    and did not prosecute." "There are no difficulties in the way of
    carrying out the 

age. He also showed us little tickets (we had already seen them in a
brothel) and said these contained the number and address of the
girls, and if one of these tickets was sent back by a girl to the
Protectorate, by any hand or in any manner, the Protectorate would
immediately send for the girl and listen to her complaint. He showed
us a book of cases, and read us the story of one girl in particular,
Ah Moi, and congratulated himself on the Protectorate being at hand
to rescue this girl. We will give this case in full further on. He
repeated his assertion that he abominated the C.D. Ordinance, and said
that there were now no compulsory examinations, and no Lock Hospital,
and that the Government had nothing to do with examinations in any
form. But we replied that we had already visited the Lock Hospital,
and that there were about fifteen patients there, and asked him how
they came to be there. He said anyone could go there; that it was a
general hospital for women, and that all diseases would be treated
there; that the patients could go away at any time they wished; the
Colonial Surgeon was in charge of it. But we asked him how it happened
that the degraded women knew enough to go there in such numbers; he
said they might be ill, and any doctor in a private capacity would
send them. He had sent them, and would like to send a good many more,
when they were very ill. He told us of going over the records, for
years back, and of finding that the average of time spent in the
brothel by these girls was three years and a half, while, if they
stayed in Canton, they would be life-long prostitutes. He made much
of this point, and argued that it was better for them to come
to Singapore in order to be set free by the Protectorate, but
acknowledged that many of them became concubines (in "following a
man,

This simple declaration, if it stood alone, would make
    every act of slave-holding a misdemeanour, but the Acts themselves
    make it piracy, felony, or misdemeanour, as the case may be, to
    do any of the acts declared to be unlawful. These Acts further
    declare that persons holden in servitude as pledges or pawns for
    debt shall, for the purpose of the Slave Trade Acts, be deemed and
    construed to be slaves, or persons intended to be dealt with as
    slaves. Hundreds of persons are held in such servitude as pledged
    or pawned in Hong Kong, and not one of the parties to such
    transactions has ever been proceeded against under these Acts."
    "In addition to the above-mentioned Acts of George, William and
    Victoria, there is also the Imperial Act, entitled The Slave
    Trade Act, 1873, which consolidates the laws for the suppression
    of the Slave Trade, and which is in force in Hong Kong by its own
    authority. We have also the provisions of the Local Ordinance 4 of
    1865, sections 50 and 51, and 2 of 1875."
    "Offenses against the provisions 



We were so glad the
law was so very strict, and we had been assured strictly enforced at
that point. It read: "Any person who receives a girl under the age of
sixteen into a brothel, or harbors any such girl in a brothel, shall
(until the contrary be proved) be deemed to have obtained possession
of such girl with the intent or knowledge in clause one of sub-section
one mentioned." This clause reads: "with the intent that such girl
shall be used for the purpose of prostitution," and the penalty,
"liability to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to a
fine not exceeding $500, or to both." If that law failed because of
what would pass as proof to the contrary, at any rate there was the
further provision that the children could be removed to places of
safety, at least to the Refuge. "A girl found living in or frequenting
a brothel shall be deemed to be a girl who is being trained for
immoral purposes." And "The Protector, if on due inquiry he is
satisfied that any girl is being ... trained for such purposes, and
that such girl is under the age of sixteen years, may ... order such
girl to be removed to a place of safety," etc., etc. The way seemed
perfectly clear under such laws, to secure the safety of the children.
At the door of the Refuge we were glad to escape from our jinrikshas
into the cool shade of the house. The Matron seemed much troubled, and
spoke of things that she had not understood previously, but now that
she had learned many things from our investigations and from her own
questioning of the girls, they had taken on a painful meaning to her.
Our hearts grew heavier and heavier as we talked together. The
Matron, said: "Why, I thought when I came here it was to do a regular
Christian work for these girls. That was my purpose, but the more I
inquire into the matter, and study over the things I am expected to do
and ask no questions, such as sending girls over to the Lock Hospital
at the Chief Inspector's request, the more I feel that I am being
worked

' on the river. Many of these boats are quite
    pretentious, with their rich wood-carving, fine furniture,
    and gaudy display of tinsel. There were whole streets of
    them,--floating houses moored together; we walked along the length
    of the street on one side, stepping from the bow of one boat to
    the next, the bows of the boats constituting front verandahs. We
    called at almost every place, but a description of one will do for
    all. First, as we entered, was a couch for opium smoking; just
    beyond this a reception room, very gaudy, with dozens of hanging
    lamps, and at one end a shrine for the gods, and offerings before
    it. In a room back of the reception room, and also upstairs,
    there were girls in large numbers. A hard-featured old woman came
    forward from the back room, who, our interpreter said, was as good
    a specimen as we could possibly have seen of an old brothel-keeper
    of Canton, one who had been in the business for many years of
    buying or otherwise obtaining babies and girls, and training them
    for prostitution. The girls came crowding to the door of the back
    room, and looked in upon us with eager curiosity. Our interpreter
    called our attention to the manner of dressing the hair,--like
    married women,--as indicating their bad life. The interpreter said
    they were inducted usually at about thirteen years of age. They
    were all dressed very showily, and heavily powdered and painted,
    excepting some mere babies who were plainly dressed. Troops of
    little girls, from four to five years of age, swarmed out of the
    neighboring 'flower-boats' and gathered around us,

with the least idea of relieving
the slave from her bondage. These are culled from the court records.
We will condense some of them.
    1. Three sisters were brought by their foster-mother from Macao
    to Hong Kong, on the promise of a feast; they were taken to the
    house of an old brothel-keeper, to whom the foster-mother sold the
    girls, receiving ten dollars apiece for them, to bind the bargain,
    and she went away, leaving the girls with this old woman, who
    began immediately to urge them to become prostitutes; they cried
    and refused, asking to be allowed to go to their foster-mother who
    had brought them up,--not suspecting that they had been already
    sold by her into shameful slavery. The old woman locked them up,
    and beat one of the girls, who had resisted her cruel fate. Their
    meals were all taken into the room where they were kept close
    prisoners from that time. Brought into court, the foster-mother
    was set at liberty, although the history was fully set forth, and
    the old woman declared: "She pledged the girls in my house, by
    receiving thirty dollars from me.... I have a witness who saw the
    money paid." The brothel-keeper was convicted only of assault for
    beating the girl, and sentenced to three months' imprisonment with
    hard labor. No reference was made to her own admissions as
    to buying these girls, and endeavoring to force them into
    prostitution. Ten days later, her case was brought up again, and
    the remaining portion of her

1867_." March 11, 1880. H.C. 118.
"_Correspondence Respecting the Alleged Existence of Chinese Slavery
in Hongkong_." March, 1882. C.-3185.
"_Return of all the British Colonies and Dependencies in Which by
Ordinance or Otherwise Any System Involving the Principles of the Late
Contagious Diseases Acts, 1866 and 1869, is in force, with Copies of
Such Ordinances or Other Regulations_." June, 1886. H.C. 247.
"_Copies of Correspondence or Extracts Therefrom Relating to the
Repeal of Contagious Diseases Ordinances and Regulations in the Crown
Colonies_." September, 1887. H.C. 347
Same as above, in continuation, March, 1889. H.C. 59.
Same as above, in continuation, June, 1890. H.C. 242.
"_Copy of Correspondence which has taken place since that comprised
in the Paper presented to the House of Commons in 1890_ (H.C. 242),"
etc., June 4, 1894. H. C. 147.
"_Copy of Correspondence Relative to Proposed Introduction of
Contagious Diseases Regulations in Perak or Other Protected Malay
States_." June 4, 1894. H.C. 146.
May 1907
CONTENTS
Frontispiece
Dedication
Preface
CHAPTER
 1 THE EARLY DAYS OF HONG KONG
 2 TREACHEROUS LEGISLATION
 3 HOW THE PROTECTOR PROTECTED
 4 MORE POWER DEMANDED AND OBTAINED
 5 HOUNDED TO DEATH
 6 THE PROTECTOR'S COURT AND SLAVERY
 7 OTHER DERELICT OFFICIALS
 8 JUSTICE FROM THE SUPREME BENCH
 9 THE CHINESE PETITION AND PROTEST
10 NOT FALLEN--BUT ENSLAVED
11 THE MAN FOR THE OCCASION
12 THE CHIEF JUSTICE ANSWERS HIS OPPONENTS
13 THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY
14 NEW PROTECTIVE ORDINANCES
15 "PROTECTION" AT SINGAPORE
16 SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES
17 STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM
18 PERILS AND REMEDIES
CHAPTER 1.
THE EARLY DAYS OF HONG KONG.
Time was when so-called Christian civilization seemed able to send its
vices abroad





lip hangs another pendant, a small island upon which is situated the
Portuguese city of Macao. The mainland adjoining Hong Kong is the
peninsula of Kowloon, ceded to the British with the island of Hong
Kong. Well up in the mouth of the river on its western bank, some
eighty miles from Hong Kong, is the city of Canton.
Let us imag

had been 'on trial for nearly ten years, and
    _had done singular service_.'"
    _Yet in this very same year_--1867, April 19th--"Dr. Murray stated
    in an _Official Report not intended for publication_, but found
    by the Commission among other Government papers, and
    published,--'That venereal disease has been _on the increase_,
    in spite of all that has been done to check it, _is no new
    discovery_; it has already been brought before the notice of His
    Excellency.'" (Report, p. 35, pars. 4 and 5.)
    What is to be thought of the character of such reports for the
    _Public_, and such an _Official Report_, "not _intended_ to be
    _published_"?
    This same Dr. Murray's Annual Report for the _Public_ for
    1867, was _actually put in evidence before the House of Lords'
    Committee_ on venereal diseases--1868, page 135. "Venereal disease
    here has now become of _comparatively rare occurrence_." Yet the
    _Army_ Report for the previous year (1866, page 115) states that
    "the admissions to hospital for venereal disease were 281 per 1000
    men;" i.e., more than one man in four of the whole soldiery had
    been in hospital for this "comparatively rare" disease.
    As regards the Navy, Dr. Murray says, "the evidence of Dr.
    Bernard, the Deputy Inspector-General of Hospitals and Fleets, is
    even more satisfactory. He writes (Jan. 27), 'I am enabled to say
    that true syphilis is now rarely contracted by our men in Hong
    Kong.'" Yet the "China station," in which Hong Kong occupies so
    important a position, had at the time 25 per cent. more _secondary
    (true) syphilis than any other naval station in the world, except
    one (the S.E. American_); it had 101 of _primary (true) against
    68 in the North American_, 31 in the S.E. American, and 22 in the
    Australian stations (_all unprotected_); and _gonorrhoea_ was
    _higher than in any other naval station in the world_. This
    _official_ mislea

injurious rather than helpful to the
object we have in view. The facts that we have to relate form one of
the blackest chapters in the history of human slavery, and slavery
brought up to the present time. Our statements if standing merely on
our own word would be met at once with incredulity and challenged, and
before we could defend them by producing the proof, a prejudice would
be created that might prove disastrous to our hopes of arousing our
country to the point of exterminating this horrible Oriental brothel
slavery by means of which even American men are enriching themselves
on the Pacific Coast.
Therefore we have felt obliged to produce our proof at once and at
first, and after that, if needed, we can write a more simple, concise
account, in less official and less cumbersome form, more suitable for
the general public to read,--not that the case could be stated in
purer or cleaner language than that used in the quotations from
official statements and letters, but the language might be more suited
to public taste. But worth cannot be sacrificed to taste, and, as we
have said, we feel compelled to publish the matter in its present form
first of all.
We send it forth, therefore, with the earnest prayer that, while
the book itself may have a limited circulation, yet, through the
providence of God, it may arouse some one to attempt that which seems
beyond our powers and opportunity,--some one who will feel the call of
God; who has the training and the ability; some one who has the spirit
of devotion and self-denial; some one of keen moral perceptions and
lofty faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, who will lead a
crusade that will never halt until Oriental slavery is banished from
our land, and it can no more be said, "The name of God is blasphemed
among the heathen because of you."
The documents from which we have quoted so extensively in this book
are the following:
"_Correspondence Relating to the Working of th

claimed for the act. But sometimes years may pass
before the marked victim can be traced and killed.
We will next give a few cases from the records of the Presbyterian and
Methodist Mission Rescue Homes of San Francisco, which will clearly
show the similarity between the state of affairs in Hong Kong and
California.
CHAPTER 17.
STRUGGLES FOR FREEDOM.
A Chinese girl of 14 was brought to this country, and served six
months as a domestic slave, and was then put into a brothel. She was
rescued. Her Chinese master got out a writ of habeas corpus, went to
the Mission with an officer and took the girl away at once to court
before a corrupt judge. It was just at noon-time, and the missionary
pleaded for a little time in which to summon a lawyer. The judge said:
"I have no time to fool with this case." The lawyer arrived in haste
and pleaded for a little time in which to prepare the defense. The
judge said to the lawyer: "You shut up, or I'll have you imprisoned
for contempt of Court." He awarded the slave to the care of her
master.
This and other such cases led to a valuable alteration of the law at
the point of the protection of minors. We will explain the change in
the words of Miss Cameron:
    "In years past it was necessary in each case to in a way break
    the _letter_ though not the _spirit_ of the law when we rescued a
    Chinese child, for there was no written law to uphold us in
    entering a house and carrying off a child--then, too, before
    it was possible to carry out guardianship proceedings, the
    ever-available writ of habeas corpus would in many cases deliver
    the child back into the care of the Chinese, until the matter
    could be settled in the Superior Court--in such instances we
    seldom won our case. Our attorney saw wherein the difficulty lay,
    and proposed an amendment to the law of the State in the ma

when Sir John Smale spoke
    in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong), he said, in a case in
    which the kidnapers had been convicted--This case presents two
    satisfactory facts first, that a Chinese boat woman handed one of
    these prisoners to the police, and that afterward an agent of the
    Chinese Society to suppress this class of crime caused the arrest
    and conviction of these prisoners. These facts are indicative of
    the public mind tending to treat kidnaping as a crime against
    society, calling for active suppression. On the same occasion, in
    sentencing a woman who had severely beaten an adopted child, Sir
    John Smale said, 'In finally disposing of these three cases, with
    all their enormity, sources of satisfaction present themselves in
    the fact that, in each of these cases, it has been owing to the
    spontaneous indignation of Chinese men and women that these crimes
    have been brought to the knowledge of the police.' The Governor
    closes his letter with the statement, 'It is only due to Sir John
    Smale to add that his own action has greatly contributed to foster
    the "healthy" public opinion of the native community, which
    induced him, when quitting the Supreme Court, to take a hopeful
    view of the future of this important subject.'"
CHAPTER 12.
THE CHIEF JUSTICE ANSWERS HIS OPPONENTS.
The Acting Attorney General at the time of Sir John Smale's first
pronouncement against slavery had suggested to Governor Hennessy that
Sir John Smale's statements should be sent to London to the Secretary
of State for the Colonies; and he and other advisers recommended that
no prosecutions in connection with "adoption" and "domestic servitude"
should be instituted, pending the receipt of instructions from the
Home Government. The Chief Justice concurred in these views, and also
suggested that the Chinese be told that no prosecutions as to the past
should take place, but that in future, in ev

(but very
true to life), given a natural color and lighted up within, like
Chinese lanterns. These were held aloft on the ends of long poles, and
as the men who carried them were invisible, because of the darkness,
and trod noiselessly because of bare, or merely sandaled feet, the
impression was of an immense train of these creatures floating or
swimming silently through the air.
The procession was made up of men of all sorts and kinds. Great fat
men with enormous fans panted along, and little boys ran by their side
with stools upon which they gravely seated themselves whenever
the line of march was halted for a moment. Little boys progressed
painfully along with the rest, walking on their hands, with their feet
thrown up into the air, or spinning along on all fours like wheels,
or going through various other antics. And, contrary to anything that
could have happened away from the open ports of China, there were many
women in the parade, and girls too. They were on horseback, in sedan
chairs, borne on wheeled platforms, like our "Goddess of Libert

What could they say? Were the officials
prepared, since the report of the Commission a few months before had
made public the scandals connected with the licensing and inspection
of brothels, to set about reforming the abuses by radical measures?
Certainly the Chief Justice was. He did everything in his power to
abolish slavery _as slavery_, not simply to abolish slavery when
unconnected with brothels. But subsequent history seems to indicate
that, from this point on, the British officials were ready to
compromise with the Chinese merchants, and the testimony from this
time forward was well-nigh universal in Hong Kong circles that
domestic slavery, or "domestic servitude," as Dr. Eitel recommended
that it should be called instead (since a weed by another name
may help the imagination to think it a rose), was very "mild" and
"harmless," and that the adoption of purchased boys was a "religious"
duty, or at least, had a religious flavor about it, as practiced by
the Chinese. But as we have already said, that adoption in order to be
lawful in China must be the adoption of one of the same surname.
On October 27th, 1879, the Chief Justice, at an adjourned sitting
of the Court for the purpose, sentenced two more offenders, one for
kidnaping a boy, and the other for detaining a girl with intent to
sell her. In the first case the Judge said:
    "Received as you had been into the father's house in charity, you
    availed yourself of the opportunity to steal his child, and tried
    to sell the child openly, probably having hawked him from door to
    door. The sentence of the Court on you, Tang Atim, is that you be
    imprisoned and kept to hard labor for two years, and that you be
    kept in solitary confinement for a period of one week in

with the Government management of immoral houses
at Singapore "protection," the Chief Inspector of brothels in this
place holds a more honored place in the community than at Hong Kong.
As to Mr. Scott's ironical questions in regard to that officer's
rank, we cannot answer, nor whether he is invited to the Governor's
receptions; but Mr. Scott would have been astounded, indeed, had
he, like ourselves, first met the Chief Inspector of brothels at a
reception given to ministers of the Gospel and missionaries; had he,


Oriental brothel
slavery by means of which even American men are enriching themselves
on the Pacific Coast.
Therefore we have felt obliged to produce our proof at once and at
first, and after that, if needed, we can write a more simple, concise
account, in less official and less cumbersome form, more suitable for
the general public to read,--not that the case could be stated in
purer or cleaner language than that used in the quotations from
official statements and letters, but the language might be more suited
to public taste. But worth cannot be sacrificed to taste, and, as we
have said, we feel compelled to publish the matter in its present form
first of all.
We send it forth, therefore, with the earnest prayer that, while
the book itself may have a limited circulation, yet, through the
providence of God, it may arouse some one to attempt that which seems
beyond our powers and opportunity,--some one who will feel the call of
God; who has the training and the ability; some one who has the spirit
of devotion and self-denial; some one of keen moral perceptions and
lofty faith in the ultimate triumph of justice, who will lead a
crusade that will never halt until Oriental slavery is banished from
our land, and it can no more be said, "The name of God is blasphemed
among the heathen because of you."
The documents from which we have quoted so extensively in this book
are the following:
"_Correspondence Relating to the Working of the Contagious Diseases
Ordinances of the Colony of Hong

of slavery, extend
    by their own proper force and authority to Hong Kong; and, if
    that were not enough, all English laws applicable to Hong Kong,
    including those against ownership in human beings, were by express
    Ordinances 6 of 1845, and 12 of 1873, embodied into the laws
    of Hong Kong, whilst the worst forms of slavery are especially
    punished by Ordinance 4 of 1865, and 2 of 1875. I am bound by
    my most solemn obligations to enforce all these laws. I must,
    therefore, without fear, favour or affection, discharge this duty
    to the best of my ability."
CHAPTER 10.
NOT FALLEN--BUT ENSLAVED.
The Report of the Commission affords the following instructive
account of the difference in the moral and social status between the
prostitute of the East and West:
    "In approaching the subject of prostitution, as it is found in
    Hong Kong at the present day, it is absolutely necessary for a
    full and just comprehension of it, to keep in mind two distinct
    considerations. One is t

and
lent them money for the purpose. All these performed their tasks in
"plain clothes," as was the practice through subsequent years. In
1861, constables (Europeans) acted frequently as informers, and in
one instance the Acting Registrar General,--in other words, the
"Protector,"--played the role of informer. He took a European
constable with him to a native house and caused him to commit adultery
there, and on this evidence prosecuted the woman for keeping an
unregistered brothel. During this year, an inspector named Johnson
presented a woman with a counterfeit dollar, and because she accepted
the money she was condemned as a keeper of an unregistered house, and
fined twenty-five dollars. This sum she would be less able to pay than
the average American woman ten times as much, so low are wages in that
country.
In 1862, an inspector of brothels, a policeman, and the Bailiff of
the Supreme Court, acted as informers; also in eleven cases European
constables in plain clothes, and on two occasions a master of a ship.
In 1863 the sworn belief alone of the inspector secured convictions in

fact, the whole force of opinion at each of these
Conferences, in 1899 and 1902, was against State Regulation, though
there was a division of opinion as to the substitute for it.
In 1903, the Minister of the Interior of France, the country where
these Acts originated, nominated an extra-Parliamentary Commission to
go thoroughly into these questions. This Commission held its numerous
sittings in 1905, and in the end by almost a two-thirds' majority
condemned the existing system of regulation in France, and furthermore
rejected the alternative proposal of notification with compulsory
treatment, by sixteen votes to one. In reporting on the Conferences
held in Brussels, the _Independence Belge_ said, in a leading article:
"Regulation is visibly decaying, and the fact is the more striking
because the country that instituted it (France) is at present the one
that meets it with the most ardent hostility."
CHAPTER 4.
MORE POWER DEMANDED AND OBTAINED.
In 1866 the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell,
determined upon the repeal of Ordinance 12, 1857, in order to
inaugurate "a more vigorous policy of coercion," (says the
Commission's report): "The key note of the new regime was struck by
the Governor's first minute

that we must look among these mainly for
rescued cases. Of this 1,034 the following account is given:
  Absconded                  63
  Died                       21
  Gone to "Private Houses"  346
  Married                    69
  To be accounted for       451
We have an explanation in the Protector's own words of what is meant
by a girl who has "absconded." "It is common now, when an owner
notices one of her girls contracting a continued intimacy with a male
visitor (and therefore to be suspected of an intention to apply to our
office for release), for the owner to sell the girl away to another
country. When this has been accomplished, the brothel keeper reports
the prostitute has absconded, and, if we cannot prove the contrary, we
are obliged to accept the story and strike the name off our books."
What would we think in America of a "Rescue work, and that only," with
all the advantages of Government backing; under constant surveillance;
every girl registered; that permitted 63 girls in a year to be
defeated in their desire to marry by being sold as slaves into foreign
parts; that allowed 346 of the girls to "go to private houses," as
domestic slaves or concubines; that did not account at all for 451
girls; and saw only 69 married; and all this out of 1,034 cases it had
absolutely within its control?
The Inspector spoke of the _personal tickets_ given into the hands of
each girl, which if sent to the Protectorate at any time, would secure
a hearing for her before the Protectorate. It is also declared that
notice is posted up in every brothel in a conspicuous place, that no
girl can be detained against her will. We visited a place on Fraser
Street the night of February 2nd; quoting from our journal:
    "There was a middle-aged woman in charge, with a baby beside her
    on the couch where she was sitting. There were six girls present,
    the oldest barely sixteen years old in appearance, and one between
    fourteen and fifte

"It would appear on the face of it that the efforts of the
    Government are absolutely impotent, the notices so much waste
    paper, and the 'rights of liberty' mere empty phrases of no
    meaning or significance to the Chinese mind ... A Chinawoman would
    never dream of effecting her escape for the purpose of evading the
    blood money. Of course such transactions are absolutely illegal,
    there is no tittle of reason why the man should pay a cent for the
    girl, but it is nevertheless an indubitable fact that the custom
    is widely prevalent, and that Hong Kong is a market for the buying
    and selling of women which the Government is powerless to touch.
    Exeter Hall in possession of these facts would indeed have a theme
    for pious lucubrations."
Commenting upon the same case the _Singapore Free Press_ says:
    "A recent investigation into a case of suicide in Hong Kong brings
    into strong prominence what is really a system of slavery of the
    worst kind, and which is not unknown in Singapore."
    Such testimony is valuable from papers which have consistently
    supported the Contagious Diseases Ordinances and vilified the
    opponents of the State regulation of vice. There can be little
    doubt that a large proportion of the girls and young women who are
    brought to the Straits Settlements for immoral purposes have been
    sold in China to the brothel-keepers' confederates. In many cases
    girls are thus sold by their parents for the payment of gambling
    and other debts, and sometimes, alas, to provide money for the
    purchase of opium. Surely it is a burning shame that British
    Colonies should have become the market for the sale of Chinese
    women into this diabolical form of slavery.
    This article cannot be closed without a brief reference to another
 

to the Governor, stated:
"Almost every so-called 'protected woman,' i.e. kept mistress of
foreigners here, belongs to the Tanka tribe, looked down upon and kept
at a distance by all the other Chinese classes. It is among these
Tanka women, and especially under the protection of these 'protected'
Tanka women, that private prostitution and the sale of girls for
concubinage flourishes, being looked upon as a legitimate profession.
Consequently, almost every 'protected woman' keeps a nursery of
purchased children or a few servant girls who are being reared with
a view to their eventual disposal, according to their personal
qualifications, either among foreigners here as kept women, or among
Chinese residents as their concubines, or to be sold for export to
Singapore, San Francisco, or Australia. Those 'protected women,'
moreover, generally act as 'protectors' each to a few other Tanka
women who live by sly prostitution."
When once a man enters the service of Satan he is generally pressed
along into it to lengths he did not at first intend to go. So it
proved in the case of many foreigners at Hong Kong. The foreigner
extended his "protection" to a native mistress. That "protected woman"
extended his name as "protector" over the inmates of her secret
brothel; and into that house protected largely from official
interference, purchased and kidnaped girls were introduced and reared
for the trade in women. The sensitive point seems to hav

and on this dot in the
    ocean it is estimated that the slave population has reached ten
    thousand souls! I first became fully alive to the existence of
    so-called domestic slavery in this Colony at the Criminal Sessions
    in May last, on the trial of two cases.... But it is said that
    what is called domestic slavery, as it exists in Hong Kong, is
    mild, and it is said to be the opinion of a gentleman of great
    experience in Chinese, that, as it exists here, it is not contrary
    to the Christian religion, and that it is as general a fashion
    for Chinese ladies in Hong Kong to purchase one or more girls to
    attend on them as it is for English ladies to hire ladies'
    maids, and that the custom is so general that it would be highly
    impolitic, if not impossible, to put down the system. It may be
    that slavery as it exists in the houses of the better classes
    in Hong Kong is mild, and that custom among the better classes
    renders servitude to them a boon as long as it lasts. It is, I
    believe, an admitted duty that when the young girl grows up and
    becomes marriageable she is married; but then it is t

himself, and on the books of the Registrar General's office (I
    have turned to them and read his own evidence recorded in his
    own handwriting) there is his own conviction of the girl, of the
    offence, and his sentence, that she be fined fifty dollars and
    some months' imprisonment! I mention this for this reason--that
    the officer who did this was appointed because he was supposed to
    be a man of exceptionally high moral tone, and good conduct and
    demeanour. But what would be the effect on any man having to
    administer such an Ordinance? There was laid before my Legislative
    Council a case of one of the European Inspectors of brothels, and
    I was struck by this fact in his evidence. He says: 'I took the
    marked money from the Registrar General's office, and followed a
    woman, and consorted with her, and gave her the money; and the
    moment I had done so, I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out
    the badge of office, and pointed to the Crown, and arrested the
    woman.' She was henceforth 'a Queen's woman'."
CHAPTER 6.
THE PROTECTOR'S COURT AND SLAVERY.
The justification for the passage of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance
at the beginning, as set forth in Mr. Labouchere's dispatch on the
27th of August, 1856, to 

of the girl, and that both the father of the child and
Leung A-Tsit be notified that the father was entitled to the child by
British law, and referring the father to the police magistrate.
The police magistrate requested of the Colonial Secretary that
the Attorney General's opinion be obtained, as to what course the
magistrate should pursue. The final outcome of the case is told by
Governor Hennessy in a despatch to the Secretary of State for the
Colonies.
    "I made a minute on the petitions, directing them to be sent to
    the Attorney General, as 'the parties appear to acknowledge being
    concerned in an illegal transaction.' In a few days the papers
    were returned to me with the following opinion of the Attorney
    General: 'The transaction referred to would not be recognized in
    our laws as giving any rights, except perhaps as to guardianship,
    but I am unable to say there is anything illegal in the matter
    beyond that. I do not think it a criminal offence if it goes no
    further than the adoption of a child and the payment of money to
    its parents for the privilege.'"
Later, when His Excellency was calling the attention of Acting
Attorney General Russell to a somewhat similar case, he states, in
reference to this above-described case:
    "Mr. Phillipo, before whom the papers were laid, did not seem
    disposed to enforce the rights of the father, on the ground that
    he had sold the child. I did not agree with Mr. Phillipo's view of
    the law."
CHAPTER 8.
JUSTICE FROM THE SUPREME BE

Attorney
    General also seems not to appreciate fully what he must have heard
    Sir John Smale saying from the Bench in the Supreme Court. It
    would be a mistake to think that the Chief Justice had not before
    he left the Colony, realized the public opinion of the Chinese
    community on the subject of kidnaping. In sentencing a prisoner
    for kidnaping, on the 10th of March, 1881, Sir John Smale said he
    was bound to declare from the Bench that, to the credit of the
    Chinese, a right public opinion had been growing up, and on the
    25th of March, 1881, (the last occasion when Sir John Smale spoke
