Newsgroup: it.scienza.ambiente
Titolo: Re: Minnesota flag proposal

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 every two
    months of your imprisonment."
Chan Achit, an old woman, convicted of having unlawfully detained a
female child of 11 years of age, with intent to sell her, was next
placed in the dock. His Lordship said:
    "The evidence in this case has shown the extraordinary extent to
    which, under cloak of China custom, the iniquity of dealing in
    children has extended. From the evidence, I have no doubt that a
    vagabond clansman to whom the father had occasionally given out of
    his penury had originated the crime in enticing the child away,
    and it seems to me to be clear that the prisoner was as well known
    as a 'broker of mankind' as a receiver of stolen children, to sell
    them on commission, as receivers of old iron and marine stores
    could be found in this Colony to dispose of stolen property. The
    little girl bought and sold, aged 11 years, is a very intelligent
    child, and described the negotiations for her sale with great
    clearness."
The Chief Justice then went on to repeat the little girl's testimony
as to these "brokers of mankind," and the child's knowledge, from
personal observation of these purchases and sales, to which he adds:
    "Let me here ask, Is the trade, or rather profession, 'broker of
    mankind,' also a sacred China custom? I will not ask the queries
    which would naturally arise in case the question were answered in
    the affirmative. At present, however, I must say that, custom
    or no custom, the practice of this profession is prohibited by
    statute, and it is my duty to meet its exercise by punishment."
The prisoner was sentenced to two years' penal servitude. The Chief
Justice concluded his remarks on that occasion by replying to 

practices
were forbidden, poor and distressed people would have no means left
to save their lives, but would be compelled to sit down and wait for
death." In other words, these men would claim that their motives were
wholly, or largely benevolent in purchasing the children of the poor!
And what better could the poor do for a living than to beget children
and sell them into slavery to the rich!
"Whilst all those practices, therefore, may be classed together
as buying and selling (of free persons), it is yet requisite to
distinguish carefully the good or wicked purposes which each class of
practice serve, and accordingly apply discriminately either punishment
or non-punishment." But anti-slavery legislation has never done this,
and never will. The question is not to any 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 Kon

human
    beings in Hong Kong was well known to the department. One of the
    records has been shown to me in which a witness swears, 'I bought
    the girl Chan Tsoi Lin and placed her in a brothel in Hong Kong';
    and on that particular piece of evidence no action was taken by
    the department."
Lord Carnarvon was Secretary of State for the Colonies at this time,
and his replies to Sir John Pope Hennessy were small encouragement to
the course the Governor had taken. He criticises his "somewhat unusual
course" in the appointment of a Commission "composed of private
persons to inquire into the administration of an important department
of the Government." He says: "I am unable to concur in the suggestion
made in your despatch as to the advisability of prosecuting Inspector
Lee." He implies that in his opinion "Inspector Lee was acting
strictly within his powers on this unfortunate occasion." "It is
quite possible," Lord Carnarvon continues, "that there may be abuses
connected with the Contagious Diseases Ordinance which ought to
be removed; but I would point out that such abuses arise from the
imperfections in the system as established by law.... While ready
to give consideration to the subject of amending the system, if
necessary, I fail at present to observe wherein the officers ... have
exceeded the duty imposed upon them by law."
From such responses as these we readily learn that it was not alone in
Hong Kong that these outrageous abuses of every principle of justice
in dealing with Chinese women failed to arouse more than a lukewarm
interest in their behalf, and all the way through Sir John Pope
Hennessy, with one or two notable exceptions, so far as the records
go, was shown but scant sympathy in his efforts to correct these
abuses.
On April 2nd, 1878, Sir Harcourt Johnstone asked in the House of
Commons the Secretary of State for the Colonies, "whether his
attention has been directed to a recent outrage committed ... at Hong
Kong, whi