161
HONG KONG.
CORRESPONDENCE
RESPECTING THE
ALLEGED EXISTENCE
OF
CHINESE SLAVERY
IN
HONG KONG .
!
Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty,
March 1882.
DIEU ET MON DROIT
LONDON:
PRINTED BY GEORGE EDWARD EYRE AND WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE,
PRINTERS TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
FOR HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE .
1882 .
[ C.- 3185. ] Price 1s. 4d.
163
TABLE OF CONTENTS .
Serial
No. From or to whom. Date. Subject. Page.
1 Governor J. Pope Jan. 23, 1880 Forwarding copies of various papers, reports, &c. 1
Hennessy. (Rec. March 4.) relating to the question of Chinese slavery in
its various forms as alleged to exist in Hong
Kong, together with copy of a recent declaration
by the Chief Justice and a memorial by Chinese
merchants.
2 Foreign Office April 30, 1880 Forwarding copy Despatch from Her Majesty's 57
Minister at Washington, enclosing copy message
sent by the President of the United States to
the House of Representatives regarding slavery
in China and Hong Kong.
3 To Governor Sir J. Pope May 20, 1880 Acknowledging Governor's Despatch of 23rd 72
Hennessy. January regarding the alleged existence of
Chinese slavery in Hong Kong, and submitting
observations thereon, particularly with reference
to the declaration made by the Chief Justice ;
also requesting further information on certain
points specified.
4 To Foreign Office June 5 , 1880 Acknowledging letter of 30th April with refe- 73
rence to slavery in China, and forwarding copy
Despatch thereon addressed to Governor of
Hong Kong.
5 To Governor Sir J. Pope June 30, 1880 Informing of having had attention called to the 74
Hennessy. alleged sale of a male child as reported in the
" Hong Kong Daily Press " of 27th April last,
and requesting explanation as to the state of
the laws in Hong Kong with regard to certain
points indicated.
6 Governor Sir J. Pope June 23, 1880 Explaining that previous to receipt of Secretary 74
Ionnessy. (Rec. Aug. 9. ) of State's Despatch of 20th ultimo, Governor
had provisionally sanctioned the formation of a
society of Chinese gentlemen for the protection
of women and children.
7 Ditto June 23, 1880 Reporting that in his opinion the existing law 79
2
(Rec. Aug. 9. ) against slavery is quite sufficient if properly
enforced.
8 To Governor Sir J. Pope Aug. 27, 1880 Acknowledging Governor's Despatch of 23rd June 80 .
Hennessy. relating to the formation of a Chinese society
for protection of women and children, and re-
questing to be furnished with copies of the rules
of the society.
08
9 Ditto Sept. 29, 1880. Acknowledging receipt of Despatch of June 23,
and stating that it does not appear to meet the
real difficulties of the case.
82
10 Governor Sir J. Pope Sept. 3, 1880 Forwarding further papers relating to kidnapping
Hennessy. (Rec. Oct. 14.) and so-called slavery in Hong Kong, and observ-
ing that the Chief Justice, in forwarding the
criminal calendar on 7th July 1880, calls atten-
tion to the diminution of serious crime in the
Colony.
11 To Governor Sir J. Pope Nov. 26, 1880 Acknowledging Governor's Despatches of 23rd 88
Hennessy. June and 3rd September, and pointing out that
the information called for in Secretary of
State's Despatch of 20th May has not yet been
furnished.
12 Governor Sir J. Pope Nov. 13, 1880. Replying to Despatch of 29th September 89
Hennessy. (Rec. Dec. 23.)
Extract .
Q2893. Wt. 8681.
iv
Serial
No. From or to whom. Date. Subject. Page.
13 Sir John Smale - July 15, 1881. Enclosing copy translation of a bill of sale of a 89
(Extract.) boy in 1879.
14 Governor Sir J. Pope June 15, 1881 Expressing opinion that there is nothing illegal 90
Hennessy. (Rec. July 25.) in the ordinary mode of adoption of Chinese
children in Hong Kong, but that the case of
Tsang San Fat's child was a proper one for
prosecution. Stating also that no alteration of
present law on the subject is required.
15 Ditto June 15, 1881 Submitting observations in support of his state- 91
(Rec. July 25.) ment that the Contagious Diseases Ordinances
of 1857 and 1867 had caused an increase in
brothel slavery.
16 Ditto June 15, 1881 Reporting that the Chinese Society for the Pro- 92
(Rec. July 25. ) tection of Women and Children works smoothly,
and is doing good , especially in the detection of
kidnappers.
17 To Governor Sir J. Pope 92
36
July 28, 1881 Acknowledging Governor's despatch of 15 June,
Hennessy. and intimating that it does not alter the opinion
already expressed by the Secretary of State.
18 Governor Sir J. Pope Aug. 4, 1881 Transmitting letters from Chief Justice Sir John 93
Hennessy. (Rec. Sept. 12.) Smale, and a report by Dr. Eitel on the so-
called slavery .
19 Ditto Aug. 31 , 1881 Transmitting copy of a report by the Attorney 110
(Rec. Oct. 24.) General on Sir John Smale's remarks and
opinions on Chinese slavery, made from time to
time by him in sentencing prisoners, and ex-
plaining the difference in the views of the two
gentleman.
20 Ditto Aug. 31 , 1881 Forwarding printed copies, revised by the Attorney 114
(Rec. Oct. 24.) General, of the rules of the Chinese Society for
the Protection of Women and Children, and
recommending sanction of same by an Ordinance.
21 To Governor Sir J. Pope Nov. 3, 1881. Doubting the necessity for passing a special 120
Hennessy. Ordinance for legalising the rules of the Chinese
Society for Protection of Women and Children ;
but if this Society requires corporate powers,
it will be sufficient to register it under the
Companies Ordinance of 1865.
22
22 Ditto March 18, 1882 Replying to Governor's despatch of 31 Aug. 1881 120
on the alleged existence of slavery in Hong
Kong, and submitting an exposition of English
law as it affects the matter, with request that
Governor should institute further inquiries and
report result to Secretary of State.
165
No. 1.
GOVERNOR J. POPE HENNESSY, C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. SIR MICHAEL
HICKS BEACH, BART. ( Received March 4, 1880. )
Government House,
SIR, Hong Kong, January 23, 1880.
On the 6th of last October ( 1879) Chief Justice Sir John Smale, in passing
sentence on some Chinese prisoners, convicted in one case of purchasing a female for
purposes of prostitution , and, in other cases , of kidnapping children, delivered an able
and elaborate judgment on the existence of slavery in Hong Kong. I have the honour
to lay before you a copy of that judgment , together with a copy of a letter dated the
20th of October from the Chief Justice to the Colonial Secretary on the same subject.
2. In the early part of the judgment the Chief Justice declared that " two specific
" classes of slavery exist in this Colony, to a very great extent, viz . , so- called domestic
slavery and slavery for the purposes of prostitution." Towards the end of his judg-
ment he pointed out that Imperial Acts of Parliament as well as local ordinances
rendered illegal any form of slavery in this Colony ; he expressed the opinion that all the
officers of the Crown in Hong Kong (including himself) had hitherto failed in their duty
in this matter, and he said the number of slaves in Hong Kong had been estimated at
from 10,000 to 20,000. His Honour, however, was pleased to add : " Of this I feel
" assured, by his previous acts , that his Excellency the Governor will actively promote
" all such proceedings as will tend to enforce the laws against slavery here, so that this
86
Colony may become as free from that taint as any other Colony under the British
" Crown by enforcing laws already in existence, and, if necessary, by passing laws, how-
66
ever stringent, that shall free this Colony effectually from all slavery."
3. I cannot exactly say what previous acts of mine the Chief Justice had in his mind
when he thus spoke, but it is true that I had, from time to time, made some efforts to
expose and check a form of slavery, and of buying and selling children, in connection
with the brothel system in Hong Kong, as well as to punish, according to law, those who
were guilty of detaining children from their parents on the ground that they had
purchased them for adoption.
4. Six or seven months after my arrival in this Colony I discovered that abuses
existed in connection with the legalized brothel system. Two Chinese women were
killed in October 1877 by falling from the roof of a house when chased by an officer of
the Registrar General's Department. In the evidence before the Coroner* I observed
that a person paid by the Department to induce Chinese women to prostitute themselves
and then inform upon them, had sworn that one of the deceased women , Tai Yau , had
kneeled before him and begged for mercy, saying she had been previously fined $ 100
and had had to sell her child to pay the fine.
5. My attention being drawn to such a circumstance, it was clearly my duty to
institute an inquiry and to report the facts to Her Majesty's Government.
Accordingly, in writing to the Earl of Carnarvon (Despatch of the 6th of
December 1877) ,† I quoted the evidence at the Coroner's inquest, and added : " I am
" now informed that the Commissioners have obtained from the records of the Registrar
" General's Department and from Mr. Smith's evidence the clearest proof that this
" practice of selling 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
66 ·
girl, Chan Tsoi Lim, and placed her in a brothel in Hong Kong, ' and on that particular
piece of evidence no action was taken by the Department.
" Of course this branch of the subject, now that the truth has become known to the
" Commissioners and the public, will be thoroughly investigated ."
6. In my Despatch of 17th March 1879, I transmitted the Report and proceedings
of the Commission ; and in my Despatch of the 19th of March 1879 ,§ I quoted &
sentence or two in which the Commissioners refer to the sale of Tai Yau's child to
pay a fine in 1876. The accompanying extracts from the printed evidence show
that the Registrar General's Department was not ignorant of the fact that Chinese
women were purchased for the Hong Kong brothels, and that the head of the Department
thought it useless to try and deal with the question of the freedom of such women.
* Vide p. 6 of (H.C. No. 118) , Marc 1880. † No. 4 of [C. 3093 ] , August 1881.
h
No. 13 of [ C. 3093] , August 1881. § No. 14 of [ C. 3093 ] , August 1881 .
Q 2893.
2
Mr. Cecil Clementi Smith, in his evidence on the 1st of December 1877, said : " They
are either bought or engaged at those places (Canton or Macao)
" I think it useless to try and deal with the question of the freedom of Chinese prosti-
" tutes by law or by any Government regulations." That the buying and selling was
not confined to places outside the Colony is clear from the evidence of other witnesses
and from the notes of cases taken by the Registrar General himself. It will also be
seen that where the persons guilty of such offences were sometimes punished it was
generally for a minor offence, such as not keeping a correct list of women or for an assault.
7. The question of how far British law or Government regulations can deal with
the freedom of these women is not the only question raised in the report and pro-
ceedings of the Commission. I am aware that the Naval and Military Authorities have
heen and are still in communication with you on the subject generally, and that I
cannot expect your final decision for some time. But I believe I only anticipate your
instructions, in giving orders, that the law, whatever may be the consequences to the
brothel system, should be strictly enforced so as to secure the freedom of these women ..
8. On this branch of the subject you will observe that in his letter of the 20th
of October 1879 the Chief Justice says :-
"I cannot understand why such classes should as classes increase in this Colony at
all, unless it be that (in addition to the Chinese demand for domestic servants and
brothels ) there be an increased foreign element increasing the demand .
" I fear that a high premium is obtained by persons who kidnap girls in the high
prices which they realize on sale to foreigners as kept women.
" No one can walk through some of the bye-streets in this Colony without seeing well
dressed China girls in great numbers whose occupations are self-proclaimed, or pass
those streets, or go into the schools in this Colony, without counting beautiful children
by the hundred whose Eurasian origin is self-declared . If the Government would
inquire into the present condition of these classes, and still more, into what has become
of those women and their children of the past, I believe that it will be found that in
the great majority of cases the women have sunk into misery, and that of the children
the girls that have survived have been sold to the profession of their mothers, and that,
if boys, they have been lost sight of or have sunk into the condition of the mean whites
of the late slave-holding states of America.
" The more I penetrate below the polished surface of our civilization the more con-
vinced am I that the broad undercurrent of life here is more like that in the Southern
States of America when slavery was dominant than it resembles the all-pervading
civilization of England.
" Nothing less powerful than a Commission with legislative powers to investigate and
to examine on oath will ever lay bare the evil which , from suggestions I have received,
I believe to underlie our seemingly fair surface.
" My suggestion that the mild intervention of the law should be invoked was ignored.
It was also met by the assertion that custom has so sanctioned the evils in this Colony
as that they are above the reach of the law, and that by custom the slavery was
mild.
" I have been driven to denounce the whole evil from the bench in a way I do not
now regret. Having been driven to speak out I now suggest to his Excellency the
Governor an important addition, not convenient to be particularly alluded to from the
bench, to the matters which I have already declared require, as I think , investigation . "
I am endeavouring to obtain precise information on one or two points alluded to in
the foregoing passages of Sir John Smale's letter.
9. As regards the less criminal but more extensive branch of this so - called slavery
question , that in which children are brought and sold in Hong Kong for adoption or
for domestic service, I also made some efforts, before I was aware of Sir John Smale's
views, and during his absence in England , to enforce what I believed to be the law.
10. In May 1878, as you will see from the enclosed copies of official documents, I
received two petitions, one from a man named Tsang san Fat complaining that owing
to stress of poverty he had to give away his daughter to a person who he feared was
about to take her from the Colony, and a second petition from the person in question,
a man named Leung a Tsit, acknowledging that he had bought the child for $23, and
complaining that Tsang san Fat was now endeavouring to extort money from him.
I made a minute on the petitions , directing them to be sent to the Attorney General as
167
3
"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 recognised in our laws as giving any rights,
except perhaps as to guardianship, but I am unable to say that there is anything illegal
in the matter beyond that. I do not think it is 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.
"31st May 1878. (Signed) G. PHILLIPPO . "
11. In the face of that opinion I had to content myself with directing answers to be
written to the petitioners to the effect that, according to British law, the father was
entitled to get back the child, and referring the father to the police magistrate. The
police magistrate's reports, with a fresh opinion of the Attorney General, came to me on
the 19th of June. The magistrate said, in one report, that the girl had been sold in
October 1877 for $23, and in a subsequent minute he said, " The purchaser of the girl •
66 says he is quite prepared to give her up when his money is repaid, but that otherwise
" he will not part with her unless compelled to do so by law." The Attorney General,
however, said he knew of no authority empowering the magistrate to order the delivery
of the child to the father. Thereupon I sent a minute to the Attorney General saying
I feared he did not recognise the gravity of the case, and adding, " I must trouble him
to take steps to prosecute on my behalf the purchaser of the girl." The Attorney
General, however, declined to do so for reasons similar to those he had already stated.
Nevertheless, I pressed him to prosecute, and pointed out the grave responsibility he
was incurring. He rejoined in a long minute, transmitting certain statements the Crown
Solicitor had obtained. In this minute he said :-
" I have no hesitation in repeating my deliberate opinion that in a case of this sort the
magistrate has no jurisdiction ; that at the most he could only use a little moral pressure,
and that if his Excellency desires to suppress the practice of parties adopting children
or taking them as servants on giving a gratuity to the parents by the institution of
criminal proceedings against parties obtaining possession of children from their parents ,
under such circumstances it will be necessary to introduce special provisions for the
purpose."
12. As my law adviser thus recorded his deliberate opinion that in a case of this sort
the magistrate had no jurisdiction, I was, of course, unable to institute criminal proceedings.
I must add, in justice to Mr. Phillippo, that on speaking of this case to my principal
executive officers, I found he had consulted some of them, and that his view of the
matter was in strict accordance with theirs.
13. Three or four months after this incident occurred some of the leading Chinese
residents presented a memorial to me, praying that they might be allowed to form an
association for suppressing kidnapping and traffic in human beings. They recited the
fact that repressive measures had repeatedly been taken against the crime of kidnapping,
but that much still remained to be done as girls were being forced to become prostitutes and
boys were being sold to become adopted children. I have the honour to enclose, for
your information, a copy of this memorial, and of the various minutes and proceedings
in connection with it.
14. In my minute of the 12th of November 1878 I expressed the opinion that this
was a very praiseworthy proceeding on the part of the Native gentlemen who originated
it, and I gave instructions that a committee should be formed of the two police magis-
trates, the Captain- Superintendent of Police, and Dr. Eitel, together with the leading
petitioners, to draw up for my approval some scheme for checking the crime of kid-
napping.
15. On the 3rd of October last the committee completed their labours and forwarded
their proposed scheme to the Colonial Secretary . I shall submit some observations to
you in a separate Despatch on the details of this scheme . Speaking generally, it shows
an earnest desire on the part of the Government officers, as well as the Chinese gentle-
men on the committee, to put down the evils to which the latter drew my attention in
their memorial.
16. Sir John Smale's judgment against slavery was delivered on the 6th of October,
but, as you will observe from the enclosed copies of correspondence and minutes, he
wrote to the Colonial Secretary on the 30th of May 1879, asking that proceedings be
4
forthwith taken against certain persons suspected of buying and selling children. I
made a minute thereon, dated the same day, stating that such practices had prevailed
almost unchecked for many years past, that I had drawn the attention of Mr. Phillippo,
the late Attorney General, to a case of the kind, and that I did not agree with
Mr. Phillippo's view of the law. I concluded by informing the acting Attorney General
that if he thought he could obtain a conviction in the case to which the Chief Justice
called attention, or any similar case, it was my wish that the law be strictly enforced .
17. I left Hong Kong the following day (31st May) , and did not return till the 6th
of September. The Administrator's letter, dated 16th July 1879, sets forth his reasons
for not concurring with the Chief Justice as to the proposed prosecution . On my return
the Chief Justice made no appeal to me from the Administrator's decision.
18. On the 20th of September, in a somewhat similar case, in which two prisoners
were convicted, the Chief Justice directed the acting Attorney General to prosecute a
certain Chinese shopkeeper, Pao Chee Wan, and his wife, when the acting Attorney
General said the case was before me for decision. I enclose for your information a
report of the proceedings in the Supreme Court on that occasion . I subsequently sent a
note to the acting Attorney General, saying I thought the prosecution suggested by the
Chief Justice should take place ; but it was found that the accused parties were not in
the Colony.
19. Sir John Smale's action in this matter excited a good deal of attention ; and a
number of Chinese merchants called upon me to represent their view of the case. I told
them that slavery in any form could not be allowed in this Colony. They said their
system of adoption and of obtaining girls for domestic service was not slavery ; and they
referred to the more immoral practice of buying girls for the Hong Kong brothels, which,
they alleged, Government departments had connived at, though it was a practice most
hateful to the respectable Natives. I requested them to favour me with their views in
writing. They did this in the form of a memorial . I enclose a copy of it and a transla-
tion, together with a report on it by Dr. Eitel, my Chinese secretary.
20. On receiving from the Chief Justice a revised copy of his judgment of the 6th of
October, I sent it to the acting Attorney General for his observations. Mr. Russell
suggested that I should refer it to you ; and he and my other advisers recommended
that no prosecutions in connection with adoption and domestic servants should be insti-
tuted, pending the receipt of instructions from you. I mentioned this recommendation
to the Chief Justice , who entirely concurred in it. He further recommended that the
Chinese should be told that no prosecutions as to the past would take place, but that in
future, in every case where buying or selling occurred in connection with adoption or
domestic service, the Government would undoubtedly prosecute. This recommendation
appears to me to be reasonable.
21. Though I feel that the term slavery can hardly be applied in fairness to Chinese
adoption or to domestic service, where the individuals concerned go about our streets
with a knowledge that they are free ; yet the fact that they have been actually bought
seems to me to condemn ths system . I am clearly of opinion that any practice involving
a traffic in human beings should be put down by law.
22. Her Majesty's Chinese subjects in this Colony are so loyal and law-abiding a
race that I anticipate no real difficulty in getting them to assist the Government in
putting a stop to this buying and selling of children for adoption or domestic service.
Of course, those who wish to adopt children can do so in the same way that children are
adopted in the United Kingdom. Contracts for domestic service can be lawfully made
also.
23. I feel convinced that the views I officially expressed on some branches of this
subject in 1877 and 1878, and which have now been put forward on the far higher
authority of Sir John Smale, are strictly consistent with the policy that would make
Hong Kong a flourishing Anglo- Chinese community. For the first time in the history
of this Colony, a Chinese gentleman was included , in 1878 , in the list of our 30 or 40
local justices of the peace. This year, for the first time, the Chinese are represented in
the Legislative Council . As long as they were treated as an alien race it is not sur-
prising that they were allowed to keep up practices alien to our constitution.
I have, & c. ,
The Right Honourable (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
Sir Michael Hicks Beach, Bt., M.P. ,
&c. &c. &c.
169
5
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Supreme Court, Criminal Sessions, 6th October 1879.
Before the Hon. Chief Justice, Sir JOHN SMALE.
Declaration by the Chief Justice that slavery in every form in Hong Kong is illegal,
and must be put down.
Five prisoners were placed in the dock for sentence, having been severally convicted
at these sessions of kidnapping a child, of detaining two children with intent to sell them,
and of selling and purchasing a child for the purpose of prostitution.
The Chief Justice, on taking his seat this morning, said : -On the Criminal Calendar
for Sept. 1879 three cases now by adjournment come on for the Court to pass sentence
on the prisoners convicted . Case No. 1 , R. v. Lee A Kau, convicted on the 18th of
September last of having (first count) feloniously and unlawfully and by fraudulent
means enticed away one A Ngan, a child under the age of 14 years, to wit 8 years,
with intent thereby to deprive one Au A Ho of the possession of such child, on the
21st August 1879 ; and (second count) having feloniously detained the same child in
the same manner. Case No. 6, R. v. Tsang Sz Tau and U A-In , convicted on the 23rd of
September last, on four counts, of ( 1 ) having detained against his will a boy named
Ho Po Sing, with intent to sell him in this Colony, on the 30th May 1879 (2) Fraudu
lently detaining same boy at same time with intent to sell him : (3 and 4 ) Like charges
as to a boy called Yeung Shing . Case No. 9, R. v. Keung A To and Li A Kak, con-
victed on the 20th September last,-as to Keung A To, of having purchased a female
child named Tiu Heng, for the purposes of prostitution in this Colony, on the 4th March
1879 ; as to Li A Kak of having sold the same child, for the same purpose, at the said
time. Various causes have occasioned delay in passing sentence, of which I will only
refer to one : the gravity of the fact that these and other cases have recently brought
so prominently to the notice of the Court that two specific classes of slavery exist in this
Colony to a very great extent ; viz ., so-called domestic slavery, and slavery for the pur-
poses of prostitution . The three cases now awaiting the sentence of the Court are
specially provided for by Ordinances of 1865 and 1872, prohibiting kidnapping and
illegally detaining men, women, and children ; and no difficulty ever arose in my mind as
to the crimes of which these prisoners are severally convicted, or as to the sentences due
to such crimes ; and there is no question as to crimes or punishment of cases where
women are smuggled into brothels, some licensed and others unlicensed, or otherwise
dedicated to immoral purposes . But the enormous extent to which slavery in this
Colony has grown up has called into existence a greatly increasing traffic, especially in
women and children. The number of Chinamen in this Colony has increased and is
increasing rapidly, whilst their great increase in wealth has fostered licentious habits,
notably in buying women for purposes sanctioned neither by the laws nor customs on
the mainland. I hold in my hand a placard in Chinese, torn down from the wall of the
Central School, Gough Street steps , in this city. The translation appears at length in
the Hong Kong Daily Press of August 15th, 1879. The purport of that translation is
shortly that the advertiser, one Cheong, has lost a purchased slave girl named Tai Ho, aged
13 years. After a full description of the girl a reward is offered in these terms :-" If
" If
"
14 there is in either of the four quarters any worthy man who knows where she is gone
to, and will send a letter, he will be rewarded with four full weight dollars, and the
person detaining the slave will be rewarded with 15 full weight dollars." These words
are subsequently added :-" This is firm, and the words will not be eaten." I recently
poke in reprobation of slavery from this Bench, and in consequence of my remarks
gentleman who tore down this placard, gave it to the Editor of the Daily Press, and in
1 letter in that paper he stated that such placards are common, and that he had torn
down a hundred such placards. Has Cuba or has Peru ever exhibited more palpable,
more public evidence of the existence of generally recognised slavery in these hotbeds
of slavery, than such placards as the one I now hold in my hand, to prove that slavery
exists in this Colony ? The notices have been posted in a most populous neighbourhood,
and have been in all probability read -they ought to have been, they must have been read—
by scores of our Chinese policemen. Important as this Colony is, politically and com-
mercially, it is but a dot in the ocean ; its area is about half that of the county of
Rutland ; the circumference of this island is calculated at about 27 miles, whilst that
of the Isle of Wight is about 56 miles. The cultivated land on this island may be to
the barren waste about one-half per cent., and there is no agrarian slavery here in nearly
the total absence of farms, and on this dot in the ocean it is estimated that the slave
population has reached 10,000 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
6
cases. In one case I sentenced two poor miserable women , for detaining a male child"
aged 13, against provisions of Ordinance No. 4 of 1865 , sections 50 and 51 , to imprison-
ment with hard labour for 18 months. It appeared that a respectable tradesman in
Kowloon gave $171, for the child, and detained him until the friends came from Canton
and claimed a child ; and then , as against the relatives, he claimed a right to detain the
child, even against his relatives from whom he had been kidnapped . In the other case I
sentenced a poor miserable woman for having stolen a female child aged 9 years, under
Ordinance 4 of 1865, section 51 , to two years' imprisonment with bard labour. It
appeared that one Leung Atuk, the concubine of a compradore in this Colony, bought
this child for $53, and kept her shut up in a room till the child, looking out of the
window upstairs, saw her relative, and she was got back only through the intervention
of the police. In each of these cases the child kidnapped was bought recklessly by the
man and the woman on a guarantee by the sellers, much after the fashion a guarantee
given on the sale of a horse that it was not stolen, each indifferent as to how possession
of the child had been obtained . In each of these cases I requested the prosecution of
these well-to-do persons, purchasers of these human chattels, who had bought these
children, whose money had occasioned the kidnapping, just as a receiver of stolen goods
buys stolen property without due or any inquiry to verify the patent lies of the vendors.
I have reason to believe that H.E. the Governor was desirous that my request should,
if proper, be complied with ; but on reference to former cases it appeared that a former
Attorney General had found that the system had been almost if not altogether
unchecked for many years past, and that in particular, when His Excellency had desired
to enforce the rights of a father to recover his child, he was not disposed to enforce that
right because the father had sold that child . On that precedent and on other precedents
also, mainly in reliance on two proclamations, dated the 1st and 2nd of February 1841 ,
by which the free exercise of their religious rites, ceremonies, and social customs was
promised to the Chinese (but this was temporary only, " pending Her Majesty's future
" pleasure ") , the administrator of the Government in the absence of the Governor was
advised not to prosecute these two persons. In one of the cases at these sessions now
before me, it was in evidence that Pao Chee Wan, a very respectable man in this Colony,
took the child three years ago in pledge for $50, and she remained ever since the servant
of Chan Atsoi , one of the few respectable real first wives living in this Colony, till she
beat the child, who ran away and then was kidnapped. I took the responsibility to
direct the Acting Attorney General to prosecute this man and his wife . The responsi-
bility rests on the Attorney General, and on him alone, as the law officer of the Crown,
to institute and prosecute proper proceedings . I understand that this Chinese gentleman
and lady have left the Colony. Their absence is to be regretted , as it prevents the trial
of a test case not unfavourable to those who contend that domestic slavery as it exists in
Hong Kong is an institution which ought not to be put down. In this case I consider
the service was really domestic, the wife being at its head. Time was when the coolie
trade was said to be not illegal . Since the Kwok Asing case in 1871 no one has con-
tended that it is legal . No one now claims for kidnappers the right to kidnap men,
women, or children, or to buy them, or to detain them when bought with notice .
of the kidnapping for any purpose. No one now claims the right to purchase or detain
females for immoral purposes. 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 the custom that the
husband buys her, and her master receives the price always paid for a wife, whilst he has
received the girl's services for simple maintenance ; so that, according to the marriageable
excess in the price of the bride over the price he paid for the girl, he is a gainer, and the
purchase of the child produces a good return. But the picture has another aspect.
What, if the master is brutal, or the mistress jealous, becomes of the poor girl ? Certain
recent cases show that she is sold to become a prostitute here or at Singapore or in
California, a fate often worse than death to the girl, at a highly remunerating price to
the brute, the master. It seems to me that all slavery, domestic, agrarian, or for
immoral purposes, comes within one and the same category. I proceed to answer the
question, Does the law of Hong Kong tolerate slavery in any shape ? I believe the whole
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7
question rests on the highest principles recognised by all European municipal law. I
expressed the conclusion to which I had come in 1871. I extract the words in which
I expresse hat conclusion from the report of my judgment on the 25th March 1871 in
the Kwok Asing case, from the only book in which it is printed in an enduring form,
the American State Papers, " The papers relating to the foreign relations of the
" United States transmitted to Congress with the Annual Messageof the President ;
Washington, 1871. " I then said, " The views put forth in this Colony compel me
to refer to what elsewhere are assumed as axioms . Christianity teaches us that God
“ made man in his own image, and breathed into him the breath of life -eternal life."
It does so happen that this Christianity is the law of England, of this Colony ; and
modern European philosophy in its own refined language teaches much the same doctrine
of man's equality with man, only ( as it assumes) on a rather more subtle hypothesis.
Well, content as I am, and as judge must be, with the law of the land, I must auswer
the question, Is it possible that such a being as man can, according to law, a science
of development, according to the law A.D. 1871 , become a slave even by his own consent ?
I say it is impossible in law, as Sir R. Phillimore, 1 Phill ., International Law, vol . I.,
p. 316. has said in a passage 1
I read with the most respectful concurrence, but too long
for full quotation : "Of this great truth its sound has at last gone out into all lands,
" and its voice unto the ends of the world." A man can no more, as I infer from the
same high authority, by contract be authorised to take the liberty than to take the life
of another. The proposition long ago enunciated by Locke (who was in almost a
minority of one in his time), a proposition now universally accepted in morals, appears
to me to flow from the first principles of English law as they have been developed at
the present time. French law is the same as English law as to the right to personal
liberty : " En France quiconque a mis le pied dans ce royaume est gratifié de la liberté."
-Ib. 341. It is unnecessary for me to trace how it became the Common Law of
England that whoever breathes the air of England cannot be a slave. I must, however,
go back to 1771 , when Granville Sharpe brought the question before the Court of
Queen's Bench . In Somerset's case, Lord Mansfield said that there were 14,000 or
15,000 negroes claimed as slaves, then residing in England , valued at 700,000l. at that
date. The de facto existence of slavery in England at that date was somewhat similar
to the de facto state of slavery here as to the number of slaves and alleged hardship to
slave-holders . He saw the difficulties, the disorganization, the ruin which must follow
his decision, but he said fiat justitia ruat cœlum ; and the Court unanimously decided
that, notwithstanding the promises which had been given to the Jamaica planters by
former Governments, that they might bring their slaves to England and take them back
to Jamaica, relying on which they had brought their slaves to England, that the law
overrode all such promises ; that . they could not be taken back, that they were free.
The golden words of Lord Mansfield were these : " The state of slavery is of such a
" nature it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons moral or political, but only
66
by positive law. . . . It is so odious that nothing can be suffered to support it, but
" positive law." This is the language more than a century since uttered by no soft-
hearted humanitarian, but by the Conservative Tory, the greatest Chief Justice of
England, whose fame Junius assailed, and whose library the mob burnt at a time when
the slave trade flourished, and slaves in the colonies were bought and sold in England..
I quote from 20 State Trials, p. 82. Resting on that decision, and relying on very many
other grounds, I am clearly of opinion that slavery, however mild, however much con-
sented to by the slave himself or his parents, or for however limited a period, is contrary
to, that it is prohibited by, the Common Law of England . In the Colonies slavery
never existed except under positive enactment authorising it. Has it ever been tolerated
in Hong Kong ? I emphatically answer, Never. The two proclamations of 1841 I have
already referred to are governed by the words " pending Her Majesty's future
pleasure," in the second of the two forming one proclamation. Her Majesty was pleased
to constitute this as a Crown Colony with a Legislative Council ; and with these pro-
clamations present to their minds, the first Ordinance of the Legislative Council No. 1
of 1844 was an Ordinance to define the law relating to slavery in Hong Kong. Well, it
was a clumsy piece of legislation. It was passed on February 28th, 1844, and it was
disallowed by the Queen, of which notice was published in the Colony on the 24th of
January 1845, probably as soon as it was possible in those days ; and on the same day a
proclamation was issued in these words : " Whereas the Acts of the British Parliament
" for the abolition of the slave trade and for the Abolition of Slavery extend by their
" own proper force and authority to Hong Kong : this is to apprise all persons of the
same, and to give notice that these Acts will be enforced by all Her Majesty's officers,
" civil and military, within this Colony." What becomes of the argument in favour
!
8
of slavery in any form founded on the proclamations read with this proclamation ? I
ask & further question : -Have all Her Majesty's officers, civil and military, enforced
these Acts within this Colony ? I think they have not ; I confess that I have not. Our
excuse has been in the difficulty is enforcing these Acts, but mainly in our ignorance
of the extent of the evil . What is our duty, now that we know that slavery in its worst
as in its best form exists in this dot in the ocean to the extent of say 10,000 slaves, -8
number probably unexceeded within the same space at any time under the British
Crown, and, so far as I believe, the only spot where British Law prevails in which
slavery in any form exists at the present time ? But can Chinese slavery, as it de facto
exists in Hong Kong, be considered a Chinese custom which can be brought within the
intent and meaning of either of the proclamations of 1841 so as to be sanctioned by
the proclamations ? I assert that it cannot. I say this, as at present advised, in the
absence of argument. A custom is " such a usage as by common consent and uniform
practice has become the law." In 1841 there could have been no custom of slavery in
Hong Kong as now set up, for, save a few fishermen and cottagers, the island was unin-
habited ; and between 1841 and 1844, the date of the Ordinance expressly prohibiting
slavery, there was no time for such a custom to have grown up ; and slavery in every
form having been by express law prohibited by the Royal proclamation of the Queen
in 1845, no custom contrary to that law could, after that date, grow up, because
the thing was by express law illegal . I go further, and I find that the penal law of
China, whilst it facilitates the adoption of children into a family to keep up its suc-
cession, prohibits by section 78 the receiving into his house by any one of a person of a
different surname, declaring him guilty of " confounding family distinctions," and
punishing him with sixty blows ; the father of the son who shall " give away " (the
idea of sale seems unknown to Chinese law) his son is to be subject to the same
punishment. Again, section 79 enacts that whoever shall receive and detain the
strayed or lost child of a respectable person, and, instead of taking it before the
magistrate, sell such child as a slave, shall be punished with 100 blows and
three years' banishment. Whoever shall sell such child for marriage or adoption
into any family as a son or grandson shall be punished with 90 blows and banish-
ment for two years and a half. Whoever shall dispose of a strayed or lost slave
If any
shall suffer the punishment provided by the law reduced one degree.
person shall receive and detain a fugitive child, and, instead of taking it before the
magistrates, sell such child for a slave, he shall be punished with 90 blows and banishment
for two years and a half. Whosoever shall sell any such fugitive child for marriage or
adoption shall suffer the punishment of 80 blows and two years' banishment. In each of
the above-mentioned cases the punishment shall be less by one degree if the fugitive
should be found to be a slave. All fugitives so disposed of shall suffer punishment one
degree less than that inflicted on the seller, except when the previous offence of the
fugitive shall have been the greatest, in which case the severer of the two punishments
to which he is liable shall be inflicted . Whosoever shall detain for his own use as a
slave, wife, or child, any such lost, strayed, or fugitive child or slave, shall be equally
liable to be punished as above mentioned, but if only guilty of detaining the same for a
short time the punishment shall not exceed 80 blows. When the purchaser or the
negotiator of the purchase shall be aware of the unlawfulness of the transaction he shall
suffer punishment one degree less than that inflicted on the seller, and the amount of the
pecuniary consideration shall be forfeited to Government, but when he or they are found
to have been unacquainted therewith they shall not be liable to punishment, and the
money shall be restored to the party from whom it had been received. After reading
these extracts from the Penal Code of China -an old Code revised from time to time,— (I
quote from the last revision made in 1875 and published in 1877 , ) -I cannot see how it
can be maintained that any form of slavery was ever tolerated by law in Hong Kong as
it de facto exists here, or how the words of the two proclamations of 1841 could be said
to bear the colour of tolerating slavery under the English flag in Hong Kong. It is to
me clear that the Queen's proclamation of 1845, which I have already quoted at full,
declared slavery absolutely illegal here. In conclusion , I affirm that to sell or to buy or
to hold or detain a man, a woman, or a child as a slave or as property is absolutely
prohibited by the law of England, which law is imported into and forms the substance of
the law of Hong Kong by virtue of Ordinances 6 of 1845 and 12 of 1873. I hold it to
be contrary to the public morals which form a part of that law, and that it ought to be
put down. As at present advised , I believe that the law as it exists is strong enough
and that its arm is long enough to reach all illegal acts contrary and offensive to public
morality or public decency. The Attorney General on a former occasion thought fit to
press the Court to instruct him how to frame his information in a case which the Court
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9
had directed to be prosecuted . The Supreme Court has habitually directed prosecutions
in cases in which, from what appears in Court, it seems to the judge proper that a special
matter should be judicially investigated . This has been very frequently done in cases
of perjury, but the Court stops there, the responsibility of proceeding or not proceeding
with every case is by law imposed on the public prosecutor. If the judge directed the
frame of the information he would have prejudged the case. After framing the prosecu-
tion he would be in a sort bound to uphold the information so framed by him, whether
right or wrong ; he would be at once prosecutor and judge. I add that it is not the
duty of the Executive to direct the public prosecutor what he is to do, because the law
casts the whole responsibility on the public prosecutor himself. I may, however, say
that it is a general proposition that whatever is prohibited by the common law or by
express enactment for which no other remedy is provided may be treated and is a mis-
demeanour if contrary to public policy or morals. Until it shall be tried and decided
whether any particular breach of such prohibition is a misdemeanour it cannot be said to
be beyond the reach of the law. If and when any particular breach of the rules of the
common law be determined by the verdict of a jury or by judicial decision to be beyond
the reach of punishment, but not till then, it may become the duty of the public
prosecutor to abstain from prosecuting for it, and to ask the Executive to consider
whether it would be right or proper to provide a remedy for the specific breach of the
rules of the common law which the law as it stands shall have been shown not to reach.
I feel that in what I have said I have but affirmed truisms supported by arguments
unnecessarily long and prolix in the estimation of every man in England . What I have
said has been said to meet arguments, doubts, and difficulties which have paralysed
public opinion and public action here ; which arguments , doubts, and difficulties are the
less easy to combat because they have been rather hinted at than avowed. What I
have intended to affirm I may briefly state thus :-1 . That in England , by the common
law, slavery in every form has always been and is prohibited, that no one can acquire
any right over the person of another, that no man can sell his own person into slavery,
that a parent has no saleable property in his child ; moreover, that every such sale is
nudum pactum absolutely void, that money paid on any such sale cannot be recovered
back , but that the man bought must be restored to liberty, and the sold child to his
parent, as if no money had been paid ; that no purchase money can be recovered back,
and that the crime in buyer and seller must be punished . 2. That slavery has never
been introduced into any British colony except by positive law ; so said Lord Mansfield .
3. That all slavery was abolished throughout the British colonies in 1833, when
England nobly made a present of 20,000,000l. as a boon to the slave-holders. 4. That
Hong Kong became a British colony not until 1841 , and then slavery had been
absolutely prohibited by force of both the common and the statute law then existing.
5. That by the proclamation of the 24th of January 1845 the Queen promised and
undertook that the English laws against slavery will be enforced by all Her Majesty's
officers, civil and military, within the Colony. 6. That the obligation to enforce these
laws is, therefore, absolutely imposed by the Queen on every civil and military officer
here as if the obligation had been especially written at length in his commission or
warrant of office. 7. That these laws not having been enforced each officer has failed
in his duty to the Queen, and that the only excuse that any one of us can urge for such
failure in duty is ignorance of the existence of the extent of slavery here. 8. That it
being now patent that there is now a very great number of slaves (say 10,000, the
number has been estimated at even 20,000 ) of slaves in this Colony, ignorance can no
longer be our excuse, but that all officers of the Queen in this Colony, each in his
department and to the best of his ability, must henceforth effectually enforce these laws,
or fail in the duty imposed on him by the Queen. Of this I feel assured, by his previous
acts, that His Excellency the Governor will actively promote all such proceedings as
will tend to enforce the laws against slavery here, so that this Colony may become as free
from that taint as any other Colony under the British Crown, by enforcing laws already
in existence, and, if necessary, by passing laws, however stringent, that shall free this
Colony effectually from all slavery.
Hu Akow, convicted of unlawfully enticing away a child under the age of 14 years,
was then called on. He was arrested as he was taking the child on board the Macao
steamer. He now repeated what he said at the trial, that he did not kidnap the child,
but that it belonged to his mother- in-law.
His Lordship :-And didn't he take it without his mother-in-law's leave ?
Prisoner :-The child followed me on to the steamer.
His Lordship :-And you induced the child to do so. You have said nothing that can
mitigate your case. What you have said shows that your heart is as hard now as when
Q 2893.
10
you took that child. The sentence on you is that you be imprisoned for two years with
hard labour, and that you be kept in solitary confinement for 14 days at each time once
in every three months of your imprisonment.
Tsang Sz Tow and U A- In , convicted on two counts of unlawfully detaining by force
two boys with intent to sell them , and on two others with detaining the boys by
fraudulent means with intent to sell them, were next called on .
The first prisoner admitted having one of the boys, but said it was presented to him
to adopt as his own child.
His Lordship said that was no defence, but on the other hand there was not a particle
of evidence in support of it, because the child did not speak the language of the
prisoner ; it had evidently been brought from a great distance.
The second prisoner said he had nothing to do with the first prisoner. He only took
the child to be a barber, and no one saw hiin hawking it or offering it for sale.
His Lordship, addressing the first prisoner, said his case was one of the worst he had
known. He had brought the children manifestly from a long distance, because their
language was unintelligible here . On the first and third counts (detaining by force)
the sentence of the Court was that he be kept in penal servitude for three years, the
sentences on each count to be concurrent, and that on the other two counts he be
imprisoned for a year, also concurrent with the first sentence .
The second prisoner was sentenced to 18 months' hard labour. His Lordship said
this man's case was a very much lighter one than that of the first prisoner. Although
there was nothing in his excuse, yet his possession of the children was of a very different
character from the possession by the first prisoner.
Keung A-to and Li-A-kak, convicted, the former of buying a child for the purpose of
prostitution, and the latter (a woman) with selling the child for the same purpose, were
each sentenced to 18 months' hard labour.
*.
Prosecutions directed by Judges.
As his Lordship was rising, Mr. Hayllar said that with reference to judges directing
prosecutions, perhaps his Lordship would allow him to mention what he had himself seen
on the point. He was present at the assizes when Mr. Roupell , M.P. , in the witness-
box confessed the forgery of his father's will. Baron Martin tried the case, and what
was done there was that the judge wrote a bench warrant ; he arrested him himself. He
did not think there was any further direction than that given.
His Lordship :-That is going a great deal further.
Mr. Hayllar :-I was at the assizes at the time. As Mr. Roupell sat down in the
witness-box he was arrested. That seems to me to be the course in England , because I
think I have seen it in another case.
His Lordship said he was much obliged to Mr. Hayllar for his remarks, but that was
a warrant, and he was sure Mr. Hayllar must often have seen cases in which directions
for prosecution had been given by the judge.
Mr. Hayllar :-Constantly for perjury, but not for other offences.
His Lordship said there was another view of the matter. Suppose it was a mis-
demeanour, then a warrant would not be issued ; it would be a summons. However, he
was satisfied direction to prosecute had been constant in England .
Mr. Hayllar said he saw the case he had referred to, and he brought it to his Lord-
ship's notice.
His Lordship said he was much obliged to Mr. Hayllar, because it showed the Court
did direct prosecutions .
In reply to a further remark of Mr. Hayllar's, —
His Lordship said the judge was in exactly the same position ; he either issued
a summons or a warrant.
The Court then rose.
Supreme Court Criminal Sessions, 27th October 1879 .
Before the Hon. Chief Justice Sir JOHN SMALE.
This was an adjourned sitting of the Court to pass sentence on two prisoners, ―one for
kidnapping a boy, and the other for detaining a young girl with intent to sell her.
The Chief Justice now passed the following sentences : -
Sentence on Tang Atim.- Tang Atim was first placed in the dock. After stating
the crime of which the prisoner had been convicted, that of unlawfully taking away a
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11
boy four years old, (1st) with intent to deprive the father of the boy, (2nd) with intent
to sell him, and (3rd) with intent to procure a ransom, his Lordship said, Your case is
one of gross ingratitude . 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 labour for two years, and
that you be kept in solitary confinement for a period of one week in every two months of
your imprisonment.
Sentence on Chan Achit.-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
1 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. I questioned her, and
I quote from the China Mail what is, I think, an accurate report of what was said :-
" The little girl, Acheung, out of whose sale and purchase this prosecution had arisen ,
"
described the woman who was in the dock as a buyer and seller of people,' and,
in reply to the Court, explained that she used this term because she had seen this same
woman hawking about children for sale.
" His Lordship :-How often ?
" Witness :-Several times.
" His Lordship :-You are a very young girl. How do you come to know anything of
this buying and selling of people ?
"Witness :-I have seen it.
" His Lordship :-How many times have you seen people hawking children and others
about for sale ?
" Witness :---Often, and different men and women too.
" His Lordship : -And this is a British colony !
" Witness, later on, in reply to his Lordship , said she had learned the expression broker
of mankind ' from her uncle. She knew the police here, and that they protected
all persons ; but she did not call in any help from that quarter, when she saw them in
the street, as her uncle taught her not to.
6
" His Lordship said he had thought at first that the expression broker of mankind '
was an uncommon one in Hong Kong, but now he was coming to believe it was not."
Let me here ask, Is the trade, or rather profession, " broker of mankind, " also a sacred
China custom . I will not add 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 sentence of the Court on you, Chan Achit, is
that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two years, and that you be kept in
solitary confinement for a period of one week in every two months of your imprisonment.
I am very sorry to have to sentence an old woman of your age in this way, but there
must be an example.
Increase of Kidnapping. - His Lordship then said : I have now disposed of the cases
of child-stealing at these monthly sessions. The cases sentenced at the last month's
were three. They have been on the increase in the Colony. As I have before said,
crime seems to come over the Colony like high tides-periodically. The present tide is
of stealing women and children. The excess of these crimes roused my serious attention
to the whole state of slavery as it exists in the colony, which led to the observations
which I made on the 8th instant in closing the sessions for September last. I have,
with a solemn sense of my responsibility, considered and reconsidered all that I then
said, and there is nothing I wish to retract . There may be aspects of the question
which it may be necessary for me to reluctantly add; but at present I do not wish from
the Bench to add, to what I have said, although there are considerations affecting this
question which I have offered where it was proper. I rest shortly on the summary of
eight propositions with which I concluded those observations as the result of the facts
and arguments I adduced .
I
12
The Chinese Petition.- I will now very briefly allude to the petition by the gentry,
traders, and people of Hong Kong, presented to His Excellency the Governor. I must
say that its composition and tone do credit to whoever drew it up. The statements
appear to me to be one-sided and coloured, but, on the whole, more fair than is usual with
persons who believe they are representing grievances. I am bound to add that the
strictures on myself are seemly. I am quite sure that such a tone will be the most
effectual with His Excellency the Governor, and with the Government in England, and
with that great public there , whose moral tone influences the current of thought through-
out the British Empire for good.
Domestic Slavery a Chinese Custom.- The petitioners rest their rights on the
proclamation of Governor Sir Charles Elliot, but the petitioners ignore the other
proclamation of 1841. They especially ignore the proclamation of January 1845, by which
slavery was declared to be absolutely abolished in Hong Kong, which, as they have
referred to my observations, they must have read there, if there only for the first time.
Infanticide also a Chinese Custom. - I cannot help alluding to one passage in the
petition. It says, " Amongst the Chinese there has hitherto been the custom of drown-
66
ing their daughters. If a stop is put to the sale the custom will be yet more
" observed." And again to the third of the ten arguments used, which says, " In China,
among the evils heretofore existing, is the custom of drowning female infants, in the
" Kwangtung province more especially so ; numbers of the extreme poor cannot supply
even themselves with raiment and food. The added cares brought by children ensue.
" These people, having no one to receive their progeny from them, will immediately on
" bringing them forth destroy them by drowning. And the petitioners threaten the
increase of this " custom " of drowning children if their sale is put down. I quote the
passages without the interpolated explanations of the translator, which are his com-
mentary, and nothing more. Now, this petition claims the liberty to continue buying
and selling children and women because it is a Chinese custom expressly protected by
Governor Elliot's proclamation ; but the petitioners call drowning female infants also a
Chinese custom.
Both Customs in same category. - They place the two crimes according to the English
law under the same category, " custom," and therefore in effect claim for infanticide that
it is free from criminality in Hong Kong. I can only say that in case father, mother, or 1
relative were convicted of infanticide, Chinese custom would be no protection , and,
unless I am grievously mistaken, the presiding judge would have no alternative but to
sentence the perpetrator to death, and the only possible hope would be in the mercy of
the Crown if exercised by His Excellency the Governor. Other errors are patent in the
petition ; but I confine myself to the remarks I have made. I had prepared what I have
just said before I had seen the letter which appears in the Daily Press of this morning,
in which the accuracy of the translation is impugned, whilst the translator vindicates it.
Leaving this new question for settlement between these writers, I note that the meaning
or use of the word " custom in the petition is not impugned . My observations,
therefore, remain untouched by the controversy ; no one questions that the word
" custom ," as used in the petition , is used as to " slavery," or whatever name the peti-
tioners may decide to designate it by, and is the same word " custom " by them applied
to the usage of relatives drowning their infant children, and that in fact, if not in law,
the one custom is tolerated just as the other custom is tolerated , and both alike or neither
must be claimed as sanctioned by Governor Elliot's proclamation .
Further argument beyond Judge's function. - Beyond what I have already said I will
not deal with the facts or arguments of the petitioners. Indeed, it seems to me to be my
duty to retire from all controversy. To enter on the arena of controversy is beyond my
province. It was my duty, thinking that I had found out grave evils, to say so. My
function as judge stops there ; it is for the statesman and the legislator to deal with the
matter as an evil to be tolerated or to be put down.
Evils to be moderately remedied. -I will only add that if it be decided the evil is to be
abated, as I expect will be the decision, I do not desire any sudden or violent interven-
tion with such of the transactions in the past as are within the favourable colouring of
the petitioners. Such a course would on many grounds be objectionable. I trust that
admitted grave wrong in the past still existing will be put an end to.
For every public wrong a public remedy. - I do hope that, as to the future, a new
order of things will be inaugurated, and that the law of this Colony will be enforced in
01626
favour of personal liberty as fully as in the protection of property. I must here repeat
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13
that by the common law of England, which happily is the law of Hong Kong, slavery .
of every kind whatever, all property in human beings, is, as asserted by Lord Mansfield,
odious to English law, is a public wrong. For every wrong the law has a remedy. Is
there not by common law for every public wrong a public remedy ? Is not the only
remedy by indictment or information wherever and whenever the law provides no other
remedy ? All remedies which ever existed by common law or by statute in England
up to 1845 against ownership of human beings, against every form 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 Ordinances 4
of 1865, and 2 of 1875. I am bound by most solemn obligation to enforce all these laws.
I must, therefore, without fear, favour, or affection , discharge this duty to the best of my
ability.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1 .
SIR, The Supreme Court, Hong Kong, 20th October 1879.
I RETURN herewith letter from the Captain Superintendent of Police to the
Colonial Secretary, recommending rewards of $ 10 to Inspector Swanston and Police
Constable Campbell respectively, on the arrest and conviction of certain kidnappers,
which His Excellency the Governor has been pleased to refer to me.
Although I do not know whether these two police officers come within the precise
conditions of the proclamation, I think it desirable to sustain recommendations by the
head of the police. The conduct of the police officers was good, and the reward is small ;
I therefore concur in the recommendation .
I should be obliged by a copy of the proclamation for reference.
I avail myself of the opportunity, on recurring to this subject, of informing His Excel-
lency the Governor directly that I daily feel more reason to believe that the practice of
kidnapping for purposes other than the coolie traffic has of late been alarmingly on the
increase in this Colony. His Excellency will have noted the cases already tried in the
Police and Supreme Courts. I may now add that the present sessions for October
furnish two cases of the kind for trial before me, and incline me to think that " brokers
of mankind," as a girl 11 years of age designates them, form among the various classes
of brokers in this Colony a well-known special class, though, like gaming-house keepers,
the law ignores them. I believe that mothers have even kept their daughters from going
to school for fear of their being kidnapped.
I cannot understand why such classes should as classes increase in this Colony at all,
unless it be that (in addition to the Chinese demand for domestic servants and others)
there be an increased foreign element increasing the demand.
I fear that a high premium is obtained by persons who kidnap girls in the high prices
which they realize on sale to foreigners as kept women.
No one can walk through some of the bye-streets in this Colony without seeing well-
dressed China girls in great numbers whose occupations are self-proclaimed, or pass those
streets, or go into the schools in this Colony, without counting beautiful children by the
hundred whose Eurasian origin is self- declared . If the Government would enquire into
the present condition of these classes, and, still more, into what has become of these
women and their children of the past , I believe that it will be found that in the great
majority of cases the women have sunk into misery, and that of the children, the girls
that have survived have been sold to the profession of their mothers, and that, if boys,
they have been lost sight of or have sunk into the condition of the mean whites of the
late Slave-holding States of America.
The more I penetrate below the polished surface of our civilization the more convinced
am I that the broad under- current of life here is more like that in the Southern States of
America when slavery was dominant, than it resembles the all-pervading civilization of
England.
Nothing less powerful than a commission with legislative powers to investigate and to
examine on oath will ever lay bare the evil which, from suggestions I have received, I
believe to underlie our seemingly fair surface .
My suggestion, that the mild intervention of the law should be invoked, was ignored .
It was also met by the assertion that custom has so sanctioned the evils in this Colony as
that they are above the reach of law, and that by custom the slavery was mild.
14
I have been driven to denounce the whole evil from the Bench in a way I do not now
regret . Having been driven to speak out, I now suggest to His Excellency the Governor
an important addition, not convenient to be particularly alluded to from the Bench, to
the matters which I have already declared require, as I think, investigation .
I must leave it to the Government to decide whether there shall or shall not be inves-
tigation, and whether the status in quo of public morals in this Colony in these particulars
shall be allowed to continue as one of the many evils which neither law nor legislature
can cope with.
That is a question which fortunately is not within the province of the judge ; it is for
the statesman only to decide.
In the meantime, and apart from that large important question, I would suggest that
it would be desirable that the police should be instructed to bring every person known to
hold a purchased (so-called ) servant before the magistrate, to be dealt with mildly ; and,
moreover, that all placards in Chinese should be interpreted to the head department in
the police. Such placards advertising rewards for runaway purchased slaves as were
produced in court would then cease, and other announcements would then be suppressed
if they should prove to be, as I incline to think, obnoxious.
I am not so blind to consequences as not to see that an attempt to interfere with the
present system will entail public outlay to provide temporarily for the victims of that
system till better positions can be secured for them ; but if prisons up to the wants of a
community are provided of necessity, it would be of equal duty to provide for putting
down a system that, by debasing all moral tone, tends to crime.
I have , & c.,
JOHN SMALE,
Chief Justice.
Sub-Enclosure.
MINUTE by DR. EITEL.
HAVING been directed to report on those points to which His Lordship the Chief
Justice refers as inconvenient to mention on the Bench, I have the honour to forward
herewith replies to the following questions , which, I think, are raised by the Chief Justice's
remark ;-
1. Do the high prices realised by sales of Chinese girls to foreigners, whose kept
women they become, contribute to raise that demand which is supplied by kidnapping ?
The demand which is supplied by kidnapping , or by the kindred trick of inducing
women, through false representations, to leave their homes, originates in the first instance
in the high prices paid for prostitutes or concubines in places where Chinese women are
rare, i.e. in Singapore and the Straits generally, in Australia and California. The
average price paid in those places for a good-looking woman, 16 to 18 years old, is, as
far as my information goes, 8350. Another source causing a demand occasionally sup-
plied by kidnapping, is the system of adoption and the system of domestic servitude ; but
as generally only young children are thus bought, the average price is, I am told, only
840 ; yet, the demand being large, and the age of the children required low, there is
evidently, in spite of the low price, strong cause to suppose that the abuses naturally
connected with these systems of adoption and domestic servitude tend to encourage kid-
napping. As to the system of concubinage practised by Chinese, the average price a
Chinaman here pays for a concubine is, I am told, about $ 100 . But this demand is
generally supplied by an arrangement of mutual consent with the woman concerned and
her parents, or by an equally voluntary bargain with the woman and her so-called pocket-
mother (often a brothel keeper) , yet it may occasionally be supplied by kidnapping,
though rarely. Brothels also form a source creating a demand supplied by kidnapping ;
but I believe Hong Kong brothels dare not, unless in very peculiar cases, purchase kid-
napped girls, because the girls form so many acquaintances ready to betray the facts of
the case to the friends of kidnapped girls . Besides, these brothels have their own sources
of supply. As to Chinese women kept by foreigners, the practice formerly obtained
largely to buy a girl out and out, or, in other words , redeeming her and giving her back
her freedom by paying from $300 to $600 to her pocket- mother or owner. During the
last 10 years this practice has very much decreased, and may be said to be almost
extinct in Hong Kong, whilst it lingers yet to a small extent among foreign residents at
the Treaty Ports. The prevailing practice is now merely to pay a kept woman a fixed
sum, from $10 to $50 per mensem, whether she be her own mistress or owned by a
so-called pocket-mother. The system of monthly payments has, I am confident, no
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connection whatever with kidnapping. To a certain extent, however, though small, the
practice of buying a girl out and out still exists. The prices paid in buying a girl out
and out are, as far as my information goes, from $200 to $500 in the case of a Chinese
girl, and from $400 to $ 1,200 in the case of a half- caste girl. In all these cases, buying
a girl is virtually giving her back her freedom, the money being paid, on a deed made
out in Chinese, to the pocket-mother ; and the girl afterwards receives from $ 10 to $50
per mensem from the foreigner who keeps her. The buying of half- caste girls, high as
the prices are, has, I am sure, no connection with and no influence whatever on kid-
napping. The buying of Chinese girls, at prices ($200 to $500) higher than those paid
by Chinese for their wives and concubines, may have an influence encouraging kid-
napping, but it can only be indirectly. A kidnapped girl sold to a foreigner would be
sure to get her kidnappers into trouble.
I am, therefore, inclined to think that the high price paid by foreigners for kept women
have no appreciable influence in the way of increasing the demand supplied by kidnapping.
In short, I believe that kidnapping is caused almost entirely by the demand for Chinese
girls outside the colony of Hong Kong, and is fostered by that defect of the law which
allows a ship to take 20 female passengers without their coming at all under the
cognizance of the Emigration Officer .
2. What becomes of these women and their children ?
The women kept by foreigners in Hong Kong are, as a rule, rather raised in their own
esteem by the connection , of the immorality of which they have no idea. They are also,
as a rule, better off than the concubines of Chinese well-to-do merchants. They are
generally provided for, by the foreigners who kept them, when the connection is severed ;
and at any rate these women are as a rule thrifty, and always manage to save money,
which they invest in bank deposits, also in house property, but principally in buying female
infants whom they rear for sale to or concubinage with foreigners, by which they
generally gain a competency in about 10 years.
The children of these women are invariably sent to school. In fact, these women
understand the value of education, and prize it far more than respectable Chinese women
do. The boys are invariably sent to the Government Central School, where they
generally distinguish themselves ; and, as a rule , these boys obtain good situations in
Hong Kong, in the open ports, and abroad. The girls crowd into the schools kept by
Missionary Societies. These children are generally provided with a small patrimony by
their putative fathers. They dress almost invariably in Chinese costume, and adopt
Chinese customs, unless they are taken up by ill -advised agents of foreign charity. I am
quite positive, as far as my experience and the information I received from many
gentlemen in the best position to judge goes, that they do not in any way resemble the
mean whites in the Southern States of America.
I regret I have to contradict so flatly on this point the statement of his Lordship the
Chief Justice, which is, in my opinion, based on insufficient information , but justice and
truth demand it.
3. Are the placards referring to run away female servants obnoxious ?
I am quite sure that the Chief Justice's opinion regarding these placards has been
formed on the basis of a bad translation . Besides, these placards are issued on account
of the responsibility the owners of a servant girl incur vis -à -vis the parents of the girl,
if she cannot be found. For the parents are by Chinese law and custom entitled to
prosecute the owners for damages if the latter cannot prove that they have used reasonable
diligence to find the run away girl again .
1st November 1879. ( Signed) E. J. EITEL.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1 .
EXTRACTS from EVIDENCE given before the CONTAGIOUS DISEASES COMMISSION, 1st December
1877, by the REGISTRAR GENERAL, as printed by the Commissioners, page 1 .
The Honourable Cecil Clementi Smith, Registrar General and Colonial Treasurer,
examined by the Chairman :-
I took over charge of the Registrar General's Office in October 1864. I was acting
then, but was confirmed in the office in the following May.
We have a system in our office of insisting on the personal attendance of the woman
herself when she• applies to have her name placed on the list of any brothels, and if the
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1
16
Inspectors have any reasons to suppose that the woman is unduly influenced , she is
brought before me, and I make personal enquiries and decide whether her name shall be
put on the list or not. The whole thing is carried on just outside my office door, one of
the Inspectors speaking Chinese, and they have an Interpreter.
Many of the women, and it is a frequent occurrence, contract a debt with the brothel
keepers, and then work it off. Brothel keepers are in that way money lenders.
I think that eight out of every ten of the women come from Canton, and the rest from
Macao and other places. They are either bought or engaged at those places.
All the inmates in the brothels know that they are free, but the national custom is
very strong against their leaving them in debt. I think it is useless to try and deal with
the question of the freedom of Chinese prostitutes by law or by any Government
regulation. From all the surroundings, the thing is impracticable.
EXTRACTS from MINUTES OF EVIDENCE and DECISION of the REGISTRAR GENERAL , as printed
in 1879, pp. 91-97 of COMMISSION ON CONTAGIOUS DISEASES ORDINANCE.
15th March 1870.
Complainant ; JOHN PETERSEN.
Defendants : TSING- MUI, 41 , LO- CHI- KWONG, 24, CHAN -A- I, 28, keepers of
brothel No. 122 .
John Petersen sworn and examined : -To-day, at 2 p.m. , I went to brothel No. 122,
Caine Road, and found therein the three women now in Court. From information which
I have received, I believe that they were brought by the Defendants from Macao, and
sold into that brothel.
I apply for a remand, as there were six girls brought over.
Remanded to Friday, 18th March 1870 .
Bail, two sureties, in $50 each, for each defendant.
CECIL C. SMITH,
Registrar General .
18th March 1870.
The defendants in Court.
Mr. SHARP appears for defendants .
LO-KWAI declared :-I am a maid-servant. The 1st defendant is my foster-mother.
She has reared me since I was three or four years of age. I was brought over to Hong
Kong by the 1st defendant from Macao a few days ago. There were six of us in the
party, including myself. We took a house on the Praya, where an old woman invited us
to dinner. We, that is to say, my two sisters and my mother, went together. We went
to the house where the Inspector found us. I do not know that that was a brothel .
After dinner, the 1st defendant went to her sister, where there was a bridal feast. We
remained in the house a day or two. We were locked up in a room , and at meal times
our meals were brought in to us. The 3rd defendant was in that house . She was the
woman who invited 1st defendant to her house. She asked the 1st defendant to leave us
in her house. I saw her the day or two I was in the house. She asked me to follow
her, and asked me if I was willing to become a prostitute . I declined , and said I wanted
to go away with my mother. I remained in that house until the Inspector came. I did
not ask to get away ; but I said that I wanted to join my mother. She said my mother
is not here, to whom are you going ? The two other girls are with me. I heard nothing
about money in the case. I was brought to Hong Kong to be present at a feast to carry
the things. I now want to join my foster-mother.
By Mr. Sharp -I always accompany my foster-mother when she goes out. I first
saw the 3rd Defendant in her house. She it was who invited my foster-mother to dinner.
With my two sisters, I was passing the 3rd Defendant's house, when she invited us to
dinner. That evening we went to the house. We were all together. The 3rd defendant
pressed us to stay. My foster-mother did not come back until I was brought up here.
The 2nd defendant is my brother. He never came to the house. My foster-mother
never asked me to be a prostitute. I want to go back with my foster-mother.
By the Court :-I am 18 years of age. My master, now in Court, did not come
with us.
LO-LIN-KIU, declared, states : -I am 17 years of age. I am a servant. The
1st defendant is my mistress. I came over with her and four others, to Hong Kong, from
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Macao, where we have lived more than 10 years . I recognize the 3rd defendant. I was
taken to her house. She confined my two sisters and myself in a room, and pressed us
to become prostitutes. She would not let us leave the house. I cried, and she locked
us up. My foster-mother was not present when the 3rd defendant pressed us to become
prostitutes. I heard nothing about money between the 1st defendant and myself. I
remained in the house until the Inspector came to us. We came over to Hong Kong, as
my mistress, the 1st defendant, brought us over here in connection with a feast.
By Mr. SHARP : -I did not know that the house was a brothel in which I had been
taken by my foster-mother. I saw two other girls, but I do not know what they are.
My foster-mother took us to the house, being conducted by the 3rd defendant. That is
my master in Court, but I want to go away with him and my foster-mother.
-
By the Court : The evening we dined at the brothel, we stayed there. We all stayed
there. I am unwilling to be a prostitute.
LO-CHAN- KWAI declared :-I am 18 years of age. I am a servant. The 1st defendant
is my mistress, and I was brought up by her. The 3rd defendant belongs to a brothel .
She kidnapped me and my sisters. My mistress went to a feast. The 3rd defendant
asked us to become prostitutes . I refused . She beat me. My two sisters were present.
We were shut up in a room. I cried, but she would not let us out. Meals were brought
in to us. I did not hear anything about my being sold.
By Mr. SHARP -I want to go away with the 1st defendant. She treats me well.
Mr. SHARP points out that there is no evidence against the 1st and 2nd defendants,
his clients.
The 3rd defendant states :-The 1st defendant pledged the girls in my house, by
receiving $30 from me. I got no paper, and gave none. I rented rooms to them. I
did not confine the girls in the house. I have a witness who saw the money paid.
The 1st and 2nd defendants discharged.
3rd defendant, three months ' imprisonment with hard labour, convicted of the
assault.
CECIL C. SMITH,
Registrar General .
28th March 1870 .
The defendant in Court.
Mr. HAZELAND appears, and pleads extenuating circumstances. Remaining portion of
sentence remitted , and fined $25 .
CECIL C. SMITH ,
Registrar General .
25th May 1870.
Complainant : Inspector JOHN Petersen .
Defendant : NG -A-Fo, of No. 1 , Gutslaff Street .
The Defendant in Court. 26th May 1870.
LEE- KWAI-KIN declared :-I am 21 years of age. About 4 years ago I was brought
to Hong Kong, and was sold to the Defendant by an old woman . The defendant paid
$80 for me. I saw it. Until one month ago I have been living under the protection
of a foreigner. He has left the Colony. Since then I have made no money, as I have
not acted as a prostitute, and the defendant wishes me to go to California, in fact to
sell me to some one going there. I am afraid of this, and want protection. There
was only another woman in the house with us. She is here.
No questions.
CHAN-LIN-HO declared :-I am 19 years of age. I have been three years in Hong
Kong, having been brought here from Foochow. My mother was very poor, and sold
me to a man for $20. He brought me to Hong Kong to be, as he said, a servant.
""
He sold me to the defendant. I saw the defendant give $20 to the " middle woman
for me, which she was to give to the man who brought me here . I have been living
in the defendant's house since my arrival in Hong Kong. I have been living under
the protection of the foreigner, who has left here about a month ago. I have not acted
as a prostitute since the foreigner left . I have heard the defendant say that she was
going to sell me and the first witness into California . I don't want to go there, but
to return to Foochow, where my mother has sent for me.
No questions.
JOHN PETERSEN sworn :-I am Inspector of brothels . I served copy of summons on
Defendant at No. 1 , Gutzlaff Street. The house is not fitted up as a brothel for
Q 2893.
18
foreigners, though it has already been once declared as an unlicensed brothel. I know
the defendant by sight, but that is all . There has been at times a number of women
residing in the house, and I do not know what has become of them. I believe that
they have been sent to California by the defendant.
No questions.
LEE-KWAI- KIN recalled :-I have been in the defendant's house when several women
have been brought there, and after being kept there for some time have been sent away
to California. The women are brought to the defendant and sold to her. I have never
actually seen money pass, but I have been present when conversation between the
defendant and those who brought the women took place, and bargains have been struck
for the women. The price was various ; bought here, the women cost from $50 to
$ 150, and when sold in California they were to be disposed of from $250 to $350 each.
The defendant has made a great deal of money. She has told me so. Some of the
women have told me that they were unwilling to go. They were afraid to make a
disturbance. Between 10 and 20 women have passed through the defendants ' hands for
California to my knowledge .
No questions.
The defendant states :-The witness owes me money as rent for the room . She has
taken some ornaments (personal) which belong to me. I deny that I have bought
anybody, or sent anyone to California.
Ordered to find security (two sureties of $250 each) for her appearance in any court,
for any purpose, and at any time within 12 months.
CECIL C. SMITH ,
Registrar General .
30th September 1870 .
Complainant : JOHN PETERSEN, inspector of brothels.
Defendant : WONG-A-TSOI, 23, of Canton, keeper of No. 186 brothel.
Friday, 30th September 1870.
Inspector JOHN PETERSEN, Sworn, states : -Last night, about 7 p.m. , I visited the
defendant's brothel, which is in Lyndhurst Terrace. I inspected the premises, and found
therein the two girls now in court . They are about 18 or 19 years of age. Their names
are not on the list of inmates. I had received information on the subject, which induced
me to visit the place. The girls said themselves that they had come from Wanchai .
The defendant states that the girls only arrived yesterday from Canton, and that they
were brought by a small-footed woman.
HO-A-YING, declared, states :-I am a rattan splitter in Wanchai, and have lived there
since last year. I know the defendant. I also know the two girls. I went up to
Canton on the 24th September last. I went to the house of the girls' mother, whom I
found dead. They said that they wanted to come down to Hong Kong to get work.
I brought them down yesterday by the steamer. I put them into the defendant's
brothel. They willingly went to the brothel. Their mother's house is in Tai-Luk- Po .
[ Witness prevaricates. ] I do not know the house. The girls came to me at Pun-Tong,
at Sam- Shing- Kung near Wa- Kwong Temple. They came to me about 5 p.m. on the
23rd September last. They came by themselves, and stayed there until yesterday.
I live at Tik-Lung Lane, Wanchai. The name of the girl's mother I don't recollect.
Their names are Tai-Yow and Tai-Ho.
TANG-TAI-HI, declared , states : -I am 18 years of age. The other girl, Tai-Yow, is
not my sister, but we come from the same place. Yesterday I was brought by the last
witness to Hong Kong from Canton . She brought me here to be a prostitute. I
was willing to be a prostitute. Since my mother's death I have been living with the
last witness. I have lived with her for three years. I did not see Tai-Yow until I
went on board the steamer yesterday. I was sold by the last witness to the mistress
of the brothel . I heard them talking about it, and so I know it. The last witness
also told me that I had been sold . I do not know for what sum. I have never been
to Wanchai. I never said that I had been there. I first asked the last witness to
bring me to Hong Kong.
WONG-PANG-NGAN, declared, states :-I am 18 years of age. I do not know the last
witness except that I saw her for the first time yesterday on board the steamer at
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Canton. I know the witness [points to one Ho-a-Ying] . She is my adopted mother.
I have only known her for a few days.
Remanded to 4th October.
The witness to be detained . CECIL C. SMITH,
Registrar General .
The defendant in Court. 4th October 1870.
WONG-PANG-NGA N recalled :-After we arrived in Hong Kong, the old woman
(Ho-a-Ying) took us to Wanchai, and then we were taken to the defendant's house.
I want to be a prostitute.
The defendant says :-The witness Ho-a- Ying came to me, and asked me if I wanted
two girls for inmates, as she had two who had come from Canton. The two last
witnesses were brought, and after being in the house a short time the inspector came.
I purposed having their names entered in the following morning. They had only been
a very short time in the house, and I have heard that they came from Wanchai.
The defendant fined $5 for keeping an incorrect list of inmates.
The witness Ho-a- Ying convicted of giving false testimony, and fined $50 ; in default,
three months' imprisonment .
CECIL C. SMITH ,
Registrar General .
5th May 1873.
Complainant : WILLIAM KING, Inspector of brothels .
Defendants : CHAN-A-LAN, 56, Native of Shun-tak.
WONG-A-WAN, 24, 99 Canton .
WONG- SAN-TSOI , 38, 99 99
LO-A- KIT, 48, 99 Shun-tak.
WONG-A-CHING, 40, 99 Lung-kong.
IP-A- SZ, 34, 99 Shun-tak.
5th May 1873.
WILLIAM KING, sworn , deposeth :-I am Inspector of brothels . I arrested the six
defendants on the first floor of No. 71 brothel, Wellington Street . I charge the
defendants with buying and selling Chinese girls for the purposes of prostitution , and
also with selling girls to go to California, and also with being dangerous to the peace
and good order of the Colony. I ask for a remand until Wednesday, in order to
produce my evidence.
Remanded until Wednesday the 7th May. M. S. TONNOCHY,
Acting Registrar General.
All the defendants in Court. 7th May 1873.
WILLIAM KING, examination continued :-I found all the defendants on the first floor
of this house. I found six girls in the house and three children. The floor was very
crowded, and seemed fitted up like a barracoon. There were no gratings to the windows.
Four of the girls were in a room by themselves at the back of the house. They were
all huddled up together, and seemed frightened . The defendants were in the front part
of the house. The girls at the back of the house could not have got out without
passing through the room in which the defendants were. This house has been known
to me for a long time as one where young girls were kept to be shipped off to California.
About 18 months ago I saw the first defendant taking two girls from the Canton Wharf.
They were about 14 or 16 years of age. I suspected , from information, that the girls
had been brought into the Colony against their will. I followed the first defendant
into this very house . I asked her what she was doing with the girls , and she said she
was their mother. There were two or three more women in the house . When I
arrested the house, there was a girl in it, named Wong-a- Hi, who was formerly inmate
of No. 90 foreign brothel in D'Aguilar Street. I know that this girl Wong-a- Hi belongs
to the first defendant, who bought her. The first, second, and fourth defendants seemed
to have charge of the house.
No questions .
LO-MING, declared, deposeth : -I am a jeweller and watch repairer residing at No. 70,
Wellington Street. I have resided there about three or four years. I know the first
defendant. She lives opposite to me, at No. 71 , Wellington Street. She has lived
4
20
there some years, on the first floor. I have consequently seen a number of girls going
into and out of the house. They seemed to arrive by steamer, some in chairs and some
walking. I know that the defendant, from what I have seen of her and the girls whom
I have seen going out of the house, was a buyer and seller of young girls to go to
Macao.
No questions.
LAI-TIM, declared, deposeth :—I am carpenter, living at 71 , Wellington Street.
I have always seen a number of young girls being taken in and out of the house. The
ages of the girls ranged from 10 to 20 years. There was always a great deal of crying
and groaning amongst the girls upstairs. I have not heard any beating, but the girls
were constantly crying. The crying was annoying to me and the other people in the
shop. The people living in the neighbourhood have, together with myself, suspected
that the girls were bought and sold to go to California .
CHAU-CHIN-HO , declared, deposeth :-I am an inmate of No. 60 foreign brothel .
I know the third defendant. She was in the habit last year of taking young girls round
about the Colony for sale. They were of various ages, from 10 years to over 20.
I knew the defendant wanted to sell the girls, as she asked me if I knew any woman
who wants to buy them. She comes from Canton .
WONG-HING, declared, deposeth : -I am an unmarried girl of 15 years. I am known
here as Wong- Kam. My father and mother lived at Wong- Po, in Heung-shan . At
11 years of age I was taken to Canton by my sister's husband . She sold me as a
servant to the Lam family. My master was owner of the " Tin- Kat " joss -stick seller's
shop. I was there about three or four years. When my mistress told me that she
was going to take me to my sister at Whampoa, the second defendant was there at
the time. She is a relation of my mistress. My mistress and Tai-Ku took me into
a flower boat. The next morning I was taken to the Shameen, and brought down to
Hong Kong. I was taken to the same house in which I was found by the inspector
on Monday. This was in the tenth month last year. I saw the first defendant in the
house. There was one girl there. My mistress stopped in the house about three days.
My mistress sold me to first and second defendants for $120 . The second defendant
is daughter to first defendant. I was put to work sometimes to make clothes . The
fourth defendant came to the house from the country at the beginning of this year.
She brought two little girls with her. She assisted the first defendant in keeping the
door. I was never allowed to go out. I have never been out of the house since I
came to Hong Kong. First, second, and third defendants never went out together.
One or two of them always stopped in the house. Last year Tai- Ku and A- Neung
told me that I should have to go to San Francisco. This year I was again told that
I was going to San Francisco. I said I did not want to go. Tai- Ku then beat me.
WONG- YAU, declared, deposeth : -I am 19 years of age. I am a native of Wong-
chun, in Tong-koon district . I am married to a man at Tamshui. He is a servant in
a shop. I have been married about four years. In consequence of a quarrel between
myself and another wife of my husband , he sold me to fifth defendant , Sz- Sham, for $81 .
That was only a few days ago. Sz- Sham brought me to Hong Kong by steamer. She
took me to A-Neung's house. I have been there ever since. Several men have been
up to the house to see me. They were going to buy me if they liked me. I don't
know if they looked at any of the other girls . All the defendants live in the same
house.
WM. KING recalled :-I produce a letter which I found in defendant's house.
[Letter and translation marked A.]
Defence.
First defendant :-I am a widow. I am supported by my son-in-law, who is now in
California. Mine is a family house . The girls are visitors at my house.
Second defendant :-I am a married woman . My husband is in California. The
girls are not mine. I am not in the habit of sending girls to California . My husband
is employed on the California steamer.
Third defendant :-I came from Canton to ask first defendant for some money.
I never buy and sell girls,.
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21
Fourth defendant :-I know nothing about the girls being sent to San Francisco.
I am supported by second defendant.
Fifth defendant :-I know nothing of the girls being bought or sold.
Sixth defendant :-I went to the house to get some money which A- Neung owes me.
Sentence.
First, second, third, fourth, and fifth defendants to find two securities, householders,
in $500 each, to appear at any time within the next six months to answer any charge
in any court in the Colony.
The sixth defendant discharged . M. S. TONNOCHY ,
Acting Registrar Generai ,
A.
MY DEAR SISTER- IN- LAW,
I HAVE perused the contents of the letter you sent to me yesterday. As I have
lost money on the present cargoes, I wish you to ask the purchaser to give a little higher
price for them. You should do what you can for me. I have no leisure time to come
to Hong Kong. Sell them when you receive this letter, and write to me a letter when-
ever they are disposed of. This is most important ! This is most important ! With
compliments .
I am, &c . ,
AYAT.
P.S.-After the settlement of the transaction, take back one cue-tassel and one shirting
trouser, and send them to me whenever you have friend to come to Canton.
30th day of the third month.
This letter is addressed to and to be received and opened by Wong- Lam, first floor of
the " Hang- Shing " picture-frame maker shop , opposite the " Leung-Yip " pawnbroker's
shop.
17th November 1874.
Complainant: W. F. WHITEHEAD, Inspector of brothels .
Defendant : SU-A-KIU, 42, Native of Canton.
17th November 1874 .
CHAN -A- KWAI, declared , states :-My grand- daughter, A- Ho, 22 years of age, was sick,
and she borrowed some money . In order to repay the money she purposed being a
prostitute, and so earning money. The defendant , with whom I was acquainted , was in
the Colony. With the defendant's uncle I and A- Ho went to the defendant's house in
Tai-ping Shan Street. The defendant said she knew a brothel in Singapore, kept by a
friend, where A- Ho could go and get business. A- Ho promised to serve the defendant
for eight months, and was to receive $52 . She was to serve the defendant as a prosti-
tute in the Singapore brothel. The defendant promised to pay the money as the steamer
was going. The defendant paid the money, and A- Ho handed it to me. A-Ho left on
26th of the 8th moon of this year for Singapore. I saw her on board with the defen-
dant. On the evening of the fourth day of the 10th moon I received the [ produced, A]
letter from A- Ho, which is to the effect that she had been sold for $250 to another
party. On the 26th or 27th of the 9th month I had received a letter [ produced, B] from
A-Ho, asking for clothes. It was brought me by the defendant. On receiving the other
letter ( A. ) , I went to the defendant and asked her why she had sold my granddaughter
for $250 for two years ? The defendant promised to take me to Singapore to see my
granddaughter. I asked her to find security that she would produce my granddaughter
if I went to Singapore. Yesterday morning the man who lives with the defendant came
to my house, and said he would accuse me of extortion. He told me that he lived by
selling women into brothels of Singapore. I came and reported the case at this
office.
The defendant states :-I took A- Ho to Singapore. I took her to the " Sai- Shing-
Tong " brothel in Macao Street . She is still in that brothel.
22
Ordered to find security in the sum of $ 100 to appear to answer any charge within
the next three months.
The complainant Chan-a- Kwai also ordered to find similar security in the sum of
$70.
CECIL C. SMITH,
Registrar General.
REPORT BY MR. C. C. SMITH , 2ND NOVEMBER 1866,
BROTHEL ORDINANCE.
There is another matter connected with the brothels , licensed and unlicensed, in Hong
Kong, which almost daily assumes a graver aspect. I refer to what is no less than the
trafficking in human flesh between the brothel keepers and the vagabonds of the Colony.
Women are bought and sold in nearly every brothel in the place. They are induced by
specious pretexts to come to Hong Kong, and then , after they are admitted into the
brothels, such a system of espionage is kept over them, and so frightened do they get,
as to prevent any application to the police. They have no relatives, no friends to assist
them , and their life is such that, unless goaded into unusual excitement by a long course
of ill-treatment, they sink down under the style of life they are forced to adopt, and
submit patiently to their masters. But cases have occurred where they have run away,
and placed themselves in the hands of the police ; who, however, can do nothing towards
punishing the offenders for the lack of evidence, the women being afraid to tell their tale
in open court. Women have, it is true, willingly allowed themselves to be sold for some
temporary gain ; but that brothel-keepers shall be allowed to enter into such transactions
is of serious moment. I have myself tried to fix such a case on more than one brothel-
keeper, but failed to do so, though there was no doubt of the transaction, as I held the
bill of sale.* The only mode of action I had under the circumstances was to cancel the
licence of the house.
In the interest of humanity, too, it might be enacted that any brothel-keeper should
be liable to a fine for having on his or her premises any child under 15 years of age.
Enclosure 4 in No. 1 .
B.
PURCHASE AND DETENTION OF CHILD.
PETITION from TSANG SAN-FAT.
TSANG SAN-FAT begs to report that on the 29th day of the eighth month last year (5th
October 1877) , owing to stress of poverty, he gave away his little daughter, aged six
years, and named Sam A-kin, to Leung A-tsit of the Man-wo shop, the understanding
being that Leung A-tsit should find her husband when she grew up, and should not send
her away to other ports.
On the 10th of this month one of petitioner's partners , A-sin, came and said that
Leung A-tsit was in a day or two going to take away the little girl to another place .
On the 12th petitioner went to the shop, and taxed him with this, and he made some
excuse as to the effect that there were going to be great disturbances in Hong Kong ; but
in reality he was simply making a plausible excuse to cover his real intention of selling
the little girl.
Your petitioner therefore begs that he may be prevented from carrying his design into
effect, and that police may be sent to the dock to arrest him .
The Honourable the Acting Colonial Secretary,
&c. &c. & c.
• Note by Colonial Secretary.— The very first ordinance passed in this Colony (by Sir H. Pottinger) was
against slavery. It was disallowed as superfluous, slavery being already forbidden, and slave-dealing indictable
by law.
Surely the bill of sale here would have been sufficient evidence .
W. T. MERCER.
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23
PETITION from LEUNG A-TSIT.
LEUNG A-TSIT, aged 50 years, living in the Man-wo shop at the Tai-kok Tsui Dock,
wishes to place on record a case in which he is likely to be cheated.
Your petitioner, who is a native of Ka Ying-chan, has now for a long time been doing
business at Tai-kok Tsui.
On the 29th day of the eighth month of the year Ting- chau (5th October 1877) , a man
named Tsang San-fat made an arrangement with your petitioner by which he, being
unable to support a family, handed over to him his little daughter Lam A-kin, aged six
years. This was done through the instrumentality of a man named Wan A-cheung.
The little girl was to become your petitioner's daughter, and was to be brought up by
him, he paying 23 dollars to the parents for the expense they had been put to in rearing
their daughter. On the other hand, it was arranged that when the girl grew up the
privilege of finding a husband for her should devolve entirely upon the foster parents,
and should not concern in the most remote degree the actual parents. On this under-
standing the girl was taken to your petitioner's house, and a regular deed of transfer was
drawn up.
The parent, Tsang San-fat, is now, however, intriguing with a view to extorting
money from your petitioner, and threatens, in answer to repeated remonstrances, that he
will find out a way of doing it. Your petitioner, therefore, appeals for protection against
impending calamities.
The Honourable the Acting Colonial Secretary.
&c. &c. &c.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THe Governor.
To the Attorney General.
The parties to these two petitions ( 1216 and 1233) appear to acknowledge being con-
cerned in an illegal transaction .
29th May 1878. J. POPE HENNESSY.
MINUTE by the ATTORNEY GEneral .
The transactions referred to would not be recognised in our laws as giving any rights,
except perhaps as to guardianship, but I am unable to say that there is anything illegal
in the matter beyond that. I do not think it is 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.
31st May 1878. G. PHILLIPPO .
MINUTES by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR .
Write to Tsang San-fat , saying he was entitled to the lawful custody of his child, and
refer him to the police magistrate.
Write to Leung A-tsit, saying that according to British law the father, Tsang San-fat,
is entitled to the lawful custody of his child.
1st June 1878. J. POPE HENNESSY.
ACTING POLICE MAGISTRATE to ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
SIR, Magistracy, Hong Kong, 12th June 1878.
I have the honour to request that the Attorney General's opinion be obtained as
to what course the magistrates should pursue with respect to the enclosed petition .
From enquiries which I have made, it appears the girl was sold in October last, and
in consideratio of the purchase money, $23, her father , the petitioner, signed a docu-
n
ment renouncing all further claim to the girl . Notwithsta this , he now wants to
nding
get her back , but , being unable to refund the purchase money , the purchaser naturally
objects to give up the girl , whom, having no children of his own , he had adopted as a
daughter.
I have, &c .
The Honourable J. M. Price, C. V. CREAGH,
Acting Colonial Secretary, Acting Police Magistrate .
&c. &c. &c.
24
MINUTE by the ATTORNEY GEneral.
The petition is not translated, and I do not know what the magistrate is asked to do.
I know of no authority empowering the magistrate to order the delivery of the child to
the father. A writ of habeas corpus from the Supreme Court is the only means that I
know of for enabling the father to obtain the possession of the child if it is persistently
refused.
14th June 1878. G. PHILLIPPO .
MINUTE by the ACTING POLICE MAGISTRATE .
when his money is
The purchaser of the girl says he is quite prepared to give her up
repaid, but that otherwise he will not part with her unless compelled to do so by law.
C. V. CREAGH ,
17th June 1878 . Acting Police Magistrate.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
I fear the Attorney General does not recognise the gravity of this case.
I must trouble him to take steps to prosecute on my behalf the purchaser of the girl.
19th June 1878. J. POPE HENNESSY.
MINUTE by the ATTORNEY GENERAL .
I can find no evidence upon these papers to sustain a criminal prosecution, and I am
at a loss what charge to bring. If His Excellency will specify the offence which he
considers has been committed, the case shall have my immediate attention. In my
opinion, parties entering into a transaction of this nature in England would in no way
bring themselves within the operation of the criminal law. I do not think Ordinances 4 of
1865, par. 51 , or 2 of 1875, the only local legislation that I know of on the subject, apply
to the circumstances of this case.
His Excellency may remember the case of Dr. Eitel, some months ago, in which I
gave similar advice as to the necessity of a habeas corpus to decide the rights of parties
to the custody of a child.
21st June 1878. G. PHILLIPPO.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
I felt no dfficulty in acting on the Attorney General's advice in the case to which he
refers, of the girl who had been brought to the London Mission House , the daughter of
a deceased Christian , but claimed by another relative of doubtful character. This casc
is not similar. The allegation is made by the father that his child is forcibly detained
by a man who admits he had purchased her, and who, the father alleges, is about taking
the child out of the Colony for the purpose of selling her.
Such is the allegation made by the father of the child in his first petition of the 24th
of May, and again repeated in his petition of the 14th June. The father's evidence to
that effect may or may not be trustworthy. But if it should turn out to be true, the
Attorney General, in declining to comply with my instructions of the 19th June, will
have incurred a grave responsibility.
26th June 1878. J. POPE HENNESSY.
MINUTE by the ATTORNEY GENERAL .
I did not refer to Dr. Eitel's case as being exactly similar to the present one, but only
for the advice given to His Excellency on that occasion . In many respects, however, I
think it was similar, as in that case, if I remember rightly, the mother claimed the child,
and the widow of the deceased was disposed to give her up upon being refunded a certain
amount which she stated had been spent on the child. I am not aware that I have ever
declined to comply with His Excellency's " instructions ; " I only wish to know in what
respect His Excellency considered the law had been broken before I directed any specific
charge to be brought. Upon perusal of His Excellency's minute of 26th June 1878, I
gathered that His Excellency considered that a charge could be substantiated against
Leung A-tsit of forcibly detaining the child under Ordinance 4 of 1865, par. 51 , with a
view to selling her in some place out of the Colony . I thereupon immediately instructed
Mr. SHARP, the Crown Solicitor, to see the father of the child in order to get a statement from
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25
him upon which to found an application to a magistrate for a summons or warrant.
Mr. Sharp has seen both the father and mother of the child, and I forward herewith the
statements made by them to him. If His Excellency thinks, upon perusing these state-
ments, that any case can be substantiated against Leung A-tsit under section 51 of
Ordinance 4 of 1875, (taking into consideration also the proviso at the end of the section,
which directs that no person claiming any right to the possession of a child shall be
liable to be prosecuted by virtue thereof on account of the getting possession of such
child or taking such child out of the lawful possession of any person having the
lawful charge thereof,) or upon any other charge, in deference to His Excellency's
view, I will at once instruct the Crown Solicitor to make an application to a magistrate
for a summons. His Excellency will observe now that there is no evidence, not even
hearsay, according to the mother's statement, of any intention of selling the child, even if
we could prosecute for a bare intention.
I have no hesitation in repeating my deliberate opinion that in a case of this sort the
magistrate has no jurisdiction ; that at the most he could only use a little moral pressure ;
and that if His Excellency desires to suppress the practice of parties adopting children or
taking them as servants on giving a gratuity to the parents, by the institution of criminal
proceedings against parties obtaining possession of children from their parents, under such
circumstances it will be necessary to introduce special provisions for the purpose.
In the numerous cases which have appeared in England where the recovery of a child
has been sought, the proceedings have always been by habeas corpus, and no instance can
be found of proceedings being taken under 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, par. 56, corresponding
to our Ordinance 4 of 1865, par. 51 , for the punishment of a person to whom the parents
have voluntarily transferred a child , even where their consent is subsequently revoked,
and the child is detained, as in the present case.
6th July 1878 . G. PHILLIPPO, Attorney General.
STATEMENT of CHUN-SHE.
CHUN-SHE, wife of Tsang San-fat, states :-Some time last September my husband
told me that he owed some money to Leung A- Tsit, who had asked us to give him our
little girl Lam-ki instead. I talked the matter over with my husband, and, being pressed
for the debt, we determined to part with the girl, provided $2 extra was paid.
Some few days afterwards the man Leung A-Tsit came to our house for the child ; he
paid the $2 to my husband, and we then, of our own free will, gave up the little girl, and
he took her away. I was very sorry about it, and cried. The arrangement was that he was
to keep her at his own house, and by and by find her a husband. There was nothing
said about selling or not selling her ; no paper was made out. I several times visited her
at Leung A- Tsit's house, and found that she was in no way ill- treated . I fancied ,
however, that Leung A- Tsit did not much like my coming so often to his house to see
the girl .
One day in May this year, A-sin (a man employed by Leung A- Tsit) happening to
pass my house, I called him in to have a cup of tea, and he then told me that his master
was going to send the girl away somewhere. A-sin did not say anything about Leung
A-Tsit selling the child, nor did he mention what place she was likely to go to. I told
my husband what A-sin had said to me, and I asked him to make enquiries, and to
prevent her being sent away. My husband afterwards informed me that he had
petitioned the Government on the subject.
I last saw the girl about two months ago, and I believe she is still at Leung A-Tsit's
house.
I should like my daughter to come back, for then I could betroth her when she is old
enough, and I should then probably have money enough to pay Leung A-Tsit.
STATEMENT of TSANG SAN- FAT.
TSANG SAN-FAT, a stonecutter, living at Tai-kok Tsui, British Kowloon , states as
follows :-I have a little girl, six years of age, named Lam-Ki. Some three years ago
I borrowed of a man named Leung A-Tsit of the Man-wo barber's shop near Spratt's
Dock, the sum of $5 , which, with interest ( 10 cents per month for every dollar), now
amounts to $23. Last year, September 1877 , Leung A- Tsit came to me and demanded
payment. I told him I had no money ; moreover that I found it very difficult to provide
for my family, and therefore I could not pay. He then said , very well, you can give
me your daughter instead, and when she is grown up I will find a husband for her. No
terms were then come to, but we had some more conversation about it 10 days afterwards,
when it was agreed that Leung A- Tsit should have the girl for $25, viz. the $23 already
Q 2893.
26
owing, and $2, which was to be paid to my wife, Chan-she, as tea-money. It was further
arranged that Leung A-Tsit was not to sell the girl, but get her a husband when she
was old enough to marry. On the 5th October 1877, Leung A- Tsit brought me the $2,
when I and my wife handed him over our daughter, and he took her away. No paper
was drawn up or signed at any time. My wife occasionally visited the child at Leung
A-Tsit's house, and found her comfortable and well -looked after.
One day last May 1878, a man named A-sin, employed as a barber in Leung A- Tsit's
shop passed by my house during my absence, and told my wife that Leung A- Tsit was
going to take the girl away. This was told to me on my return from work, and I then
went to Leung A- Tsit and made enquiries. Leung A- Tsit informed me that he thought
it would be best to send the girl away- he did not say where-in consequence of the
disturbed state of Hong Kong, owing to the war between England and Russia. I told
the shopkeeper about it, but after making some enquiries they did not further interfere.
I then petitioned the Registrar General, who told me to lay my case before the Colonial
Secretary, which I did . I have no evidence as to any intention on the part of Leung
A-Tsit to sell the child, except what was said by A-sin. The girl has not been sent
away yet. I do not much care about the child coming back, as I am very poor ; but my
wife is very anxious that she should return, for she does not like the thought of her being
sent away. If she comes back to us, I will do all I can to support her, and to get her
betrothed by and by, when I shall probably be able to pay back what I owe to Leung
A-Tsit.
My wife is very busy attending to my old mother, and working for the daily rice, so
that it would be very difficult for her to come over and give evidence .
Hong Kong, 1st July 1878.
MEMORIAL OF CHINESE MERCHANTS, &c., praying to be allowed to form an Association for
suppressing kidnapping and traffic in human beings.
To His Excellency the Governor.
The humble petition of the undersigned residents and merchants of Hong Kong, being
natives of the Tung-kún district, viz . Lo Lai-p'ing, Shi Shang-kai, Fung Ming-
shán, Tse Tát-shing, and others, of Bonham Strand, No. 3, in the matter of
uniting to offer rewards on account of the daily increase of crimes of kidnapping,
praying for the issue of a warrant with a view to make endeavours to stop these
crimes, and to pacify the well-behaved people,
Showeth ,
That there are strict regulations in Hong Kong forbidding the sale of honest people
through kidnapping or deceit, and that, thanks to His Excellency the Governor repeatedly
taking repressive measures against kidnappers, the latter know well that they must be
careful as to their movements, and consequently this great evil became well nigh
extinguished.
That, however, quite lately the minds of some people have become perverted in deceit,
pretending to obey the law and secretly disobeying it, pursuing a dangerous secret game,
and moving about between east and west, the worst being go-betweens and old women
who have houses for the detention of kidnapped people, and, as it may be, inveigle
virtuous women or girls to come to Hong Kong, at first deceiving them by the promise of
finding them employment (as domestic servants) , and then proceeding to compel them
by force to become prostitutes, or exporting them to a foreign port, or distribute them by
sale over the different ports of China, boys being sold to become adopted children, girls
being sold to be trained for prostitution, it being altogether impossible to explain in
detail all their varied plans of wickedness .
That your Petitioners are of opinion that such wicked people are to be found belonging
to any of the (neighbouring) districts, but in our district of Tung-kún such cases of
kidnapping are comparatively more frequent, and all the merchants of Hong Kong,
without exception, are expressing their annoyance.
That, therefore, a meeting for the discussion of the matter has been held, and it is
proposed to raise subscriptions, which may either be paid into the Colonial Treasury or
entrusted to some house of business, to facilitate general publication of offers of reward,
and the employment of special detectives with a view to eventually stamp out this crime
of kidnapping, and to make it impossible for the kidnappers to carry on their tricks.
That, moreover, we, natives of Tung-kún, can get comparatively more reliable infor-
mation regarding Tung-kún kidnappers, leaving no room for miscarriage ofjustice.
That this, however, being a matter of repressing the dishonest and protecting the
honest, may be an interference with official regulations, wherefore your Petitioners dare
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27
not proceed in the matter without a warrant from your Excellency (authorising them to
do so) , and your Petitioners are thus constrained to present this present petition
conjointly, humbly praying that your Excellency may be pleased to yield to the wishes of
the people, and issue a warrant to authorise your Petitioners at all times to institute
inquiries, and, if they meet with kidnappers, immediately to request the co-operation of
the police in arresting them and forwarding them to the proper tribunal to be tried and
severely dealt with, those who succeed in arresting kidnappers receiving a reward, and
the kidnapped persons being supplied with means to return to their homes, whereby
honest people will be saved from ruin, and kidnappers will be unable to carry out their
schemes at random ; thus also our native city will be benefited, and Hong Kong will be
derive equal advantage.
And your Petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
Appended are five regulations which are respectfully submitted to His Excellency .
In the fourth year of Kwangsui, 1878 .
[Here follow the Stamps of62 different Shops.]
Hong Kong, 9th November 1878. Translated by E. J. EITEL.
Enclosure in Petition of Messrs. Lò Lai-p'ing, Shi Shang-kái, Fung Ming- shán,
Tsé Tat-shing, and others.
1. Kidnapping is a crime which is to be found everywhere, but there is no place where
it is more rife than Hong Kong, nor is there a time when it developed so rapidly as of
late, the reason being that there have been floods and drought alternating for some years,
whereby many of the people were impoverished. Thus it happened that evil-disposed
persons had an opportunity to set their wicked plans for inveigling and kidnapping
people in operation. Ignorant women fell an easy prey to their schemes. If once they
entered the trap there were but few who could extricate themselves again.
Now it is proposed to publish everywhere offers of reward to track such kidnappers
and have them arrested. If once they are in custody they will be severely dealt with .
Perhaps these kidnappers, hearing this news, will mend their ways. Thus the grace and
favour of His Excellency the Governor will not only put under obligation the people of
Hong Kong, but all the poor people of the inland districts will, with one voice, praise
his goodness.
2. Hong Kong is the emporium and thoroughfare for all the neighbouring ports.
Therefore those kidnappers frequent Hong Kong much, it being a place where it is easy
to buy and to sell, and where effective means are at hand to make good a speedy escape.
Now, the laws of Hong Kong being based on the principle of liberty of the person, the
kidnappers take advantage of this to further their own plans. Thus they use with their
victims honeyed speeches, and give them trifling profits, or they use threats and stern
words, all in order to induce them to say they are willing to do so and so. Even if they
are confronted with witnesses it is difficult to show up their wicked game. Now we,
the undersigned, will use natives of the Tung-kún district to track the kidnappers of
Tung-kún, and although their wicked schemes are very deep, yet they will find it
difficult to escape a careful search.
3. The undersigned merchants, engaged here in trade for many years past , have lately
noticed that the crimes of kidnapping are increasing from day to day. Many of both
the kidnappers and of their kidnapped victims are natives of our native district (Tung-
kún) . Seeing this to be the state of affairs, it is unbearable to think that these villains
take this hospitable Colony for a convenient refuge. A meeting has therefore been held ,
and it is proposed to raise subscriptions with a view to publish everywhere offers of
reward. For every one who brings a kidnapper to trial, whether man or woman, provided
they (the kidnappers) are Tung-kún people, and irrespective of the place to which the
kidnapped persons may belong, there will be, for each person brought to trial and
sentenced, a reward paid to the amount of 20 dollars, and if the kidnapped persons are
natives of the Tung-kún district, and the kidnappers belong to other districts, the reward
will also be paid as above.
4. The money raised has been subscribed by Tung-kún people, and it will be settled
hereafter where the money is to be deposited . But three persons of good repute will be
elected to act as managers ; and when any case of kidnapping turns up, as soon as the
case is tried and proved, the amount of the reward will forthwith be paid by the managers ;
and as regards the kidnapped persons, whether they came far or near, the managers will
arrange and provide means for their being sent back to their homes.
5. This statement has originally been drawn up with a view to be forwarded as a
petition which may be kept on record, praying that the Government issue a warrant. For
28
the kidnappers keep their movements enveloped in secrecy ; but if, on information being
obtained, the authorities have first to be requested to send detectives to inquire or arrest,
it will necessarily take some days, and the kidnappers will meanwhile make good their
escape. It is therefore necessary to request the Government to issue a warrant, so that
the moment information is given the kidnappers can then and there be given into custody
on the spot, whereby the kidnappers will all at once be deprived of their resources and
be unable to escape . Should this arrangement be carried out kidnapping will soon be
stamped cut.
Translated by E. J. EITEL.
Hong Kong, 9th November 1878.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
This seems a very praiseworthy desire on the part of the native merchants and residents
who have signed this petition .
I should be glad if the two police magistrates, the Captain Superintendent of Police,
and Dr. Eitel would, in concert with the leading petitioners, draw up some scheme for
my approval to check this crime of kidnapping.
J. POPE HENNESSY.
12th November 1878.
MINUTE by the ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY AND OTHER OFFICERS.
Forwarded to the police magistrates, who will be pleased to arrange with the Captain
Superintendent of Police and Dr. Eitel to carry out the directions of His Excellency.
C. MAY,
12th November 1878. Acting Colonial Secretary.
Noted.
C. V. CREAGH ,
Acting Police Magistrate .
13th November 1878.
Noted.
JNO. J. FRANCIS,
Acting Police Magistrate.
13th November 1878.
Forwarded to Captain Superintendent of Police and Dr. Eitel.
C. V. CREAGH,
Acting Folice Magistrate .
Forwarded to Dr. Eitel, who will oblige by kindly bringing this document to the
first meeting.
W. M. DEANE,
15th November 1878. Captain Superintendent of Police .
SUGGESTIONS by Mr. JOHN J. FRANCIS for the Organization of the proposed Chinese
Society for the Protection of Women and Children.
1. That the promoters form themselves into a Company under " The Companies
Ordinance, 1865." Any seven persons associated together for any lawful purpose may
do this . It need not necessarily be for any trading or manufacturing purpose.
2. All subscribers of 10 dollars to the funds of the Association should be members
thereof, with power to vote, &c., but should not be liable for any further subscriptions
or for any contribution during the existence of the Society, but, in the event of the
Company's being wound up, and money being needed to pay off any liabilities, all existing
members ought to become liable to pay a further sum of 10 dollars each .
(a. ) This would be a Society or Company limited by guarantee.
(b.) The advantages of forming a company are manifold. The Association would thus
obtain-
Corporate existence and definite legal status ,
Perpetual succession ,
A common seal,
and with this, more prompt and cordial recognition from the Government and the
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public.
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3. That the objects of the Society should be the protection of women and children
generally :-
1. By labouring for the suppression ana detection of kidnapping and kidnappers.
2. By undertaking the restoration to their homes of all women and children decoyed
or kidnapped into the Colony for purposes of prostitution , emigration, or
slavery.
3. By providing for the maintenance and support of women and children pending
investigation and restoration to their homes.
4. By undertaking to marry or set out in life women and children who could not safely
be returned to their homes or families.
The establishment of a refuge for homeless women and children .
The raising of funds for all or any of these purposes.
The propagation by books, fly sheets, &c. &c. , of a knowledge of the English law on
the subject of kidnapping and slavery among the Chinese bere and on the
mainland.
4. That the Society be managed by a Committee of seven members. The first
members to be the signers of the memorandum of association . Two to retire annually,
and their places to be filled by election by the votes of the shareholders.
5. That the Governor have a vote on the election of any member.
6. That the proceedings of the Committee be regularly recorded in detail, and be
always open to inspection of the Government.
7. That annual accounts be furnished to the Government.
8. That the Society engages and pays its own officers and detectives, who, if approved
by the Government, and guaranteed by the Society in the sum of $ 100 each, be sworn
in as special constables, but to be used for the sole purpose of suppressing kidnapping
and detecting kidnappers.
Such detectives to report daily to the police superintendent, but not to be otherwise
under his orders.
9. That all rewards be paid by Government out of Government funds under existing
regulations, upon the recommendation of a judge or magistrate .
There are many other points that would have to be considered and provided for , but
here is, I think, a framework upon which all else needful could be built upon. An Asso-
ciation thus constituted would have a position and standing before the Government and
public which would entitle it to great consideration and liberal support.
The Government would have a substantial entity to deal with, solid guarantees against
the abuse of any powers it might confer, and legalized means of contracting and
directing .
The subscribers would have legal rights, and could exercise efficient supervision over of
the management of the institution and the disposal of its funds .
Subscriptions would be voluntary, and no liability to pay would arise , except in the
event of the Company being wound up and unable to pay its debts.
Enclosure in Letter of Mr. Fung Ming-shán to Dr. Eitel .
(Translation.)
The Committee, having taken the suggestions (of Mr. Francis ) into consideration ,
propose to add the following rules, without, however, deciding whether (this addition) is
appropriate or not. They now present ( the additional suggestions) respectfully, humbly
praying that the paper be laid before His Excellency the Governor, who may scrutinize
them and decide accordingly.
2. In paragraph No. 2 the words " subscribers of ten dollars " (to the funds of the Asso-
ciation) might perhaps be altered so as to read " subscribers of ten dollars or upwards,
&c."
3. In paragraph No. 8, the detectives to be engaged might be given the additional
power to board junks entering and clearing, and to search them, as follows : -
(a. ) Every Chinese passage-boat or cargo-junk , irrespective of the place whence she
comes or the place whither she may be bound, should , the moment the anchor is
dropped, permit a detective to board and search her.
(b.) Every foreign vessel, irrespective of the place of her destination, should, if she
leaves with Chinese passengers on board, permit a detective to board her , before she
actually starts, and to search her.
Translated by E. J. EITEL .
5th June 1879.
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Translation .
No. 426.
TO DR. EITEL.
The writer respectfully states in reply, that he received the " Suggestions of
" Mr. Francis for the organization of the proposed Society for the protection of women
" and children," and laid the same, together with the literal Chinese translation, before a
meeting of the leading Chinese merchants called to consider the same. The suggestions
were successively, paragraph by paragraph, read and discussed at that meeting, and met
with respectful attention, all praising the excellence of their purport and the goodness
of the method proposed, which is really calculated to check an evil of the present day
of the most pressing urgency. Every one was loud in their praise, and it was urged that
these suggestions should speedily be acted upon.
With reference, however, to paragraph No. 2 , and the words " all subscribers of
" ten dollars to the funds of the Association should be members thereof," the Committee
"9
beg to recommend to amend these words by the insertion of the words " more than
(ten dollars).
Further, as regards paragraph No. 8, referring to the employment of detectives, the
Committee are anxious to recommend the additional suggestion that all vessels coming
and going be boarded and examined by detectives .
But in the absence of His Excellency the Governor's approval, the Committee dare
not act arbitrarily. Two meetings have therefore been held to discuss (and confirm)
these resolutions, and the writer has been specially requested now to communicate the
result to you, with the request that you will submit the whole scheme now for the
scrutiny of His Excellency the Governor, whose reply will be awaited by the Committee,
on receipt of which reply the Committee will forthwith raise subscriptions and carry
out the whole scheme. The Committee will then relapse into the state of simple
members of the Association, which will, when formed , elect specially a Committee of seven
members ; and they hope, when the whole scheme is sanctioned to be carried into effect,
to have a general meeting, and then submit a statement of their position for the
scrutiny of His Excellency the Governor.
Being doubtful if the above will meet with the approval of His Excellency the
Governor, which is respectfully awaited , the writer has meanwhile set forth the circum-
stances, respectfully anticipating your orders, and embraces the opportunity to assure
you of his highest regards, wishing you the happiness of promotion , and asking you to
excuse any shortcomings.
P.S.- Enclosed is the set of suggestions (drawn up by Mr. Francis ) and a draft paper
of additional suggestions, which is respectfully submitted for approval, if possible, with
the prayer that in any case a reply be vouchsafed.
For the provisional Committee.
(Signed) FUNG MING-SHAN.
Received 31st May.
Translated, 5th June 1879, by E. J. EITEL.
KIDNAPPING COMMISSION.
MINUTES OF MEETING held at the Justices' Room, at the Magistracy, on the
28th June 1879.
Present :-John J. Francis in the chair ; Rev. E. J. Eitel, Ph. D .; C. V. Creagh, Esq.;
Mr. Fung Ming-shan ; Mr. Tse Sung-shan.
Minutes of last meeting read and confirmed.
Mr. Fung Ming-shan states that the other two Chinese members, Messrs . Shi
Shang-kai and Lo Lai-p'ing, are absent from the Colony.
Mr. Francis' memo., with the notes of the Chinese members of the committee thereon,
was read and approved, and it was resolved-
That the minutes of the proceedings of the committee be forwarded to His Excellency
the Governor with a strong recommendation :
That His Excellency would be pleased to approve of the proposed Association , and
that the Chinese may be authorised to take the necessary steps to carry out their
ideas :
That Dr. Eitel be requested to write the necessary letter.
JOHN J. FRANCIS , J.P. ,
Chairman .
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MINUTES OF A MEETING held at the Magistracy, on 28th November 1878, at 2.30 P.M.
Present: -Dr. Eitel, Acting Inspector of Schools ; J. J. Francis, Esquire, Acting
Police Magistrate ; C. V. Creagh, Esquire, Acting Police Magistrate ; Mr. Fung
Ming-shan, Compradore of Chartered Mercantile Bank ; Mr. Shi Shang-kai, opium
merchant ; and Mr. Tse Tat-shing, tea merchant.
After it had been stated that Captain Deane had received permission to withdraw
from participation in these meetings, and that Mr. Lo Lai-p'ing was unavoidably
prevented attending the present meeting, the petition addressed by Mr. Lo Lai-p'ing
and others, with its enclosure, was read, as also the minutes on the same document,
C.S.O. No. 2641 .
Adverting to the fact that kidnapping had always been practised in the Colony,
Mr. Francis then put the question to the petitioners, if there was of late any special
modus operandi observed in the proceedings of kidnappers differing from what had
been observed and known formerly, and justifying special proceedings either on the part
of petitioners or on the part of the Government or both. To this question the Chinees
gentlemen present replied that there was indeed a marked difference observable in the
proceedings of kidnappers of late, because they had become acquainted with the
loopholes English law leaves open , also with the principle of personal freedom jealously
guarded by English law, and that through this knowledge their proceedings had not
only become less tangible for the police to deal with, but the kidnappers had been 1
emboldened to give themselves a definite organization, following a regular system
adapted to the peculiarities of English and Chinese law, and using regular resorts and
depôts in the suburbs of Hong Kong. In support of this, Mr. Fung Ming-shan laid on
the table two documents written in Chinese (marked A. and B.) One of these
(marked 4. ) contained a list of 38 different houses in the neighbourhood of Sai-ying-p, ún
and Tai-p'ing-shán used by professional kidnappers as their regular resorts or depôts,
and a list of 21 professional kidnappers, whose names are given, but whose residence
could not be ascertained . The other document (marked B.) consists of a list of
41 professional kidnappers whose personalia have been satisfactorily ascertained . Both
papers are herewith appended, together with an English translation . t
The magistrates present, feeling satisfied that there was good raison d'être for some
special organization to oppose this systematized sale of women and children for unlawful
purposes, pointed out to the Chinese members of the meeting that one great difficulty
the Government frequently met in dealing with such cases was the question, what to do
with women or children found to have been unlawfully sold or kidnapped ; how to
restore them to their lawful guardians in the interior of China ; how to provide for them
in case such women or children had actually been sold by their very guardians , who,
if the woman or child in question were restored to them, would but seek another
purchaser ; how to prevent such women and children being sold again by their guardians
or friends ; how to deal with persons absolutely friendless, &c . To this observation the
Chinese members of the meeting replied that they were prepared to undertake this
duty, and overcome these very difficulties by means of an organized " Society for the
Protection of Women and Children, " which would employ trustworthy detectives to
ascertain the family relations of any kidnapped person , which would see to such persons
being restored to their families upon guarantee being given for proper treatinent, which,
in cases where restoration would not be advisable, or where in the absence of relations
and friends it was impossible, would take charge of such kidnapped persons , maintain
them , and eventually see them respectably married.
The meeting thereupon agreed that it would be desirable for the proposed " Society
for the Protection of Women and Children " to obtain corporate existence, and then
authority to employ private detectives to be sworn in as special constables, who would
have to be selected and to a certain amount (corresponding to that guaranteed in the
case of ordinary constables) secured by the Society's guarantee, who would also be
under the general superintendence of the Captain Superintendent of Police, to whom
they would, if in the Colony, report themselves daily, without, however, being liable to
do any ordinary police duty, being entirely under the orders of the Society.
Mr. Francis suggested to the Chinese members of the Committee the desirability
of spreading in the neighbouring districts a knowledge of the English law forbidding
the sale of persons and guaranteeing the liberty of the subject . The Chinese members
expressed themselves anxious to do so if some one drew up a succinct statement of the
provisions of the English law on the subject . The magistrates present expressed them-
32
selves willing to draw up such a digest in a brief form, and Dr. Eitel promised to
translate it into Chinese for the use of the Society.
The Committee then agreed, that, apart from the superintendence of detectives to
assist the regular police in the arrest of kidnappers, the functions of the proposed
Society would be the raising and administering of funds to pay the detectives and
to provide for rescued kidnapped persons , for which an account should be published
annually.
The Committee further agreed that there would be no need for the proposed Society
to pay out of their own funds the rewards to be offered for the detection of kidnappers,
as there is a law authorising the payment of such rewards by the Government.
The Chinese members of the Committee then made some reference to one or two
members ofthe Chinese police force being suspected of being in league with professional
kidnappers ; but as they had no distinct proof to bring forward, and would therefore, for
the present, not give names, it was agreed not to go into this point .
This closed the proceedings for the day, it being understood that draft regulations
of the proposed Society would be prepared for the assistance of the Chinese members
by Mr. Francis, and, after consultation with the whole Committee, finally submitted to
His Excellency the Governor, together with the minutes of this meeting and of any
future meeting that may be held.
E. J. EITEL.
Confirmed at the meeting of 28th June 1879.
JOHN J. FRANCIS .
COPY OF LETTER from CHINESE SECRETARY to COLONIAL SECRETARY.
SIR, Hong Kong, 3rd October, 1879.
I HAVE the honour to address you in the name of the Committee appointed by
His Excellency the Governor, under date of 12th November 1878, to inquire, in concert
with certain Chinese gentlemen, into the matter referred to in their petition of 11th
November 1878 (C.S.O. 2641 ) , and to draw up some scheme , for the approval of His
Excellency, to check the crime of kidnapping.
The Committee now submit to His Excellency the papers I forward under this
enclosure, which contain not only information as to the character and extent of
kidnapping practised in Hong Kong, but also a detailed scheme for the suppression of
this crime by means of the aid which an organized Native Society for the protection of
women and children would render to the Executive .
The Committee beg to urge upon His Excellency the Governor to sanction the
proposed Association, and to authorise the Chinese gentlemen who are the promoters
of this excellent organization to take the necessary steps to carry out their ideas.
I have, & c. ,
E. J. EITEL.
The Honourable W. H. Marsh,
Colonial Secretary,
& c. , & c. , &c.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
I shall have much pleasure in submitting the details of the proposed Association for
the consideration of Sir Michael Hicks- Beach .
I have recently expressed to Mr. Fung Ming Shan and the other Chinese gentlemen
who nearly 12 months ago brought this important matter to my notice my best
thanks for their valuable co-operation in checking kidnapping and the disgraceful traffic
in human beings .
J. POPE HENNESSY.
7th October 1879.
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Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
From the CHIEF JUSTICE to the COLONial Secretary.
The Supreme Court, Hong Kong,
SIR, May 30th, 1879.
I HAVE the honour to acquaint His Excellency the Governor that I yesterday
sentenced Loo A-sú and Chan A -í, two poor women, for detaining a male child,
Li A-piu, aged 13 years, against the provisions of Ordinance No. 4 of 1865, para-
graphs 50 and 51 , to imprisonment with hard labour for 18 months each.
On the evidence it appeared that they sold the child to Lau Pak-cheong, a druggist at
Yau- mátí, for $ 173 , and the child stayed with him as his servant for over 20 days, when
his relatives came from Canton and claimed him, but the druggist insisted on his right to
possession of the boy, producing a bill of sale, and the boy was not given up till the
parties appeared in the police court.
I am satisfied from the evidence that the great criminal was Lau Pak-cheong, and that
it is an opprobrium to the administration of justice to punish these poor women as I have
done, and allow Lau Pak-cheong to escape. I therefore ask His Excellency to direct
that proceedings be forthwith taken against Lau Pak-cheong, and that the case be con-
ducted at the magistracy by the Crown Solicitor, so that Lau Pak-cheong may be com-
mitted for trial before the Supreme Court under the above-named Ordinance.
2. I have also to inform His Excellency that on the Special Criminal Sessions on the
6th May instant, a woman, Mak Loi-hí, convicted of stealing a female child , Ng A-so,
of the age of nine years, by force, under Ordinance No. 4 of 1865 , paragraph 51 , to two
years' imprisonment with hard labour.
This poor woman was merely a middle woman , and received a small sum , but it came
out in evidence that Leung A-luk had bought the child for $53, and was actually con-
fining her in a room when the child was discovered . She was the great criminal . It is
an opprobrium to justice to punish this poor woman , Mak Loi- hí, and to allow Leung
A-luk to go unpunished .
I therefore ask His Excellency to direct that proceedings be forthwith taken against
Leung A-luk, and that the case be conducted at the magistracy by the Crown Solicitor,
so that Leung A-luk may be committed for trial before the Supreme Court on the above-
named Ordinance .
3. I am aware that, according to precedents here and at home, it is within the province
of the presiding judge to direct prosecutions such as these to be instituted, but I think
it more convenient to ask His Excellency, as the head of the Executive (whose province
it especially is to originate criminal proceedings ) , to direct prosecution .
4. To let these two chief offenders go unprosecuted, and to punish such poor miserable
creatures, exposes the Court to the contempt of the community, and tends to destroy all
respect for the administration of justice in the Chinese community.
It is no objection to proceeding against these two persons that they were witnesses
examined on the two trials.
According to law the evidence given by each on the former trials might be read
against him or her ; but I advise this not to be done ( see 3 Rus . on C. aud M. , pp. 411
and 412 , 4 Ed . 1865 ) .
That the proceedings sought are right and proper and necessary, I take on myself the
responsibility of emphatically asserting. Any trial should be before Mr. Justice Francis.
Herewith are the information and depositions before the magistrate in each case, which
be pleased to return to me, they being records of this Court.
I am, & c . ,
(Signed ) JOHN SMALE,
Chief Justice.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR to the ACTING Attorney General .
1. It is clear from the evidence and documents published by the Contagious Diseases
Commission that practices of this kind have prevailed unchecked , or almost unchecked,
for many years past in this Colony.
2. Last year I drew the Attorney General's ( Mr. Philippo) attention to a petition
from a father for the restoration of his child , but Mr. Philippo , 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 . It would be well to get the petition , and read the minutes on it .
3. I did not agree with Mr. Philippo's view of the law.
Q 2893.
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4. If the Acting Attorney General thinks he can obtain a conviction in the case to
which the Chief Justice now calls attention, or any similar case, my wish is that the law
be strictly enforced.
30th May 1879. (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
Note.-Governor Hennessy left for Japan on the 31st of May 1879. The Colonial
Secretary, Mr. W. H. Marsh, administered the Government till the Governor's return ,
6th of September 1879.
MINUTE by the Honourable the ADMINISTRATOR on the GOVERNOR'S MINUTE.
I think the magistrate who committed for trial in these two cases should have an
opportunity of perusing the Chief Justice's letter, and of explaining why, he discharged
the two persons whom it is now suggested should be prosecuted . Refer to him
accordingly.
9th June 1879. (Signed ) W. H. MARSH.
Enclosure 6 in No. 1 .
REPORT by the ACTING POLICE Magistrate .
REGINA V. Soo A-SU AND another.
In this case the druggist Lau Pak- cheung was not discharged, he only appeared
before me as a witness for the prosecution.
REGINA V. MAK LOI-HI .
It appeared to me that Mak Loi-hi, who, according to the evidence, found the child
crying in the street, and, under the pretence of finding and restoring her to her mother,
took her about and offered her for sale, was the chief actor in the crime ; and as I
considered that the unsupported evidence of the child was insufficient to secure her
conviction, I discharged the 4th defendant, and made her a witness at the request of
Inspector Lindsay, who believed that from the inquiries he had made she had purchased
the girl on the supposition that the latter had been sold with her father's consent.
When recalled the child herself stated that she told the 4th defendant that this was
the case " because 1st defendant told me to say so ."
To obtain a conviction under paragraphs 50 and 51 of Ordinance 4 of 1865 , it must be
proved that the child was detained , -
1. " With intent to sell him or her, or to procure a ransom or benefit for his or her
" liberation ;
2. " With intent to deprive any parent, guardian, or other person having the lawful
" care or charge of such child of the possession of such child ; or
3. " With intent to steal any article upon or about the person of such child ;"
And I considered that while the evidence of a criminal intention was very slight in the
case of the 4th defendant, she would be an important witness against the actual
kidnapper of the girl .
It appeared to me that 4th defendant being a well -to-do woman, and having no
children of her own , had purchased the girl with a view to adopting her as a daughter in
the belief that she did so with the father's sanction .
(Signed) C. V. CREAGH,
11th June 1979. Acting Police Magistrate.
When acting Captain Superintendent of Police last year, I wished to prosecute a man
for detaining a child under this Ordinance, but as it was shown that the boy had been
sold by his father some months previously, the Attorney General (Mr. Phillippo)
considered that the purchaser was in loco parentis, and could not be punished.
( Signed) C. V. CREAGH ,
11th June 1879. Acting Police Magistrate.
MINUTE by the ACTING ATTORNEY- GENERAL .
I handed these papers to the Crown Solicitor with instructions to see what evidence
is forthcoming, and I beg to enclose his report.
With the greatest respect for the Chief Justice I doubt the policy of prosecuting
the woman he refers to, having regard to the fact that the Magistrate had discharged
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her for want of testimony, and looking to his further report. The Magistrate should
always be supported when it is possible ; and if he discharged the woman, and put her in
the box as a witness, and she was used again at the Supreme Court, it might look like
a breach of good faith to treat her now as a criminal .
The other two women I could see less reason for discharging, and I think perhaps
should have had them charged, but I felt that that would be a grave slight on the
magistrate.
As to the druggist's case I think that the only thing that can be said is that it would
look to be a breach of faith to proceed against him now.
The Chief Justice reprimanded all the parties very severely when passing sentence on
the others, and I think they were so frightened that they will not engage in such acts
again. However, in this case I am quite ready to sink my own opinion, and prosecute
if it is deemed politic .
(Signed) J. RUSSELL,
5th July 1879. Acting Attorney- General.
REPORT by CROWN SOLICITOR.
REGINA v. Soo A-SU AND ANOTHER.
In this case I find that the boy Lee A-pui and also Lam A-ting of the Sun-kee
tailor's shop in or near Canton, where the lad was apprenticed, both left the Colony
immediately after the trial, and have not since been heard of. Possibly these witnesses
might be got at through the British Consul at Canton, but without their evidence, any
charge brought against Lam Pak- cheung, the druggist, could not be well substantiated.
Unfortunately no other evidence is forthcoming, and Inspector Cameron can find no
trace of the man A-kam who stole the lad at Canton, or of the woman Ang, both of
whom seem to have decamped on hearing that the police had been applied to in the
matter.
The druggist was himself the first to complain to the police, and apparently bought
the boy with no evil intention, and under the impression that he was an orphan without
a home. The child too says that he never told the druggist that he had any home, and
expressed no desire to leave him .
The purchase by Chinese ( having no family of their own) of young orphans, and
indeed of others whose parents are too poor to keep them, is a social custom amongst the
natives, and is of constant occurrence in Hong Kong. These " pocket children," as they
are usually termed, are often treated with great affection, and are far better off than they
were previous to their being so bought.
REGINA V. MAK LOI-HI.
With the aid of Inspector Lindsay, I have carefully investigated this case. Cheung
A-kai and Seung A-luk, 2nd and 4th defendants, discharged at the Police Court, have
already given their sworn testimony at the recent Criminal Sessions . Should it, however,
after this, be thought desirable to put them on trial, I think there may be sufficient
evidence to obtain a conviction . Lum A- chan, 3rd defendant, seems to have taken a
minor part in the affair, and would be required as a witness .
Two magistrates sitting together have power to determine cases of this nature.
( Signed) EDMUND SHARP,
Crown Solicitor.
'Enclosure 7 in No. 1 .
The ADMINISTRATOR to the CHIEF JUSTICE.
Government House,
SIR, Hong Kong, 16th July 1879.
I HAVE the honour to inform you that your letter of 30th May last, recommending
that proceedings be taken against Lau Pat-cheung and Leung A-luk under Ordinance 4
of 1865, paragraphs 50 and 51 , was referred by His Excellency Governor Hennessy to
the Acting Attorney General, who, before making a report, asked that the papers might
be referred to the committing magistrate.
I have now received the report of the Acting Attorney General, as well as those of
the committing magistrate and of the Crown Solicitor, and I regret to inform you that
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atter carefully considering these reports, as well as the depositions forwarded by your
Honour, I do not see my way to directing the prosecutions of the two persons indicated
by you ; first, because, with all deference to your Honour's opinion, I do not agree with
you in looking upon them as the principal criminals ; and, secondly, because I think that
after the evidence of these persons has been taken before both the committing magistrate
and the Supreme Court without any warning having been given to them that their
evidence might be used against them, it would appear like a breach of faith to treat them
now as criminals .
A perusal of the depositions which you forwarded me, and which I now return, does
not show that either of these persons obtained possession of the children for immoral
purposes . It appears also from the depositions that they were led by the statements of
the prisoners who have been sentenced by you, which statements were confirmed by the
children themselves, to believe that one of the children had no parents, and that the
other was disposed of with the written consent of the father, alleged to be the only
surviving parent. Neither of the children seem to have been ill- treated, and the magis-
trate has expressed the opinion with regard to the woman Leung A-luk, that " being a
well-to-do woman, and having no children of her own , she had purchased the child with
46
a view of adopting her as a daughter, in the belief that she did so with the father's
" sanction."
Should the prosecution of these persons result in their acquittal, which seems to me
not improbable, I fear that the good effect produced by the severe reprimand, which I
understand that your Honour administered publicly to all the parties concerned in these
two cases, might be to a great extent neutralized .
As your Honour's letter has remained for some time unanswered , I think it only right
that I should acquaint you without further delay with the opinion that I have formed on
the subject of your communication . But as your letter has been under the consideration
of Governor Hennessy, whose departure for Japan prevented him from finally dealing
with it, there seems to me to be no reason why the matter should not be left, if your
Honour wishes it, for the decision of His Excellency on his return to the Colony, when it
will not be too late to take proceedings against the parties, should it be thought necessary
to adopt that course.
I have, & c . ,
His Honour the Chief Justice, (Signed) W. H. MARSH,
&c. &c. & c. Administrator.
Enclosure 8 in No. 1.
The CHIEF JUSTICE to COLONIAL SECRETARY.
The Supreme Court ,
SIR ,
Hong Kong, 8th October 1879 .
THE Criminal Calendar for September 1879 was sent to you in due course yesterday.
It comprises three cases : -Case No. 1 , a conviction of Lee A-kau for kidnapping and
detaining a child aged 8 years ; case No. 6, a conviction of Tsang Sz-tau and Û A-in , on
two counts, for kidnapping and detaining a boy, Ho Po-sing, with intent to sell him in this
Colony, and on two other counts for the same offence as to another boy, Yeung-shing ;
and case No. 9, a conviction of Keung A-to for purchasing a female child, Tin-heng, for
the purpose ofprostitution in this Colony, and of Li Akak for having sold the same child
for the same purpose.
I thought it my duty, on the occasion of passing sentences on these prisoners , to enlarge
on the crimes to which these crimes ministered, the great increase of which in number
had recently been brought to the notice of the Court , especially slavery usually designated
domestic, and slavery for the purposes of prostitution ; and seeing that arguments , doubts,
and difficulties had been rather hinted at than fully expressed , I thought it incumbent on
me to enter very fully into all the questions at a length which otherwise might be thought
too prolix .
I concluded my arguments by an epitome of most of the propositions I desired to
affirm, which are comprised in eight propositions. To these I refer as the substance of
most of my very long observations.
What I said appears in the " China Mail " and " Daily Press," but I think the latter
on the whole is more exact.
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The matters discussed are important. I have expressed my views on them with the .
earnestness they excited in my mind.
I should be going beyond my proper province to say more than that . I am at the
service of His Excellency the Governor as to the serious questions which may arise.
I have, & c. ,
The Honourable W. H. Marsh, (Signed) JOHN SMALE,
Colonial Secretary, Chief Justice.
&c. &c. &c.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
To the Acting Attorney General for his observations.
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY,
9th October 1879.
MINUTE by the ACTING ATTORNey General .
Read.
J. R.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY to CHIEF JUSTICE.
Colonial Secretary's Office,
SIR, Hong Kong, 9th October 1879.
I AM directed by His Excelleney the Governor to acknowledge the receipt of
your Honour's letter of the 8th instant, calling His Excellency's attention to the observa-
tions your Honour made in sentencing certain prisoners convicted of kidnapping and
detaining children for sale at the recent sessions, and I am to convey to your Honour
His Excellency's best thanks for placing your great experience and knowledge at the
Governor's service in this matter.
I have, &c. ,
The Honourable Sir John Smale , (Signed) W. H. MARSH,
Chief Justice, Colonial Secretary.
& c. &c. &c.
Enclosure 9 in No. 1.
From " Daily Press " of 22nd September .
Hong Kong Supreme Court, 20th September 1879 .
Criminal Sessions.
Before the Hon . Chief Justice Sir John Smale.
Selling and BUYING A CHild for the PURPOSES Of PRostitution.
Keung Ato was charged with unlawfully buying a female child named Siu Ahing
for the purpose of prostitution , and Li Akak with selling the said child for the same
purpose, on the 4th March . The Acting Attorney General ( Hon . J. Russell) ,
instructed by the Crown Solicitor ( Mr. E. Sharp ) , prosecuted, and Mr. Ng Choy
appeared for the first prisoner. The jurors were Messrs . M. A. de Carvalho, N. A. Siebs,
J. G. dos Remedios, A. O. Gutierrez, T. G. Glover, L. M. Baptista, and J. F.
Mardfeldt.
Mr. Koro Rata, of the Japanesc Consulate, was present to watch the interests of
the girl.
The Attorney General, in opening the case, said the girl, being then about 11 years of
age, was brought here from Japan by a Chinaman, to whom, according to the girl's
own statement , she was sold by her parents. After his arrival here, being in want of
money to go to his native place, this man left her in pledge with a respectable com-
pradore for $50. The compradore kept this little girl as his servant, but it appeared
that about the 3rd March last her mistress had beaten her severely, and she ran out
of the house. She was met in the street late at night, about 11 o'clock, by the second
defendant, who said something to her, and finally took her to the house of the first
defendant, and there sold her for a sum of money. The first defendant kept her in
the house for some time, and, according to the girl's statement, threatened to send her
to Singapore to be a prostitute. The whole of the surrounding circumstances showed
the intention was either to keep the girl here as a prostitute, or to send her to Singapore,
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and if the jury believed the object was to send her to Singapore, knowing as they did
the traffic that had been going on, they would have little difficulty in determining that
the purpose for which she was to be sent there was an immoral one . The Ordinance
under which the prosecution was brought was one introduced in 1875 specially to
protect women and girls, and to prevent improper emigration . The offence with
which the prisoners were charged was a misdemeanor, not a felony. Most of the
cases of the kind they had in that Court were felonies, the children having been taken
away with the intention of depriving the parents or guardians of their custody ; but
that was not the case here, and the present charge was only a misdemeanour.
Sin Ahing said :—I am 14 years of age, and was born at Kobe. My father was a
hawker of vegetables, and my mother a needlewoman . They had no money, and they
sold me to a Chinaman. I was then 11 years of age. I do not know the name of the
man who bought me. He brought me to Hong Kong three years ago, and sold me to
a young Chinese gentleman ; I do not know for how much, but I saw money pass.
This was in Lan Kwai Fong Lane. The man who bought me had a family house, and
he took me to it. -Pao Chee Wan was here called into Court, and the witness said
he was the " young Chinese gentleman " who bought her. She also pointed out his
wife, Wai Alan, who came into Court supported by a female servant on either side
and shading her face with her fan.- Evidence continued : -I lived with them for three
years and acted as servant. My mistress beat me.
His Lordship :-With her fan ? She does not seem as if she could use anything else.
Witness :-With a rattan .
His Lordship :-Oh, with a rattan ! And for what offence ?
Witness :-She lost a cake, and said I had eaten it.
His Lordship :-Did she beat you with her own hands ?
Witness :-Yes . It was the handle of the feather duster my mistress beat me with.
She beat me on the hands, feet, and back, and gave me a great many cuts ; two on the
hands, and more than ten on the feet, and the blows left marks which turned black. I
was not held or tied at the time. It was during the day time I was beaten. The same
night that I was beaten I ran away, about 11 o'clock at night. I had never been beaten
before. I wandered about the streets for some time, and then saw the second prisoner.
I was crying, and she asked me what was the matter with me. I said my mistress had
beaten me. She then said, " Come, I'll take you to my place," and she took me to her
house. On the next day she said, " I am going to sell you to be a prostitute." I said
I would not go. She said, " It is very good ; you have good clothes and shoes ." I said,
" How much are you going to sell me for ?" She said $10 . I said, " So cheap !" She
said , " The person will not give more than $ 10. " Nothing more was said after that.
I had breakfast with her, and after that she took me to the first prisoner at his house.
His wife took me to Singapore. I have been to Singapore ard come back. When I
went into the first prisoner's house the second prisoner sold me to him. The second
prisoner said, " I have sold you to Keung Ato." He was there at the time to take
delivery, and heard what she said . He said nothing, but I remained there. I saw money
pass whilst we were all together, but could not say how much. The wife of the first
prisoner was also present at that time. I remained in that house with the first prisoner
and his wife for two or three days , and got good clothing and good food, and was treated
kindly. The earrings I wear were given me by the first prisoner's wife, and also the
bangles. After two or three days the first prisoner's wife took me to Singapore in a
large steamer. When I got there I was placed in a brothel as a servant . The first
prisoner's wife was there also . I remained there for five or six months. The first
prisoner's wife sold me to another mistress. I had a fit and was returned to the wife
of the first prisoner, and she brought me back to Hong Kong. This was a long time ago.
The wife of the first prisoner is a large-footed woman and a procuress. When she
brought me back to Hong Kong she took me to the house where the first prisoner lives.
I remained there until one day when there was some wrangle about me, and the police
interfered. I remember the first prisoner one day saying to me something about going
to Singapore, but I cannot remember what it was.
By Mr. Ng Choy :-I have never seen my parents since they sold me, and I do not
know whether they are living or not. When I ran away from the house of Pao Chee
Wan, and met the second prisoner in the street, she did not say, " I'll take you as my
daughter." I was crying at the time. I told her I was a servant in a family house,
and that I had run away because I had received a beating. I did not ask her to take
me to her house for the night as I had no place to go to. She did not say she pitied
my condition. She did say she would take me to her house . I consented to go, and
went. She did not ask me if I would like to be sold to a family as an adopted daughter.
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I stayed in her house more than 10 days. I did not go out during that time ; I was
locked up. I did ask to be allowed to go out, but she gave no answer. I was taken to
the first prisoner's house after ten or more days' time. The first prisoner's wife was
sent for, and she came to the second prisoner's house, and took me to the first prisoner's
house. The second prisoner did not take me there, but she came afterwards. The first
prisoner's wife took me to her house to sell me. When I say " to sell me," I do not
mean to say that the second prisoner had sold me to the first prisoner's wife. When
the first prisoner's wife came to the second prisoner's house I did not hear what was said.
I did not know that when the first prisoner's wife came to the house of the second
prisoner she wanted to buy me for a daughter. What she wanted to purchase me for I
don't know. I have said that when I was at the first prisoner's house, the second
prisoner, when she got the money, told me it was paid by the first prisoner, who was
going to adopt me as a daughter. The first prisoner never told me he had bought me
for a daughter. I was treated as a daughter in the house. I have not said elsewhere that
when the second prisoner first met ine in the street she said, " I will sell you to some one 1
to be a daughter."
The deposition of the witness at the police court was then put in and read. She made 1
no reference at that time to ever having gone to Singapore, but said that one day the
first prisoner told her he was going to send her to Singapore to be a prostitute ; and in
reply to a question by the first prisoner said it was not because she had refused to make
tea that he said this . She also said that the second prisoner said to her in the street,
" Come with me, and I will sell you to some one to be a daughter."
Cross-examination continued :-1 lived in the first prisoner's house a long time, four
or five months. I went out to see a procession about a month ago, and from the first
time I went to the prisoner's house until I went out to see the procession I remained in
that house. I should now like to return to Pao Chee Wan .
His Lordship :-What do you say about home, and your father and mother ?
Witness --I would rather go back to the young gentleman than to the first prisoner
or my father and mother.
His Lordship :-But going back to the young gentleman is going back to the young
lady with her fan.
Witness :-Yes.
His Lordship :-Yes, she would rather have the treatment of a servant than this
delightful treatment as a daughter. Can she give any reason why she would like to go
back there ?
The witness gave no answer, and his Lordship remarked that it was merely a fancy,
for which she could give no reason .
The second prisoner asked no questions.
His Lordship :-Tell that chattel she can stand down.
The Attorney General said he did not intend to call Pao Chee Wan or his wife.
His Lordship said if neither party called them he would do so, unless the Attorney
General said there were reasons of a criminal nature why they should not be called .
The Attorney General said the matter was standing over for consideration ; there
might be reasons of a criminal nature.
His Lordship said that in that case he would not call them. He was very glad to
hear it.
Choi Atsoi, an amah, formerly in the employ of Pao Chee Wan, was then called , but, 1
not answering to her name, the Attorney General asked that her depositions at the
police court might be read.
Sergeant Perry proved having made diligent search for the woman, and having been
unable to find her. He believed she had gone to Canton.
His Lordship said this was not sufficient proof that the woman was not in the Colony.
Pao Chec Wan and his wife would be the witnesses as to that.
The Attorney General said, that , for the reason he had before stated, he could not call
them .
His Lordship said he would not interfere with any proceedings the Attorney General
might be contemplating against that young gentleman. He would not be sorry to see
him there on another occasion .
The Attorney General said another witness, Cheung Sam Mui, was also absent, and
the same remarks applied in that case.
The depositions were therefore not read .
P. S. Perry said that on the 29th July he saw the first prisoner at the police station,
and in consequence of instructions he received he went with him and the first witness
to the house of Chung Sam Mui. The latter was not in, and they went to the first
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prisoner's house, where they found her. On the way the first prisoner said the girl was
his adopted daughter, and his woman had brought her from Japan three years ago . The
second prisoner was afterwards arrested . When the charge was read over to her
in the charge room she said she had sold the girl to the first prisoner for $60, but
that she only had $40 of it. The first prisoner was present at the time, and heard what
was said.
By Mr. Ng Choy :-He did know sufficient Chinese to understand what was said,
and could repeat it in Chinese.
Mr. Ng Choy asked him to do so.
The witness was repeating what was said, when Mr. Ng Choy said he was satisfied .
His Lordship :-Then he has your certificate that he knows Chinese. I am very
glad to hear it, for he is a very deserving man.
By the second prisoner : -You did say there was no bill of sale . You also said you
had sold her to him for a daughter. You did not say she was a present.
By his Lordship : -When Pao Chee Wan and the first prisoner were together at the
station the first prisoner said he claimed the child as his adopted daughter, and that
she had been living with him and his woman in Lower Lascar Row for three years ;
his woman brought her from Japan three years ago, and she was his adopted daughter.
Pao Chee Wan said he was a compradore, and resided in Lan Kai Fong . He pointed
to the little girl and said, " She is my servant, and has been living with me and my
wife for three years ; I missed her about three months ago." The little girl, in answer
to questions, made a rambling statement . First she said she belonged to the first
prisoner, and afterwards that Pao Chee Wan was her master. She said her mistress
had beaten her, and she had run away, and that when she was in the street the second
prisoner met her and afterwards sold her. Since that time the girl has been living at
:
the Tung Wah Hospital, and was brought to Court from there this morning. She was
sent there by the police.
Wong Akow said her husband's name was Chan Aku, and she lived in the same
house as the first prisoner and his wife . She recollected the girl in Court being taken
to that house by second prisoner. There was a conversation between the two prisoners,
but she did not know what was said . The following day the second prisoner came
again, and received money from the first prisoner ; witness did not know how much, nor
what the money was for . There were several tens of dollars passed . The girl remained
with the first prisoner, and witness never saw the second prisoner in the house again.
Witness gave certain information to the police , and pointed her out in the street. She
heard her charged at the police station with selling the child . The first prisoner was
present . In answer to a question whether the girl belonged to her, the second prisoner
said " Yes," that she had sold her to Ato (the first prisoner) , and that the price
was $60.
By Mr. Ng Choy :-She did hear the first prisoner say to the second that he wanted
the girl for a daughter. The girl remained in the house of the first prisoner all the
time up to about a month ago. As far as witness knew she was treated as a daughter.
By the Attorney General : -She had not seen the girl go out with the first prisoner's
wife. Witness sometimes left the house for a few days. The first prisoner's wife had
gone to her father's house ; witness did not know where that was. She had been away
for several months.
By his Lordship :-It was some time before there was any question at the magistracy
that she went away. She went away alone.
Yan Ahing, Sergeant Interpreter at the Central Station, said :-I recollect the first
prisoner coming to the station on the 29th July. He said , " That girl is my servant
girl. My woman brought her from Japan about three years ago. I live in Lascar Row."
By Mr. Ng Choy - I did not hear him say the girl was his adopted daughter.
Sergeant Perry was there when he made this statement. He said he lived in Lascar
Row, and that the girl had been living with him three years ; he did not mean that
he had been living in Lascar Row three years.
This concluded the case for the prosecution .
Mr. Ng Choy, addressing the jury on behalf of the first prisoner, said the man stood
charged on the information with having purchased a certain child for the purpose of
prostitution . He was not charged with purchasing her for any other purpose, nor was
the other prisoner charged with selling her for any other purpose, and therefore that
purpose must be clearly proved before the jury could convict. If they had the least
doubt about it he submitted it was their duty to acquit them, certainly to acquit the
first prisoner. Now, what were the facts ? The little girl was sold by her parents in
Japan to a Chinese ; then she was brought here, and she was resold to Pao Chee Wan , a
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compradore, in whose family she stayed for two or three years. Then, according to her,
own story, she got a beating one night and ran away, and while she was crying and
wandering in the street, having no place to go to, she met the second prisoner, who asked
what was the matter. The girl told her, and then the second prisoner took her to her
house. There was some inconsistency in her evidence as to what passed between the
second prisoner and herself, and they would remember her evidence at the police court
was given very shortly after the occurrence. However, she was taken to the second
prisoner's house, and remained there for some days, and then she was sold to the first
prisoner. Now, what was the object for which the first prisoner purchased her ? At
the police court, she said most clearly that the second prisoner, after she had got the
money, told her she had got it from the first prisoner, who was going to adopt her as a
daughter. If they believed this , the object of the first prisoner in buying the girl was
quite clear. As the jury knew, a Chinese family, when they had no girl, would often
buy a girl for a daughter. This, therefore, was not at all an unusual case. Whether it
was a good policy or not was another question, but it was often done. Well, the girl
remained in the first prisoner's house for several months, being treated as a daughter, as
she herself said, and had ear-rings, bangles, and clothes given her. Then one day she
went out with another woman to see the funeral procession of Mr. Kwok Acheong's
mother, and there she was seen by a servant of the compradore, Pao Chee Wan, who
told her to go back. She refused there and then, and was taken to the station, and then
the matter was brought before the Court. Now, what was the evidence, he should like
to know, against the first prisoner of his having purchased the girl for the purposes of
prostitution ? He (the learned counsel) was taken by surprise when the girl said in the
witness box that she had been taken to Singapore by the wife of the first prisoner, and
that she remained there for five or six months. She never said a word about that at the
police court. The police made enquiries, the girl herself was examined several times by
the magistrate, and not a word was said about this then . But then she contradicted her-
self in cross-examination ; she said she remained at the first prisoner's house from the
time she was taken there until the day she went out to see the procession . After such
evidence as this could they convict the prisoner on the unsupported statement of the
girl ? Then, again, she was flatly contradicted by the woman Wong Akow, who was
living in the same house as the first prisoner, who said the girl remained in the house
from the time she was purchased until the day she went out to see the procession, and
that when the first prisoner's wife went away she went away alone. Therefore the girl's
statement about having been taken to Singapore must have been au afterthought, a
result of her imagination, and they must necessarily disbelieve that part of her story.
Well, if they did not believe that, what else was there ? He had put in the deposition
of the girl at the police court, and there was one point in it which might strike the jury as
implicating the first prisoner. She said, " About a month ago the first prisoner told me
he was going to send me to Singapore to be a prostitute." She did not say that to-day,
but as the deposition had been put in he was bound to draw their attention to it . The
story was a very improbable one. She could give no reason why he told her this. And
why on earth should he have told her ? Then, even if it were true he had said so, he
did nothing to carry out the threat ; no overt act had been proved ; and, he submitted, it
was not enough to convict upon. It might have been simply an idle threat used
towards her when she was disobedient, the man never intending to carry it out. Now,
what was there against him in the evidence given to-day ? At the police station he
was foolish enough to tell a falsehood . They knew the Chinese were prone to tell lies,
-he was sorry to have to say that, but they were not to punish him for telling lies.
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When he was at the police station , he said, My wife brought this girl from Japan
three years ago ." Probably he said this to smooth matters, and was perhaps in terror at
the time. But, as he had said before, they were not to punish him for telling lies ;
he was charged with a different offence. But let them look at the conduct of the
prisoner. He was a respectable man, and it had been proved that when he bought
the girl he said he wanted her for a daughter, and the girl admitted that during
the whole of the several months she was in his house she was treated like a
daughter. Therefore the evidence, so far from supporting the charge, negatived the
presumption that when he bought the girl he meant to make an immoral use of her. If
he wanted to use the girl for immoral purposes, why did he keep her in his house four or
five months ? The prisoner was not charged with simply purchasing the child, but with
purchasing her for the purpose of prostitution ; and before they could convict, they must
be perfectly satisfied that was the purpose for which he purchased her. He (the learned
counsel) would be the last person to advocate slavery, or the nefarious practice of buying
girls for the purpose of prostitution, but he would urge the jury not to be led by their
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abhorrence of slavery and immoral practices to convict a man upon insufficient evidence.
He submitted there was not a shadow of proof against the first prisoner to snpport this
serious charge which had been brought against him, and he had full confidence in asking
them to acquit him.
The second prisoner said : —I have not much to say. The girl followed me because
she said her mistress had beaten her, and therefore she was crying and would not go
back to her mistress. That is all.
His Lordship then summed up. He said Mr. Ng Choy had not attempted to show
there was not the transaction of buying and selling this girl as a chattel, but what he did
say was that the evidence did not show that the buying and selling was for the purpose
of prostitution. If the jury believed the man gave $60 for such a poor little simple
child as that, looking simply to her services in an honest course of life, and not for the
power of selling her again, or for dedicating her to prostitution, he was entitled to their
verdict. The case was one of some difficulty in that respect. The question was, Did
the first prisoner buy the girl for the purpose of prostitution ? Of course the girl was
told all sorts of fine things when she was to be sold. When they sold a horse they gave
it the best grain, and coddled it up, in order that it might look better in the eyes of
the purchaser ; and it would not have done for the woman here to have made the worst of
the story to the girl . Of course she said, " I am going to get you a capital place, such
a place as you have never heard of." All that, they knew, was a lie, but it was the lie
that always accompanied fraud and deceit. But first they had to consider as to the first
prisoner ; when he bought the child did he buy her believing it gave him the power of
selling her as a prostitute ? because, if so, he bought her for the purpose of prostitution.
He did not buy her probably to take advantage of her himself, or for a particular house
of prostitution ; but did he buy her with intent in his mind of selling her when she should
become fit for the prostitute market, or did he give $60 for that miserable little thing
as a servant ? Inasmuch as Mr. Ng Choy had raised that issue only, and very properly
so, he would read only so much of the evidence as met that particular issue. Now, there
was the fact that the child was going about the streets when the woman met her, and,
naturally enough, told her she was going to get her a very fine place, and that she was
to be an adopted daughter. That went for nothing. But did they believe the girl when
she said that on the next morning the woman said to her, " I am going to sell you to be a
prostitute ?" If they believed the woman said that, then she had herself indicated the
object with which she sold the child. The evidence of the child seemed to him to be the
evidence of truth ; she was old enough and clear-headed enough to be able to appreciate
facts, but he doubted whether she was clever enough to be able to invent them. If they
believed the woman said to her, " I am going to sell you for a prostitute," that followed
and coloured the whole transaction . He was speaking now, not as laying down the law,
but as stating what he conceived to be the common sense view of the affair. The child
then went on, " I said I won't go.' She might have had some horror of prostitution.
They knew something of what prostitution was in Japan before the Japanese Government
took it in hand and dealt with it. They could understand that even a child would be
taught the horrors of prostitution in Japan. The woman says, " It is very good ; you
have good clothes and shoes ; " and the child begins to think ofthe beautiful clothes and
so forth, and all the glorious consequences of being a prostitute ; -they gilded the pill to
her, as they had to millions before her ; and then she says, " How much are you going
to sell me for ? " She began to warm, and think it was not such a bad thing. The woman
said , " For $ 10 ." The girl said , " So cheap." The child thought that even her flesh and
blood was worth something more than $ 10 . The second prisoner said, " That person
will not give more than $ 10 . " Nothing more was then said. This woman, according
to the child's story, had opened to her the fact that she was to be a prostitute if any one
liked to buy her for that, and she got the child-poor little creature-to assent to it.
Did they believe that conversation took place ? It seemed to him an impossibility for
that child to have invented it, as if she could appreciate what the effect would be on the
minds of the jury ! His Lordship then continued reading the evidence of the first
witness, and directed attention to the expression of the child, " The first prisoner was
there to take delivery." He said he had no doubt the first prisoner treated the girl with
every possible kindness ; but they knew the story of the natives in the South Seas, who,
when they caught a crew of Englishmen, put them in a cage and fed them up before
they ate them, treating them with the greatest possible kindness. He did not impute
this to the first prisoner ; perhaps he did not do it with that intent, but kindness to a girl
under such circumstances did bear two constructions. Referring to the girl's statement
that she had been taken to Singapore, his Lordship said great doubt had been thrown
on the narrative, and it certanly was a very singular narrative ; but the fact that it
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was not mentioned at the police court was nothing against what she said being true,
because it was constantly occurring that when a witness said something in that Court,
and was asked why he had not said it at the police court, he said, " I was not asked ."
But did they think the girl's narrative at the Magistracy was a narrative of her own
without question and answer ? He did not. Questions were put to her, and she was
not likely to volunteer very much beyond, except that here the pressure of the Court
gave her a degree of confidence which she had not at the Magistracy. Then if they
believe what the child said about being taken to Singapore, the case was complete as
regarded the first prisoner. However, the jury might believe this or not, according to the
view they took , but it did not affect the general narrative of the case. If they did believe
it, the first prisoner was guilty ; if not, it was a strange invention which some one must
have put into her head, and she had been at the Tung Wah Hospital all the time ,
and no imputation was made against the people at that institution . One construction
was that she was not asked this at the Magistracy, and here something had directed her
mind to it. His Lordship then referred to the statement of the first prisoner given in
evidence by the girl at the police court, that he was going to send her to Singapore,
and said that as the deposition had been put in by Mr. Ng Choy, it was evidence against
the prisoner here . The statement showed that the man believed he had acquired the
right and power to dedicate her to prostitution. Then came his own statement to the
police, " That girl belong my servant girl ." He did not call her his adopted daughter,
but claimed her as his servant, whom he had a right to deal with as he said would,-that
was, to sell her as a prostitute. His Lordship said he thought he had dealt with all the
evidence on the question of prostitution, and asked the counsel engaged if there was
anything else they wished him to refer to.
Mr. Ng Choy said he would like to have the evidence of the woman Wong Akow
read.
His Lordship said there was another point, which was, that there was no bill of sale.
A bill of sale was that which might be supposed to give legality to such a transaction ;
but if any legality according to Chinese ideas did exist in such cases, this was a surrepti-
tious transaction without a bill of sale . He then read the evidence of Wong Akow, and
said Mr. Ng Choy put that forward as showing it was impossible the child could have
gone to Singapore. The question was a difficult one, but that he would leave to the
jury. The real question was a simple one :-When a man bought such a child did he
buy her to be a prostitute, or did he buy her to be adopted daughter, and give such a
price as 860 for her ?
The Attorney General asked his Lordship to call the attention to what the first
prisoner said at the police court about having had the child three years.
His Lordship did so, and told the jury the case was in their hands, the question being
whether the child was bought and sold for the purpose of prostitution or not.
The jury unanimously found both the prisoners guilty .
Ilis Lordship. I will call upon the prisoners at a future time. This is a case of far
larger proportions than the guilt or innocence of the two prisoners at the bar. I take
shame to myself that the appalling extent of kidnapping, buying, and selling slaves for
what I may call ordinary servile purposes, and the buying and selling young females for
worse than ordinary slavery, has not presented itself before to me in the light it ought.
It seems to me that it has been recognised and accepted as an ordinary out-turn of
Chinese habits, and thus that until special attention has been excited it has escaped
public notice. But recently the abomination has forced itself on my notice. In some
cases convictions have been had ; in two notable instances, although I called for prosecu
tion, the criminals escaped. They were Chinese in respectable positions, and I was
given to understand that buying children by respectable Chinamen as servants was
according to Chinese customs, and that to attempt to put it down would be to arouse
the prejudices of the Chinese. The practice is on the increase . It is in this port, and in
this Colony especially, that the so-called Chinese custom prevails. Under the English
flag, slavery, it has been said, does not , cannot, ever be . Under that flag it does exist in
this Colony, and is, I believe, at this moment more openly practised than at any former
period of its history . Cyprus has been under our rule for about a year, and already,
both in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords, questions have been asked,
and the members of the present Ministry have assured the country that slavery in every
form shall be speedily put down there. Humanity is of no party, and personal liberty
is held to be the right of every human being under English law, by, I believe, every man
of note in England. My recent pleasant personal experience in England assures me of
that. But here, in Hong Kong, I believe that domestic slavery exists in fact to a great
extent. Whatever the law of China may be, the law of England must prevail here. If
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Chinamen are willing to submit to the law, they may remain, but on condition of obeying
the law, whether it accords with their notions of right or wrong or not ; and, if remaining,
they act contrary to the law, they must take the consequences. I am perfectly satisfied
that the state of this Colony will attract the attention of Parliament when it next
assembles. I shall deal with these people when I shall have more fully considered the
case. I now direct you, Mr. Attorney General, to prosecute these two people, Pao
Chee Wan and Wai Alan.
The Attorney General :-My Lord, I intimated before that this matter was under
consideration ; I do not think I am at liberty to say under whose consideration.
His Lordship :-I direct the prosecution , and will take the responsibility. It is the
course in England, and I will pursue it here.
The Attorney General :-You have publicly directed it ; and I will report it to the
proper quarter.
His Lordship :-The Attorney General at home is constantly ordered by the Court
to prosecute. On my responsibility alone I do this.
The Attorney General -May I ask your Lordship to say on what charge ?
His Lordship :-Under sections 50 and 51 of No. 4 of 1865 , and also for an assault.
The Attorney General :-I have given this case a good deal of consideration , and as
your Lordship directs a prosecution I should be glad if you would indicate under what
Ordinance you think it should come.
His Lordship :-I have directed it under those two sections, and you will exercise
your discretion or your responsibility in doing it.
The Attorney General : -I cannot if I am directed .
His Lordship :-I direct the prosecution .
The Attorney General :-Will your Lordship look at section 7 of the new Ordinance ?
His Lordship :-I have said as much as I choose to say, and I will not be put to
question by the Attorney General. If you have any difficulty come to the Court in
Chambers. There are three cases of kidnapping, &c. at the present Sessions. Those
crimes are on the increase here.
The Attorney General : -The matter is already before the Governor, and has been
for some time . I have received a note to-day saying it is not decided what shall he
done.
His Lordship :—I am sure it is the earnest anxiety of the Governor that what is right
shall be done . No one can appreciate the Governor's efforts in that direction more
than I do.
The Attorney General :-I am simply waiting instructions . The matter has been
before the Governor for some time.
The prisoners were then removed, and the Sessions was adjourned until to -morrow.
Enclosure 10 in No. 1.
(Translation .)
To His Excellency the Governor.
The petition of the undersigned committee-members and merchants, acting on behalf
of the Chinese community of Hong Kong, viz . , CHIÚ Ü-T'IN, WONG KWAN-T'ONG,
LEUNG ON, KWOK TS'UNG, FUNG MING- SHIAN, WONG SHU-T'ONG , FUNG TANG, LEUNG
LÜN -PO , CHAN CHẾUK-CHI , FUNG YIN-TING, Tsut SUI-CHANG , PÁNG YAT-PÒ , U
HD-TS'ÜN , KWOK NÁM- P'ING and others, praying your Excellency to be pleased to
stretch a point of law, and to apply it with discrimination, so as to yield to the feelings
of the people, and to extend compassionate consideration to their views,
Showeth-
That whereas the Colony of Hong Kong is situated in the immediate neighbourhood
of the Canton province ; many of the poor, from all sorts of places, sell their daughters
or dispose of their sons to save their own lives (from starvation ) , and as the Chinese
Government has never prohibited the practice, it was hitherto continued for a long time
without interference.
That lately, however, there were certain avaricious rogues and vagabonds, who, under
the pretext of buying girls to be employed as domestic servants, sold them from hand
to hand to be sent abroad for purposes of prostitution , such confusion of stones with
pearls being a matter for extreme regret.
That your petitioners last year addressed your Excellency by petition on this subject,
praying for permission to establish a Society for the protection ( of women and children) ,
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hoping thereby to stamp out such practices, whence it will be seen that the under-
signed committee-members hate such wicked practices as one hates an enemy.
That the practice of purchasing boys for purposes of adoption, and the practice of
buying girls for purposes of domestic servitude, widely differ from the above-mentioned
wicked practices, because the purchasing of boys has its reason in the absence of male
descendants creating a desire to adopt a son, as the sphex adopts the mulbery insect,
whilst the buying of girls has its origin in the necessity for a division of labour caused
by the multifarious character of domestic duties.
That such servant girls being young have both to be taught and to be tended, and
when they have reached maturity, they have to be given in marriage (to free men),
whilst all along they are allowed to take their ease, and have no hard work to do.
That all former Governors of this Colony were fully aware of these social customs of
the Chinese people, and never insisted upon the law being set in motion against them ,
but treated the matter with indulgence, and forbore prosecution .
That your petitioners find that in the year 1841 his Excellency Governor Elliot
issued a proclamation inviting an increase of settlers, in which it was said that all Chinese
residing in Hong Kong would be treated in accordance with their native customs, and so
forth, whereupon people far and near were delighted to come, and the Colony of Hong
Kong showed thenceforth signs of improving in prosperity from day to day.
That now, however, your petitioners are informed that his Lordship the Chief Justice,
after the trial of a case of purchasing free persons for purposes of prostitution, said, in
the course of his judgment, that buying and selling girls for domestic servitude was an
indictable offence ; -which put all native residents of Hong Kong in a state of extreme
merchants and wealthy residents in the first instance being afraid lest
terror ; all great
they might incur the risk of being found guilty of a statutory offence, whilst the poor
and low class people, in the second instance, feared being deprived of a means to preserve
their lives (by selling children to be domestic servants) .
That, moreover , there obtains in China the practice of infanticide in the case of female
infants , which would be extremely increased if it were entirely forbidden to dispose of
children by buying and selling ; and further, people thus deprived of a means to keep
off starvation would, it is to be feared, drift into thiefdom and brigandage .
That your petitioners , considering your Excellency's habit of solicitude for the
sufferings of the people , and of sympathy with their feelings , will surely not allow poor
people who have no helper to be left awaiting death with tied hands, humbly beg that
your Excellency , in merciful consideration for the feelings of the people, forego the
carrying out of a measure bringing distress upon the people , and lay before Her Majesty's
Government their prayer that, in applying the provisions of the law to the Chinese
practice of buying sons for purposes of adoption , and girls for domestic servitude , a
point be stretched in dealing with the case, but that the purchase of free people for
purposes of prostitution , and the kidnapping and selling of persons from hand to hand,
be severely punished , when both poor and rich in the whole Colony will be greatly
indebted to your Excellency's favour for ever and ever.
That your petitioners further beg to enclose herewith a statement of the case
under ten different paragraphs, which they respectfully submit to your Excellency's
consideration .
And your petitioners , as in duty bound, will ever pray.
P.S.-Strictly speaking , this petition should have been signed by all the traders in
Hong Kong, but in view of the urgent and pressing nature of the case the Committee
feared to incur the long delay which would be caused thereby . It was therefore
resolved at a public meeting that the undersigned , fourteen members of the Committee ,
should append their signatures on behalf of the whole community to avoid delay.
In the year 1879 , the 22nd of October.
In the fifth year of the reign of Kwongsui , the 9th moon, the 8th day.
Translated by
E. J. EITEL.
25th October 1879.
Translation .
Subjoined is a statement, under ten different heads, which is herewith respectfully
presented for inspection , with the humble prayer that it be carefully examined , and action
taken thereon as may be deemed expedient.
1. Since time immemorial there has been in China the practice of buying and selling
male and female children, either for purposes of adoption ( in the case of boys), or in
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the case of girls either to bring them up as one's own daughters or to use them as
domestic servants. As there is in all these cases free will and inclination on both sides,
and no kidnapping, or decoying, or compulsion, the law does not * forbid those practices.
These practices are, moreover, not merely those of the common people, but of the
families of scholars and high officials as well. The reason of all this is the excessive
increase of the population, and the wide extent of poverty and distress. The Government,
therefore, yielded to the circumstances, and moulded the law accordingly, with a view
to relieve the distress of the people. For if all those practices were forbidden, poor
and distressed yeople would have no means left to save their lives, but would be
compelled to sit down and wait for death . This is the principal reason for the
non-interference of the law. But as to selling free persons for purposes of prostitution,
as to decoying, kidnapping and compulsion, and other wicked, practices, the law of
course restrains them with severity, the worst cases being visited with capital punish-
ment. 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 practices serves, and accordingly apply discriminately
either punishment or non-punishment.
2. Hong Kong being conterminous with the Canton Province, and in constant inter-
communication with the inland districts, nearly 40 years have now elapsed since the
opening of the Colony, which has become an emporium of trade, and since the last few
years many Chinese have brought their property, wives and families, to the place, suppos-
ing that they would be able to live here in peace, and to rejoice in their property. The
reason for this movement was a belief in the equitable administration of the criminal
law on the part of the English courts of law, and the absence of vexatiousness on the
part of the Executive . Native residents have, therefore, lately expressed a wish for
naturalisation, and native merchants felt a desire to settle down in this trading place
for good. Moreover, at the first opening of the Colony, His Excellency Governor
Elliot issued a proclamation inviting an increase of settlers by the promise that Chinese
coming to reside in Hong Kong would be in every respect governed in accordance
with their native customs ; and from the time of the publication of this proclamation to
the present day people always depended upon it. 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. 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 John Elliot gave to intending settlers, and that this present
intention of applying, all of a sudden, the repressive force of the law to both the
practices of buying and selling boys or girls for purposes of adoption or for domestic
1
servitude is not only a violation of the rule of Sir John Elliot, but moreover will,
it is to be feared , not fail to trouble the people.
3. One of the common but evil practices in vogue in China is the practice of
infanticide in the case of female children, and this practice is most especially followed
in the Canton Province . Poor and indigent people, scarcely able to provide food and
clothes for themselves, finding themselves additionally burdened with the anxieties
and troubles which children involve, will frequently, if unable to find anybody willing
to take over and rear them, proceed to drown them the moment they are born. This
practice has lately abated to a certain extent, as compared with former times . But
although the practice of infanticide, a cruel and unnatural proceeding, is of course
unanimously abhorred by everybody, yet, being really caused by the pressure of
poverty and distress, it must be classed with evils which are almost unavoidable. Now,
if the buying of adoptive children and of servant girls is to be uniformly abolished ,
it is to be feared that henceforth the practice of infanticide will extremely increase
beyond what it ever was. The heinousness of the violation of the great Creator's
benevolence, which constitutes infanticide, is beyond comparison with the indulgence
granted to the system of buying and selling children to prolong their existence. More-
over, the families which are able to purchase children have an abundance of clothes
and food, which certainly offers an advantage beyond anything those children had in
their own families, as they are placed beyond all care of providing against hunger and
cold . The foregoing considerations are calculated to make people rather rejoice over
the fact that these children change hands.
This is not literally correct. The law being on this point in advance of the social life of China, as the
Brehon laws were in advance of Irish civilization, does not permit parents to sell their children indiscrimi-
nately. But this law is a dead letter, and as a matter of fact such sales are of every day occurrence in all
classes of society, and certainly not treated as illegal by the Chinese courts. Hence the belief of the
petitioners.-E.J.E.
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4. When parents are willing to sell their sons and daughters to others , the reason
invariably is, that their troubles are innumerable, their plans exhausted, their means
squandered, and it is only when they find there is no better way out of their difficulty
that they resign themselves to this resort. As regards the sellers, their own intention
is to find some one willing to buy, so that the matter is entirely voluntary, and there
is not the least compulsion in it. As regards the buyers, they look upon themselves as
affording relief to distressed people, and consider the matter as an act akin to charity,
1 especially as the boys or girls they buy, being of tender age, have, as a general rule, to
be clothed, fed, nursed, taught, and if they are sick a doctor has to be engaged to
attend to them ; and when they are grown up, the boys have to be provided with a wife
and a separate family dwelling, and to be set up in house-keeping ; and in the case of
girls, a good husband has to be picked out for them to make them happy for life . The
love and care devoted to them is often greater than that bestowed on one's own offspring.
In view of all this, it is impossible to class this system as identical with life-long slavery
and deprivation of liberty.
5. China honours , above all others, the tenets of Confucianism, that is to say, the
teachings of Confucius and Mencius . Mencius says there are three forms of deficiency
in filial duty, but the worst of them is to have no descendants. Consequently every
childless person considers it obligatory to adopt a son, for the term " deficiency in
filial duty " implies a sin of the most heinous hue. Supposing even that there were a
man showing no willingness (to adopt a son ) , his relations and friends would certainly
do the utmost to exhort him to do so. Hence the number of people who are willing to
buy boys for purposes of adoption. But it being once permissible to purchase boys in
order to make them one's own sons, it follows that it is also permissible to buy girls in
order to make them one's own daughters . This system is the most essentially important
of all Chinese customs, and your petitioners therefore beg that this statement be
condescendingly examined and tested.
6. In China there are fixed rules for the purchase of human beings, which rules bear
absolutely no comparison whatever with the mode of purchasing ordinary commodities.
For in buying ordinary articles of any kind, the buyer acquires unlimited power over
them, and he is entirely at liberty to keep them or reject them. There is no such thing
in the purchase of human beings. For when a girl is bought for domestic servitude, her
parents may come at any time to visit or inquire after her, and before the contract is
half over they may redeem her. When the girl is of age, she is to be married, and the
parents must, of necessity, be communicated with, and as to willingness or unwillingness
the girl herself is allowed to have her say in the matter. If the master (of a servant
girl) is cruel and overbearing, and drives her to despair so as to kill herself, or to run
away without leaving a trace behind her, the parents or relatives of the girl may apply
to the Court, and the master will be prosecuted and punished. It is for this reason that
any family which has lost a servant girl is bound to issue a notification offering a reward
for any one who will devise means to find her, until she is recovered, for it is feared that
otherwise the parents will institute proceedings in the matter. This being the treatment
required, it is evident that the purchaser has not complete power, but that one half of
the power rests in the girl's own free will . Comparing this system with life -long slavery,
it is evident the two are as different as heaven and earth . Some time ago the Chinese
Government strictly prohibited the coolie trade, but has now concluded treaties with
Peru , Spain, and other countries, sanctioning free emigration , the reason being that the
coolie trade was based on deception and kidnapping, but free emigration is a matter of
independent free will . Both ( coolie trade and emigration) are to a certain extent
matters of the same nature, yet when they are discriminately examined the two systems
differ as wide as heaven and earth. Thus also the system of kidnapping girls for
purposes of prostitution , and the adoption of boys or purchase of servant girls, are also
matters of the same nature (as coolie trade and free emigration ) ; only it requires some
intelligence to be able to distinguish the (turbid ) river King from the ( clear) stream of Wei.
7. Some months ago the Chinese merchants of Hong Kong presented a petition to
your Excellency, praying for permission to establish a Society for the protection of
honest people (women and children ), the object being to afford protection to women,
girls, and young children generally against the snares of seducers and kidnappers . It
will be seen from this that your petitioners hate that form of wickedness as one hates
one's enemy, and cannot bear seeing this class of rogues and vagabonds at liberty to
play their pranks in this humanely governed English Colony. For their practice is to
use kidnapping and seduction , cunning and deceit, as a source of profit and permanent
revenue, and differs from honest and straightforward buying of sons or purchasing of
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servant girls so widely that there can be no comparison at all. Thus good and evil can
be easily distinguished in this case.
8. Some years ago, about the beginning of Sir Arthur Kennedy's administration , your
petitioners, seeing immorality flourish to an extraordinary degree, to the great injury of
public morals , seeing also a system of kidnapping of females going on, intended for
exportation for purposes of prostitution, to the total obscuration of the moral sense,
could not bear looking on quietly, and in personal interview with His Excellency the
Governor begged that some energetic measures be devised for the repression of this
evil . At that time Sir Arthur Kennedy considered it was almost impossible to move
a finger to repress sly prostitution, because it was impossible to deal with it without
coming into collision with the liberty of the individual guaranteed by the English law,
and that only one course was left open, viz. , to pass an ordinance comprehending in
its application everything of that sort whereby the evil might gradually be abated .
He also asked your petitioners what they thought of it, and all replied it would be an
excellent measure. Accordingly Ordinance No. 2 of 1875 was passed . Your petitioners
therefore considered that, according to Sir Arthur Kennedy's intention at the time,
this Ordinance referred simply to kidnapping and to forcible detention and seduction of
women and girls, as also to the purchase of females for purposes of prostitution , but
to nothing else. Strange to say, sections VII . and VIII . allow a construction and have
a range of application so extensive that they can be made to extend to the buying of
sons for adoption, and to the buying of girls for domestic servitude, which would assume
accordingly a criminal character. This is, in the opinion of your petitioners, inexplicable ,
and they beg, therefore, to suggest the advisability of dealing with the matter by a
slight alteration ( in the wording of those sections) so as to yield to the feelings of
the people .
9. The office of the Registrar General was charged with the superintendence of prosti-
tutes and the licensing of brothels and similar affairs. But from 80 to 90 per cent.
of all these prostitutes in Hong Kong were brought into these brothels by purchase,
as is well known to everybody. If buying and selling is a matter of a criminal character
the proper thing would be, first of all, to abolish this evil (connected with the brothels) .
But how comes it that since the first establishment of the Colony down to the present
day the same old practice prevails in these licensed brothels, and has never been
forbidden or abolished . It will be seen from this that successive Registrar Generals,
who were thoroughly acquainted with Chinese social customs , abstained from such
grievous measures (as interference with purchase of children for adoption or domestic
servitude) .
10. When the law forbids the purchase of slaves, the reason certainly is that it is to
be feared they might be reared in contempt and treated with barbarity . Such pro-
hibition is, therefore, a matter of benevolence and compassion . Now as to bringing
up girls for domestic servitude, of course if one looks at the fact that these girls receive
no wages, there is indeed a difference from ordinary servitude. But as one has to tend
and nurse them whilst they are of tender age, and marry them off when they are grown
up, it is only for the few years between those two periods that one gets the benefit of
their labour. Moreover, as they have to be given away in marriage, they are not like
capital that remains on hand, whilst the food and clothes they get are far superior to
what they got in the families they came from . Girls of poor and distressed families,
seeing this, look upon it as the very heaven and highroad to fortune. If all such
chances for them were cut off, all the daughters of poor cottagers would consider their
high road to fortune destroyed . Thus the intention to do them good would turn out
to be to their injury. Your Excellency, being inspired by humane and benevolent
feelings , will surely be able to sift and weigh the above statements .
In the foregoing ten paragraphs your petitioners offer but a few slight explanations
of the customs of the Chinese people, and of the measures taken by successive Govern-
ment officials, the real facts being here set forth and presented to Your Excellency in
the earnest hope that Your Excellency will, by a stretch of charity and sympathy,
condescend to yield to the feelings of the people, and deal with the matter descriminately.
And as to that Ordinance, passed some time ago, which contains passages referring to
this subject, Your Excellency may perhaps deem it advisable to change the meaning
of the Ordinance, by adopting the nearer and rejecting the far-fetched sense of the
words. Or perhaps it may be advisable henceforth to subject the buying of sons for
adoption , and the purchase of girls for domestic servitude, to official registration ,
with the expressed stipulation that such children are not to be treated oppressively, or
some similar rule .
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Whilst submitting these suggestions, with due respect for Your Excellency's decision,
your petitioners beg to state that by such measures there will be no grievance inflicted
on the people, but rich and poor will both be comforted and the whole community of
Hong Kong will be benefited thereby.
Translated by
E. J. EITEL .
25th October 1879.
Enclosure 11 in No. 1 .
DR. EITEL'S REPORT.
SIR, Hong Kong, 25th October 1879.
I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a more detailed Report, for the information
of His Excellency the Governor, on the subject of Domestic Servitude in relation
to Slavery, regarding which I had been requested to express an opinion .
I have, & c. ,
To the Hon. W. II . Marsh, E. J. EITEL ,
Colonial Secretary. Acting Chinese Secretary.
Slavery, as it existed in the West, in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in modern
America, has always been an incident of race . Greek philosophers, in view of the
intellectual inferiority of barbarians, treated the enslavement of barbarians by Greeks as
a matter of course. As to Roman slavery, it claimed no other justification than the
right of conquest. The members of an inferior race, or the subjects of a weaker nation ,
were held in perpetual bondage by the members of another and stronger race who
conquered in war, and who looked upon their captives and the descendants of their
captives as their property, de jure gentium, as Justinian calls it. In course of time,
however, an enlarged sense of equity, and the development of that old Roman theory,
the lex naturalis, refuted this notion of the Roman Law that victory gave the conqueror
any further power over the defeated beyond disarming and disabling them as regards
resumption of warfare. But with this advance of civilization came also an enlarged
consciousness of the wide gulf separating civilized nations from barbarous tribes - white
men, and therefore free men-from black races, supposed to be intended by nature for
a position inferior to that of a free civilized white man . Slavery was thus not only
continued, but assumed a deeper significance, and seemingly greater justification, as being
founded on organic differences, implanted in men by nature, inborn and therefore
indelible. Thus it was that modern slavery, whilst abandoning the justification
established in Roman Law by the so-called jus gentium of Justinian, adopted the
argument first propounded by Greek philosophers, and slavery became thus a more
enduring and systematic bondage than ever. For it was now defended even by Christian
divines as in harmony with the divine purposes prophesied in Scripture regarding the
descendants of Ham, and illustrated by the physical and intellectual inferiority of black
races, for science also lent its aid to rivet the chains of the Africans, as being but highly
developed apes.
Roman slavery received its fullest development when Roman civilization and Roman
jurisprudence was in its zenith . Thus also the absolute slavery in which the black races
of Africa were held by white men in the West Indies and in America, who treated them
simply as a commercial article of export and import, was materially perfected by the
rapid advance which civilization and science had made among the progressive societies
of Europe and America as compared with the retarded development of barbaric into
civilized life , illustrated by the condition of the black races of Africa.
In fact, this postulate of organic differences in men as the principal apparent justifica-
tion of modern slavery, is possible only in societies which, in the evolution of their social
and political organism from the family groups or village units of patriarchalism, summing
up all the relations of persons in the relations of family, have reached that high stage
of development which is characterized by a mature sense of personal rights and indi-
vidual obligation giving to the individual the place of the family. That systematic
reduction of men to chattelhood which converts the members of one race into a seemingly
natural article of trade or into mere living implements of agriculture for the use of
another race, is the privilege of a socially self- conscious generation which laboured hard
Q 2893.
50
to emerge from feudalism and despotism in gaining civil and political freedom, and was
able therefore to appreciate what the negation of liberty implies.
But although this modern slavery was thus the natural outcome of an abnormally
rapid advance of civilization, it was an outrage upon the spirit of the old Roman lex
naturalis, which all along counteracted the growing tendency of Roman law to treat the
slave as a mere article of property, and which, especially since the French Revolution,
developed with marvellous rapidity. Slavery was, in truth, an unnatural straining of
the organic differences implanted in man , and therefore bound to be rectiñed by a
reaction. The great colonial emancipation initiated by Wilberforce, ard the more recent
abolition of slavery in the United States, represent thus but a necessary development of
the social organism of the West . The natural law of reaction was set in motion by that
humanitarianism which, since the end of the last century, began to permeate, like an
electric current, the whole ofthe western world . The result was a general growth of
that ideal conception of nature which merges all distinctions of race in the higher
synthesis of the universal brotherhood of man. Slavery has thus happily become an
impossibility among the enlightened nations of the West, in whose laws ( and social rela-
tions the status of a slave has been more or less superseded by the contractual relation of
master and servant..
Nevertheless , it must not be forgotten that, whilst this higher conception of humanity,
this appreciation of the fundamental equality of all human beings, with its consequence,
the abolition of slavery, is the outcome of a long course of organic development through
which the social life of the West has passed by the gradual dissolution of family depen-
dency and the growth of individual obligation , our present conceptions of humanity, of
personal liberty, and of slavery, are but transitions of progress, and await further , modifi-
cations and wider applications from the light of science and the spirit of equity. And
further, it should be remembered that, whilst the slave trade is successfully abolished in
the West, slavery still lingers in many highly civilised countries. Even in the social
organisms of the most advanced countries like England, numerous relics of ancient
patriarchalism, feudalism, and despotism have survived, which are out of harmony with
the spirit of modern civilization . Take, as an instance, that relic of ancient patriarchalism,
the absolute authority of husband and father, which still survives in the law of England,
vesting parental rights in the father alone. Or take as another instance that relic of
ancient feudalism , the European principle offeme covert, which absorbs the legal existence
of woman during marriage in that of her husband . Or consider, as a third instance, but
unum de multis, the powerful hold which the idea of aristocracy, as implying a superior
quality of blood in so- called old families, still has on the popular mind of the West,
America not excluded .
The foregoing will, I trust, suffice to show that the term " slavery " is bound up with
the peculiar development of the social life and the legal theories of the progressive
societies of the West. It has, indeed , such a peculiar meaning attached to it that one
ought to hesitate before applying the term rashly to the corresponding relation of a
social organism like that of China, which had an entirely different history, and has
hitherto been socially unconnected with those highly developed societies. But I believe
also to have shown that in Greck, Roman , and modern society the practice of slavery
always required some ingenious justification before the tribunal of the moral sense ; in other
words, that ever since the social organisms of the West emerged from archaic patri-
archalism, so long retained by the ancient Romans, and especially by the Sclavonians and
a few other Indo- Germanic nations, slavery had no natural place in them. Its gradual
dissolution was but a question of time.
Whilst thus the idea of absolute rights inherent in men, and the recognition of the
absolute equality of every human being, has been slowly and gradually evolved in the
West, and thereby procured, in the course of ages, the virtual abolition of slavery, we
find an entirely different development of the same ideas in China. That flower and
fruit of modern Christian civilization , the practical realisation of the consciousness of the
common fatherhood of God and the universal brotherhood of man, as the heirloom of
every human creature, has been the very seedcorn and root from which the Chinese
social organism has sprung up. That Heaven and Earth are the common parent of all
human creatures, that all men within the four seas (i.e. all people that on the earth do
dwell) are brethren, is the keynote of the religious, social, and political teaching of the
most ancient Chinese classics. In that ancient period of Chinese history which is still
looked upon as the classical norm and guide for the present and future, the Chow dynasty
(founded 1122 B.C. ), slavery was abolished in every form except that of the con-
demned criminal. Although slavery was re- established by the Han dynasty (3rd
century B.C. ) , which developed the patria potestas to such an extent as to give parents
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the right to sell their children in case of extreme poverty, and although slavery, in a
certain form and to a certain extent has existed in China ever since, yet it is necessary
to observe the radical differences which separate the system of slavery in vogue in
China from that of the West. To understand, however, the exact position which
the slave occupies in the social organism of China, we must first of all observe the point
at which social life in China has arrived in its process of evolution from barbarism .
The stage which China two thousand years ago reached in the history of its social
and political development, and in which it has on the whole remained ever since,
through its inveterate habit of looking to the past for an ideal of the present, is correctly
designated by the term " patriarchalism," though the social organism in its ceaseless
absorption of new ideas is gradually breaking through the bondage of patriarchalism
in sundry points. The main idea of Chinese patriarchalism is that the male parent,
as the patriarch of a definite family household, is the representative of the " family,"
which is the principal organized expression of the State. The supremacy of the male
parent is enhanced by the necessity of continued sacrifices to the spirits of deceased
ancestors. There lies therefore at the bottom of this system of patriarchalism the
political necessity of a unitary household, as the substratum of the State, and the
religious necessity of a positive central authority for sacred rites. The patriarch is
thus invested with a power over every member of his family, consisting of one or more
wives, children, grandchildren, and so forth, also of hired servants and possibly slaves,
every one of whom has a fixed relation to the " family," guaranteed by the whole social
State, and all are subject to the same patria potestas. In a State thus based on
patriarchalism the idea of personal liberty, of absolute rights possessed by every
individual, as conceived by the civilization of the West, has no apparent room, although
it is contained in it, as the leaf is contained in the plant at every stage of its growth.
Nor is there any room for that absolute slavery which for so many centuries disfigured
Western civilization . Every member of the family or household, the wife, the concubine,
the child, the servant, the slave, merges his or her individual existence in the " family,'
99
which is legally the only " person existing in China . The Chinese mind cannot
comprehend any basis for individual relations apart from the relations of the family.
Yet each individual has a definite place as a person, not as a property, reserved to him
in this imperium in imperio, the empire of the pater familias, which place is guaranteed
to him and guarded by the State . None is indeed sui juris, for all are under the patria
potestas, but the latter has its fixed limits. The mother, although but a purchased
Agnate, becomes the depositary of the patria potestas with the death of the father.
The father of the family himself, although endowed with the jus vitæ necisque, is, for
every exercise of his power affecting the life of any one subject to his patria potestas,
answerable to the State . Moreover he has as many duties as he has rights . He is
solidarily responsible for any crime committed by any member, servant, or slave of
his family, whereby crime becomes a corporate act ; and the extent of moral responsibility
thus laid upon the house-father, a serious burden . In a family thus constituted none
can be free, but at the same time the bondage under which all are, in their several
ways, is not a mark of tyranny, but of religious unity, a bond of equality and mutual
regard.
It must be clearly understood, however, that the " family," which thus forms the
unit of the Chinese system of patriarchalism, is not what we understand to be a family,
but, strictly speaking, one of those legal fictions with which the Chinese social system,
like every other archaic organisin, abounds. The Chinese family really means the
circle of those who are under one and the same patria potestas, whether they came
under this power by procreation, by agnation, by adoption, or by gift or purchase.
Such a (6 family " may be a combination of many households, of brothers and their
descendants in two or more generations, not necessarily dining at the same table, not
necessarily tilling the same fields, but necessarily held together by common subjection
to the same patria potestas, and the common use of the same ancestral hall, with the
common worship of the same oldest ancestral tablet . This explains the common
occurrence in our Law Courts of half a dozen men acknowledging each to be the son
of a different father, yet persisting in calling themselves brothers. The purchased
slave, the hired domestic, the wife, are as truly related to the head of such a family as
the latter's own son. The son differs from the family slave only by the nearer chance
he has of wielding some day himself the patria potestas. It seems strange to us,
brought up as we are in the ideas of cognate relationship, but it is nevertheless a fact,
that simple purchase and adoption-which latter is invariably a money bargain- should
constitute kinship, so much so that law and custom make no distinction whatever
between adoptive and real connection, and that the purchased slave enters into the circle
52
of relationship in the family. Few foreigners have comprehended the extent of social
equality which this conception of the family practically engenders. The amount of
influence which woman, bought and sold as she is, really has in China, and there within
her proper sphere , within the family, is little understood. The depth of domestic affection ,
of filial piety, of paternal care, which is ingrained in every member of this colossal aggre-
gation of families called China, has never been fathomed yet, and is almost unintelligible to
the members of modern European Societies, which, in their haste to constitute a social order
in which every personal relation shall be based on the free and intelligent agreement of
individuals, almost forget that they are building up the rights of the individual on the ruins
of the family, and developing social equality and individual liberty at the expense of
domestic affections and filial piety. Who would glibly decide that this modern intellectual
individualism of the West, with all the development it has wrought in science and
mechanics, is an undoubted advance upon the filial piety and intuitive faith of Chinese
patriarchalism ?
Having thus a definite place within the pale of the family, and thereby secured against
being converted into a mere chattelhood, though subject to a patria potestas which is
shared in by every other member of the family, the Chinese family-slave has not a
position peculiarly galling. His master is of the same blood with him. Slavery in
China is not an incident of race as in the West, but an accident of misfortune. The
master knows that any turn of fortune may reduce him to the position of a slave.
The slave knows that his master, though he be the highest official in the Empire, is
under the same patria potestas in relation to the Emperor in which he, the slave, stands
in relation to his master. There is really little in the position of a Chinese family -slave
which allows a close comparison with the condition of a slave under the Roman Law, or
of a negro in the hands of his West Indian or American master. Considering that the
legal definition of the term slavery ( see Wharton, Law Lexicon, London, 1872,) is
" that civil relation in which one man has absolute power over the life, fortune, and
" liberty of another," the question arises, can such a position as that occupied by the
Chinese slave be seriously called slavery, in the legal acceptation of the term, or is it not
rather the position of a bond- servant than a slave that he occupies ?
To answer this question, it is necessary to define exactly who are slaves in China,
how such slavery arises or perpetuates itself, and then place side by side with it the
existing system of domestic servitude as it practically obtains in China.
The only classes of persons in China answering to some extent the afore-mentioned
legal definition of the term " slavery " are convicts, eunuchs , and persons who sold them .
selves into or were born in hereditary family-slavery. Chinese convicts, as also occa-
sionally prisoners of war, are sometimes attached, in the position of slaves, to military
stations on the frontier, or presented to military officers on the frontier as domestic
slaves. They are treated as outlaws, but may not be killed with impunity. Most of
them eventually become permanent settlers, and have their liberty restored to them, or
they may be pardoned and return as free men to their families . Female convicts also
are occasionally sold into domestic slavery in official families. But if such a female
slave is given in marriage, she becomes free ; and if she bears a son to a free man,
whether as wife or concubine, that son may succeed to his father's property. As to
eunuchs, who are principally employed in the Imperial Palace, or in the palaces of the
Princes , who are by law bound to keep and supply eunuchs, they are either provided
by parents who have their children made eunuclis to secure to them the easy life in the
harem, or they are persons who for some reason or other submitted to the same operation,
or they are the sons of rebels who were made eunuchs by order of the Government.
These eunuchs, though the victims of a barbarous custom, are not outside the pale of the
family, and occupy a fixed position in it guaranteed by the law. As to private or ordinary
domestic slaves , not being convicts, it must be understood, in the first instance, that no
free parent can sell his children into hereditary slavery. The law, whilst recognizing and
legalizing hereditary slavery, severely punishes any tendency to mix the once existing
social ranks. Hereditary slaves, therefore, if not convicts, are either born in hereditary
slavery, or they are persons who deliberately sold themselves into such slavery by stress
of poverty, or with a view to gain the protection of a wealthy family. Such a sale must
be the free and voluntary act of the individual, must have the sanction of him who wields
the patria potestas over the individual, and the deed must be approved, stamped, and
registered in a public Court. The owner of such a slave is bound by custom to provide
him with a wife, and the descendants of such a marriage are then hereditary slaves.
This form of slavery is comparatively rare in the Canton Province, where it occurs
only in connection with very wealthy families, but is said to obtain to some extent among
the so-called Tán- Ká or boat population of Canton, many of these families being in the
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relation of hereditary slaves to wealthy Cantonese clans, under whose protection they
live, and to whom they pay portion of their earnings . There is , however, nothing in his
outward appearance or condition to distinguish such a slave from a free person. Although
I spent the greater portion of fifteen years in some inland districts of the Canton Pro-
vince, I have never to my knowledge seen such an hereditary slave. I am told that
generally only the nearest acquaintances know a slave to be such, and that the only
outward distinction of an hereditary slave is the rule made by custom, that on New
Year's Day, when even the poorest free man, who goes about barefoot all the year
through, dons shoes and stockings, the slave has to wear wooden clogs. I am sure there
is not one such hereditary slave in Hong Kong. But suppose one came here, and were
told that he is entirely free on British soil, it would make no difference to him whatever ;
for he looks upon his master as a refuge to fall back upon in case of sickness, and
anyhow he treats his relation to his master as a family relation, and views his adherence
to it as a matter of honour. Besides, any such slave has always a chance of purchasing
his freedom, and if once affranchised his descendants in the third generation can compete
for official honours. This system of slavery, whilst comparatively rare in the Canton
Province, is more frequently practised in the Fohkien Province, where by custom the
third generation of an hereditary slave regains freedom. But the principal seat of this
slavery is in the agrarian districts of Shantung, and most especially in the Hwui-chau,
Ning-kwoh, and Ch'i- chou Prefectures of the Ngan-hwui Province. It is also said to
exist to a large extent among the fishermen of the Cheh-kiang Province. But in all
these cases the slave is a member of the family to which he belongs, which is answerable
for his life to the State, and the law permits all such slaves to redeem themselves by
money payment, when the contract which restores liberty to the slave is to be stamped
and recorded in Court.
Under these circumstances I have no hesitation in saying that it seems to me im-
possible to identify this curious mixture of contract service, family dependence, and
1 slavery, which characterizes the Chinese analogue of slavery with that slavery which the
history of European society evolved, and to which our law books, Acts of Parliament,
and Orders in Council refer. To deal justly with the slavery of China we ought to
invent a new name for it.
Domestic servitude occupies an entirely different position . Whilst the hereditary slave
and his immediate descendants are excluded from all competition for official honours,
domestic servitude does not imply such disability, although the law treats the domestic
servant during the term of his engagement as under the entire control - life of course
excluded -of his master, who is answerable fur his misdemeanours and involved in his
crime. In all arrangements, contracts, or deeds regarding domestic servitude there are
invariably the elements of a monetary transaction , just as in the case of deeds of adop
tion. The sale and especially the pledging of persons, whether adults or children , for
purposes of domestic servitude, is the ruling custom all over China. The law, although
sanctioning the sale of children for purposes of adoption within each clan, and even from
without, is here in advance of public opinion, as it expressly allows, by an edict of Kien
Lung ( A.D. 1788) , the sale of children only to extremely poor people in times of famine,
but forbids even in that case re-sale of a child once bought. Practically, however, the
indiscriminate sale of children for purposes of domestic servitude is not interfered with by
the law at any time. On the contrary, the advance of law over custom here indica.ed
is but slight when we consider that the law sanctions the custom of temporarily pledging
one's wife, concubine, or daughters to another family for purposes of domestic servitude.
In the latest edition of the Penal Code I find , appended to the section headed " Pledging
wives or daughters," the following note : -" This prohibition refers only to pledging, in
" return for money received, one's wife or concubine to another man whose wife or
" concubine she is to be (till redeemed) , but the practice, so extremely common at the
" present day, of poor people pledging, for money received, their wives or daughters to
" others for purposes of domestic servitude is not included under this prohibition. " A
male domestic may either himself make the contract with his employer which binds him
to the latter for a number of years, or the domestic may have been handed over by his
parents to the master, who pays the parents, may be a sum in advance, so to say, of the
wages to be carned . The same is the case with grown-up or elderly female domestics.
But the largest majority of all female domestics in China are young girls of more or less
tender age, most of whom enter upon their domestic servitude when four or five years
old. The reason for this immense demand for young female domestics lies in the system
of polygamy which obtains all over the empire, and which has a religious basis. A son
being required to continue the family sacrifices, any one whose first wife proves childless
will consider it his religious duty either to adopt a son or to take a second or third or
51
fourth wife until he procures a son. To die without a son is considered a heinous sin
against one's ancestors. But in a family consisting of several wives there is no room for
the sort of servant girl to which Western nations are accustomed . As eunuchs are
forbidden to all families below the rank of a prince, the custom of purchasing young
girls for the performance of the lighter domestic duties became the general practice of
all well-to-do families since time immemorial . Such girls may either be pledged by their
parents for a certain time, or sold for good. When only pledged, the case is generally
this :-A family, being in urgent distress, and requiring immediately a certain sum of
money, take one of their female children , say five years old, who has been sufficiently
impressed with the misery at home, to a wealthy family, where the child becomes a
member of the family, and has perhaps to look after a baby. The father receives a
small lorn on the security of this child, and when that loan is repaid with interest, the
child returns to her father's family, to remain there till in the ordinary course she is sold
as a betrothed wife, or, as we call it , married . But the child may be sold out and out.
In that case invariably a deed is drawn up, called by a common legal fiction " a deed of
gift." A sum of money is paid, and the child becomes the domestic servant of the
family, and is as entirely under the patria potestas of the head of that family as if she
were a slave, with the exception that an all- powerful custom requires the master to find
a husband for his servant girl when she is of age ; and the moment she is married she is
as free for ever as any married woman can be, and no touch of servitude clings to her
descendants . Considering the deep hold which this system has on the Chinese people,
it is not to be wondered at that Chinese can scarcely comprehend how an English judge
could come to designate this species of domestic servitude by the name " slavery." Onthe
contrary, intelligent Chinese look upon this system as the necessary and indispensable
complement of polygamy, as an excellent counter remedy for the deplorably wide-spread
system of infanticide, and as the natural consequence of the chronic occurrence of
famines, inundations , and rebellions in an overpopulated country . But the abuses to
which this system of buying and selling female children is liable in the hands of
unscrupulous parents and buyers, and the support it lends to public prostitution , are too
patent facts to require pointing out.
This system of domestic servitude is very common in Hong Kong among well- to -do
Cantonese, less common among the Fohkien people, and comparatively rare among the
Hakkas. The reason is that early betrothals and early marriages are common among
both the Fohkienese, and especially among the Hakkas, who have, moreover, the custom
of sending the betrothed, as soon as she is able to walk, say when three or four years
old, to the family of her future husband , where she remains till her marriage, and has
exactly the same position and performs the same duties which the purchased servant girl
is required for in a Cantonese family. I must mention, however, by way of explanation,
that polygamy is also comparatively rare among the Hakkas.
To foreigners of course it seems very unnatural that children should be sold into
domestic servitude. But the Chinaman sees nothing unnatural in it, because almost !
every social arrangement in. China, betrothal, marriage, concubinage, adoption, servitude ,
is professedly based on a money bargain. The roots of this whole system of slavery and
servitude are inseverably interlaced not only with the general social organism but with
the national character of the Chinese . The British soldier who takes his shilling may be
said to have sold himself into slavery. The British sailor, after signing the articles,
may virtually be a slave for a period . But these forms of servitude, created by an Act
of Parliament, can be swept away entirely by another Act of Parliament. They are not
bound up with the social organism, and have no root in the national character. But the
slavery and domestic servitude of China are institutions which nothing short of the
general dissolution of the whole social system of patriarchalism can possibly remove, for
they are ingrained in the very blood and brain of China.
To understand the social bearings of domestic servitude as it obtains in Hong Kong , it
must be observed that although the Chinese residents of Hong Kong are under British
rule and live in close proximity to English social life, there has always been an impassable
gulf between respectable English and Chinese society in Hong Kong. The two forms
of social life have exercised a certain influence upon each other, but the result now
visible is, that while Chinese social life has remained exactly what it is on the mainland
of China, the social life of many foreigners in Hong Kong has comparatively degenerated,
and not only accommodated itself in certain respects to habits peculiar to the system of
patriarchalism, but caused a certain disrespectable but small class of Chinese to enter
into a social alliance with foreigners, which, while detaching them from the restraining
influence of the custom and public opinion of Chinese society, left them uninfluenced by
the moral powers of foreign civilization.
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This exceptional class of Chinese residents here in Hong Kong consists principally of
the women known in Hong Kong by the popular nickname " hám-shui-múi ” (lit. salt
water girls) , applied to these members of the so-called Tán-ká or boat population, the
Pariahs of Cantonesc society. These Tán-ká people of the Canton river are the
descendants of a tribe of aborigines pushed by advancing Chinese civilization to live on
boats on the Canton river, being for centuries forbidden by law to live on shore. The
Emperor Yung Ching (A.D. 1730) allowed them to settle in villages in the immediate
proximity of the river, but they were left by him, and remain to the present day excluded
from competition for official honours, whilst custom forbids them to intermarry with the
rest of the people. These Tán-ká people were the secret but trusty allies of foreigners
from the time of the East India Company to the present day. They furnished pilots and
supplies of provisions to British men-of-war and troop ships when doing so was by the
Chinese Government declared treason, unsparingly visited with capital punishment.
They invaded Hong Kong the moment the Colony was opened, and have ever since
maintained here a monopoly, so to say, of the supply of Chinese pilots and ships' crews,
of the fish trade, the cattle trade, and especially of the trade in women for the supply of
foreigners and of brothels patronized by foreigners . Almost every so-called " protected
woman," i.e. kept mistress of foreigners here, belongs to this Tán-ká tribe, looked down
upon and kept at a distance by all the other Chinese classes. It is among these Tán- ká
women, and especially under the protection of those " protected " Tán-ká women, that
private prostitution and the sale of girls for purposes of concubinage flourishes, being
looked upon by them as their 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 Tán-ká
women who live by sly prostitution . The latter, again, used to be preyed upon- till
quite recently His Excellency Governor Hennessy stopped this fiendish practice-by
informers paid with Government money, who would first debauch such women and then
turn round against them charging them before the magistrate as keepers of unlicensed
brothels, in which case a heavy fine would be inflicted, to pay which these women used
to sell their own children, or sell themselves into bondage worse than slavery, to the
keepers of the brothels licensed by Government. Whenever a sly brothel was broken
up these keepers would crowd the shroff's office of the police court or the visiting room
of the Government Lock Hospital to drive their heartless bargains, which were invariably
enforced with the weighty support of the Inspectors of brothels appointed by Government
under the Contagious Diseases Ordinance. The more this Ordinance was enforced the
more of this buying and selling of human flesh went on at the very doors of Government
offices.
It is amongst these outcasts of Chinese society that the worst abuses of the Chinese
system of domestic servitude exist, because that system is here unrestraired by the
powers of traditional custom or popular opinion. This class of people, mustering perhaps
here in Hong Kong not more than 2,000 persons, are entirely beyond the argument
of this essay. They form a class of their own, readily recognised at a glance. They
are disowned by Chinese society, whilst they are but parasites on foreign society. The
system of buying and selling female children and of domestic servitude with which they
must be identified is so glaring an abuse of legitimate Chinese domestic servitude that
it calls for corrective measures entirely apart from any considerations connected with the
general body of Chinese society.
As regards the peculiarly patriarchal features of the general body of Chinese society
in Hong Kong no interference has hitherto been ventured upon either by the Legislature
or by the Executive, whilst the common law of England proved utterly inapplicable to
the peculiar social systems of the Chinese living here. That prominent feature of
patriarchal society, that fountain source of female domestic servitude, polygamy, has
never yet been interfered with by the Executive. Even monogamic marriage is neither
registered nor recognized by the English courts of Hong Kong as distinct from con-
cubinage in the case of Chinese non-christian families. Although a local Marriage
Ordinance has been passed which applies to the 1,500 Chinese Christians in Hong Kong,
it does not apply to one of the 134,000 non- christian Chinese residents here. Under
these circumstances it seems to me inconsistent to single out the peculiar form of
legitimate female domestic servitude practised by the Chinese here in accordance with
the time-honoured custom of their native country, the frontiers of which are conterminous
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56
with those of Hong Kong. Hong Kong is indeed but a dot in the ocean, but the
Chinese social life of Hong Kong is also but a dot in the ocean of that vast social life
which covers a country peopled by 400,000,000 of people. Whilst having no social
intercourse with the foreigners of Hong Kong, the pulse of Chinese social life in Hong
Kong beats in unison with that of patriarchal China, and its arteries are constantly
supplied with new life blood from the same source.
It is one of the lessons which modern sociology has taught, that police prosecutions
or legislative enactments must of necessity prove inefficient when intended to cope with
any deep-seated social custom, because social reforms cannot be effected by any means
except by the accumulated effects of habit on character. I have no doubt whatever
that, apart from the abuses which naturally attach to every social custom like that of
domestic servitude, any direct interference with the system itself on the part of the
Executive or Legislature would do more harm than good . The domestic servant girls
of Hong Kong know that they are free . If badly treated they have no hesitation in
applying to the police, and bringing a charge of assault against master or mistress.
But suppose the police were instructed that every Chinese house-father who has in his
family a purchased servant girl should be dragged into the police court and punished,
the consequence would be, in the first instance, that every well -to-do house-father would
send his family over to the mainland to reside there, and, in the second instance , all
worthless servant girls would be thrown upon the hands of the Government. Homes
would have to be built for them, work would have to be provided for them, yet Chinese
social custom would in secret retain its habit of domestic servitude quietly as before,
under another name perhaps, but side by side with the share which the Government, in
dealing with all the homeless servant girls thrown upon its hands, would have to take in
it. I cannot imagine what permanent good could reasonably be expected to result from
ད
such direct interference .
It will be seen from the above that, peculiar as Roman and American slavery was,
Chinese slavery and Chinese domestic servitude have some essentially different features
entirely their own . It should be noted , moreover, that whilst the slavery of Europe
and America was such that the moral sense at all times revolted from it, and constantly
required to be pacified by new modes of justification, Chinese slavery and Chinese
domestic servitude never required any special pleading to justify it before the tribunal of
natural law or moral sense. Indeed, the moment we examine closely into Chinese
slavery and servitude from the stand- point of history and sociology, we find that slavery
and servitude have, with the exception of the system of cunuchs , lost all barbaric and
revolting features, and are but the natural phenomena of a social organism held in the
bondage of patriarchalism . As this organism has had its certain natural evolution , it will
as certainly undergo in due time a natural dissolution , which in fact has in 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 this world .
To sum up this somewhat too elaborate argument, and to point its conclusions with
special reference to the question of Chinese domestic servitude in Hong Kong, as
practised by the general body of the Chinese inhabitants , I venture to say that the fore-
going essay, if it proves anything at all, proves the truth of the following propositions :
1. Chinese domestic servitude is so peculiar, and differs so widely in its essential
characteristics from negro slavery, that it cannot be logically brought under the provisions
of any English enactment regarding that form of slavery. Police prosecution of Chinese
domestic servitude under any law made with reference to negro slavery would therefore
constitute an act of very doubtful legality.
2. Chinese domestic servitude appears to be a low form of social development when
judged by the advanced standard of European civilization, but when judged by the
relative standard of Chinese civilization, founded on entirely different principles, it has
its legitimation as the best possible form of social development under the circumstances.
Absolute condemnation of Chinese domestic servitude would therefore be an act of moral
injustice.
3. Chinese domestic servitude is not an excrescence on but a necessary part of the
patriarchal order of things which characterises the social life of the Chinese residents of
Hong Kong. To prohibit Chinese domestic servitude in toto would therefore constitute
an act of violence, as striking at the very roots of the social organism, the results of
which would in all probability be harmful to the Chinese and embarrassing to the
Government.
0
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57
4. Chinese domestic servitude, hitherto upheld in Hong Kong by the conservative
tendencies of the patriarchal organism in China, is bound by the laws of nature to yield
eventually to the progressive tendencies of modern society. Undue interference with
this process would therefore be an act of injudicious intolerance.
Hong Kong, E. J. EITEL .
25th October 1879.
No. 2
FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
SIR , Foreign Office, April 30, 1880.
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to transmit to you a
copy of a Despatch from Her Majesty's Minister at Washington , enclosing a printed copy
of a message sent by the President of the United States to the House of Representatives on
the 12th ultimo, relating to slavery in China ; and I am to request that in laying these
papers before the Secretary of State for the Colonies you will draw his attention to the
reports of Mr. Bailey, the United States Consul General at Shanghai, in which it is
alleged that slavery exists in the Colony of Hong Kong .
I am, &c.
The Under Secretary of State, (Signed) T. V. LISTER.
Colonial Office.
Enclosure 1 in No. 2.
MY LORD, Washington, April 12 , 1880 .
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith printed copies of a message which was
sent to the House of Representatives by the President, on the 12th ultimo, relating to
the existence of slavery in China, and to portions of the Chinese Penal Code concerning
expatriation.
A letter from Mr. Evarts to the President encloses copy of a letter from Mr. David
H. Bailey, United States Consul General at Shanghai , transmitting a report upon the
system of slavery prevailing in China, and giving extracts from the Chinese Penal Code
laying down the punishments inflicted upon slaves for certain offences .
Mr. Bailey includes in his Report some observations with regard to the existence of
slavery among the Chinese in the British Colony of Hong Kong, and in another letter
transmits a number of documents showing its continued existence in that Colony,
notwithstanding the efforts of the British authorities to abolish it.
In a recent debate in the House of Representatives upon a Bill for restricting Chinese
immigration into this country, Mr. Berry, a member from California, largely quoted
Mr. Bailey's Report, and made use of the argument that, if the British authorities had
not been able to prevent slavery from being practised in Hong Kong, there would be
great danger that, if an unlimited immigration of Chinese were allowed, it would be
followed by the prevalence of the same system of slavery in this country.
Mr. Bailey also gives in the enclosed Report an extract from the Chinese Penal
Code, laying down the penalties consequent upon the renunciation of allegiance ;
but Mr. Yung Wing, Chinese Minister to the United States, in a note to Mr. Evarts,
states that the section of the Penal Code quoted by Mr. Bailey refers only to cases
where conspiracies and overt acts of rebellion against the Government follow the
renunciation of allegiance, and not to emigration sanctioned by foreign treaties, which is
taken out of the category of treasonable acts, and is therefore beyond the scope of the
section in question .
I have, & c .
The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G.. (Signed) EDWARD THORNTON.
&c. &c. & c.
Q 2893.
58
Enclosure 2 in No. 2.
EXPATRIATION AND SLAVERY IN CHINA.
MESSAGE from the PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES, transmitting, in response to a
resolution of the House of Representatives, reports from the Secretary of State
in relation to slavery in China, and portions of the Penal Code concerning
expatriation .
March 12, 1880. - Referred to the Committee on Education and Labor,
and ordered to be printed.
Executive Mansion,
To the House of Representatives : March 11 , 1880.
I TRANSMIT herewith a Report, dated the 9th instant, from the Secretary of
State, with the accompanying papers, in answer to the resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 25th ultimo, requesting the President to transmit to that
body, if not deemed incompatible with the public interests, copies of such despatches
as have recently been received by the Secretary of State from the Consul- General at
Shanghai upon the subject of slavery in China, and those portions of the Penal Code
of China which forbid expatriation.
R. B. HAYES.
Department of State,
To the President : Washington, March 9, 1880.
THE Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the House of
Representatives of the 25th ultimo, requesting the President to transmit to that body,
if not deemed by him incompatible with the public interests, copies of such despatches
as have recently been received by the Secretary of State from the Consul- General at
Shanghai upon the subject of slavery in China, and those portions of the Penal Code
of China which forbid expatriation, has the honor to submit herewith the papers called
for by the resolution. In connection therewith there is also transmitted a copy of the
recent correspondence with the legation of China in this city in reference to the pro-
visions of section cclv. of the Penal Code as affecting emigration and the renunciation
of allegiance .
WM. M. EVarts.
Papers transmitted .
Mr. Baily to Mr. Payson , dated October 22, 1879. Mr. Bailey to Mr. Payson , dated
October 21 , 1879. Mr. Bailey to Mr. Payson , dated December 2, 1879. Mr. Evarts to
Mr. Yung Wing, February 17, 1880. Mr. Yung Wing to Mr. Evarts, March 2 , 1880 .
Mr. BAILEY to Mr. PAYSON.
(Received November 29, 1879. )
United States Consulate General,
SIR, Shanghai, October 22 , 1879.
I HAVE the honor to enclose a report I have thought fit to make upon the subject
of slavery in China, with enclosures containing extracts relating to the Chinese law of
slavery as translated by Sir George Thomas Staunton . His translation is , I believe ,
the only one extant and accepted by Chinese scholars as accurate and trustworthy.
I am under great obligations to Dr. H. Latham , of this office, for his valuable assistance
and research upon the subject of this Despatch.
If Chinese emigration to the United States is to continue and increase with slavery
or quasi slavery , and concubinage, inbred and permeating its every feature and organiza-
tion , so that they may be said to be an indissoluble part of its present system, is it not
a subject to which American statesmen should turn their attention with some degree
of anxiety ?
Is not this Chinese system of concubinage which is now being introduced into
America through Chinese emigration but a twin sister of polygamy, that other " relic
of barbarism " now so firmly rooted in the heart of the American continent, and toward
the extermination of which the Government is now bending its energies ?
I have, & c. ,
Hon. Chas . Payson, DAVID H. BAILEY,
Third Assistant Secretary of State, Consul General.
Washington, D.C.
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59
United States Consulate General,
Shanghai, China, October 22, 1879.
SLAVERY IN CHINA.
That slavery exists in China is known to every one who is at all familiar with the
institutions of this empire .
All of the prominent writers upon China and the Chinese, from the time of Marco
Polo to the present, mention slavery, but no one of them, so far as I know, gives its
legal or social status, or attempts to give any idea of the extent to which it prevails.
1 In view of the fact that China, with her vast population, is assuming more intimate
relations with the rest of the world, and in view of the increasing number of her people
who are now going out into other countries, and of the swarms that may go in the
future seeking labor, carrying with them their civilization and its institutions, I have
thought this subject of sufficient importance to the people and the Government of the
United States to warrant its thorough investigation , and a report thereupon to the
Department.
HISTORY OF CHINESE SLAVERY .
Slavery existed in the earliest period of Chinese history, but there, as in foreign works
on China, nothing is said as to its origin or development.
It may have originated here, as with all people in their primitive stages, in subju-
gation and conquest, or it may have sprung entirely from the organization of the Chinese
family.
This patriarchal family system gives the head of the family absolute power over
every member. It makes him the arbiter of the liberty and lives of all its members .
He may chastise, mortgage, sell , or even kill any or all of them.
The maxim is that " as the Emperor should have the care of a father for his people,
" a father should have the power of a sovereign over his family." ( Davis, " The Chinese,"
vol. 1 , page 288.)
To fully understand this maxim it must be borne in mind that the Chinese idea of a
sovereign is that of an absolute one, with no limit or restraint to his acts but the bounds
of human endurance .
V. Möllendorf, in an essay on Chinese Family Law, page 18, says :-
" As was the rule according to the Roman law of the time before Justinian, all persons
who depend on a pater familias, either grandfather, father, uncle, mother, or husband,
stand in China under patria potestas ; such persons are therefore either the wives and
daughters or more distant descendants on the male line.
" The patria potestas is the same as the domini potestas, the power of the master over
his slaves according to the ancient Roman law. The patria potestas over children,
whether legitimate or adopted , is unlimited.
" The father can do with them as he likes ; he may not only chastise, but even sell,
expose, or kill them."
The absolute power of the head of the family is therefore such that it amounts to
slavery.
It has become a custom for the poor to mortgage or sell their children to the rich,
conditionally or absolutely, in great numbers, under this law.
According to its nature the datio in adoptionem is, properly speaking, a sale (venditio)
to which only the consent of the pater familias is required." ( See V. Möllendorf's
Family Law of the Chinese, page 22.)
This is the testimony of nearly all those who have written of China. Van Möllendorf,
quoted above, says that E. H. Parker, of the British consular service , estimates that
50 per cent. of all families in China have children that have been acquired from other
families by adoption, or, to designate it more specifically, by purchase.
" As the adoption of children, and the purchase of inferior wives or concubines, is a
transaction of constant occurrence , and one in which the real parents lawfully may
and usually do receive a pecuniary consideration, it can scarcely be denied that the
sale of children in China is practically allowed ." (Note in section cclxxv., Staunton. )
The title of property in these children is contained in a bill of sale duly signed and
sealed, and in which the same term is used as in the purchase of horses, cows, or any
other species of property .
" The Chinese use the same term to indicate the sale and the purchase of children
and wives that they use when speaking of the sale and purchase of land, cattle, or
any description of property." (Doolittle's Social Life Among the Chinese, vol. 1 ,
page 209.)
60
I am inclined to believe that although the origin of Chinese slavery may have been
by capture in war, the same as in all barbarous ages of races of people , it owes its
existence and character, at the present time, to this patriarchal family system . But for
this, as the race advanced in civilization, and wars ceased, and the arts of peace were
cultivated, and laws for the preservation of life, property, and the rights of the
individual subject were framed, slavery, as originated by capture, must have died out.
Dr. Williams, in the " Middle Kingdom," in vol . 1 , pages 296, 297, and 298, shows
the extent and power of these patriarchal institutions of China, and by what influences
of the State and of education they have been perpetuated and strengthened.
Under this absolute Family Law, where a country is over- populated, and where the
imperative demands of consumption press the possibilities of production to the extreme,
where large masses of the people are but a step from starvation , and where there is
such a great difference in the conditions of classes of people, the necessities of the poor
and the inclinations of the rich would make the absolute and conditional sale of people
not only possible but probable : in fact, such is the daily result.
I may here quote Du Holde, vol. 1 , page 277, where he says :-
" Misery produces a prodigious multitude of slaves , or rather persons who mortgage
themselves with a condition of redemption -a thing very common with the Chinese-
for among the Tartars they are truly slaves.
" A great number of men and maid servants are so bound in a family, though there
are some to whom they give wages as in Europe .
" A man sometimes sells his son, and even himself and his wife , at a very moderate
price ; but, if he can, he chooses to pawn his family only. It often happens that a
great Tartarian mandarin or Chinese tartarized (that is, listed under Tartar banner) ,
who has a parcel of slaves for his servants, is himself a slave to some court-lord, to
whom from time to time he makes a present of considerable sums . A poor Chinese,
when he gives himself to a Tartarian prince, if he has merit, may hope to be a great
mandarin very soon ; but this is not so common under the present dynasty as formerly.
If he be deprived of his office he returns to his master to serve in certain honorable
functions.
" When rich folks marry their daughters they give them several families of slaves in
proportion to their wealth."
The head of the family may justify the absolute sale of a member by the fact that
the person, as the well-fed and clothed slave of a rich family, is better off than as a free-
man, where he daily feels the gnawings of hunger and shiverings of cold for want of the
commonest food and clothing.
Whatever may be the justification sought for by the individual parties to such sales
and purchases, and by a Government which allows such practices, the facts are that,
so far as all history goes, slavery by sale and mortgage has always existed and now
exists in all parts of China.
CHARACTER OF CHINESE SLAVERY.
There are four distinct classes of slaves :-
1. Slaves of the Imperial household .
2. Concubines .
3. Slaves held for labor.
4. Slaves held for purposes of prostitution.
The persons of the first class are eunuchs, and used exclusively in the Imperial
families. It is prohibited by law for any other persons to buy, rear, or use this class
of persons .
Section 379 of the Penal Code of China, as translated by Sir George Thomas Staunton,
reads :
"No private individual, nor any officer of Government, excepting only the princes of
the Imperial family, shall presume to educate castrated children in order to their being
employed as eunuchs in their domestic establishments. Every breach of this law shall
be punished with 100 blows, and perpetual banishment to the distance of 3,000 li ; and
the castrated children shall be sent back to the families whence they were taken or to
which they belonged ."
Mr. Steut of the Imperial Customs service, who has resided in Peking for some years ,
in a paper on eunuchs, read before the Asiatic Society in 1877 , gives an account of this
class :-
" In China, as elsewhere, eunuchs are in general made in order to qualify them to
act as palace servants, and occasionally as palace executioners. They may be kept
only by certain members of the Imperial family, and in the palaces of the eight here-
225
61
ditary princes whose ancestors assisted in establishing the present dynasty. The
Emperor has 3,000 in his service, exclusive of 18 castrated lamas , who act as domestic
chaplains. Each prince of the blood and Imperial princess is obliged to maintain 30,
and so on through the different grades, the number diminishing as the distance from the
head of the reigning house increases.
Every fifth year each prince supplies eight young eunuchs for the palace, but as this
contribution does not by any means meet the demand, the general public is called on
to send in adults or adolescents as candidates for the painfully-acquired honor of palace
employment. As a matter of fact, there is no dearth of persons willing to submit to
castration. Boys are compelled by their parents to offer themselves , while, as to adults,
men who are at once poor and lazy, are tempted by the certainty of an assured income,
with little or nothing to do for it, and men with a peculiar form of ambition are seduced
by the mystery and importance of the duties supposed to be confined to eunuchs.
" Thus it happens that at the present moment some of the eunuchs in Peking have
wives and families. But when a eunuch dies, he is buried, not with his family, whether
he has one of his own or not, but in a place specially set apart, whither, every spring
and autumn, a body of eunuchs repairs to offer those sacrifices which, in the ordinary
course of life, are offered by children to the manes of their fathers ."
In former times this class was an important class of persons. They had a large part
in the control of the Government. Under some of the emperors they had the entire
control of affairs. They formed conspiracies for the assassination of ministers, heirs to
the throne, and even of emperors, which were sometimes successful . Under the Tartar
rule, however, they have not been able to exercise much influence, but, from their
positions within the imperial palaces, they may at any time be the cause of important
changes .
The second class - Concubines.-This is a numerous class ; every man who is able to
buy and maintain them has one or more concubines. These are invariably the subject of
bargain and sale, and, as quoted above from Doolittle, there is a regular bill of sale
given, and the term " sale is used.
Davis, in " The Chinese, " vol. I., page 288, says :-
" A man is even able to sell his children for slaves, as appears from constant practice .
How completely the children of concubines pertain to the lawful wife is proved by this
1 passage in the drama of An heir in old age,' where, in addressing his wife, the old
man says, ' Seaon-mei is now pregnant ; whether she produces a boy or a girl, the same
will be your property ; you may then hire out her services or sell her, as it best
pleases you. ' The handmaids are in fact only domestic slaves."
The buying of young girls of poor people, and rearing and educating them to be sold
as concubines, is an extensive business.
The cities of Yangchow and Suchow are famous for furnishing great numbers of
concubines, for which purpose they bring up good handsome young girls, whom they
.
buy up elsewhere ; teaching them to sing, to play on music, and, in short, all sorts of
accomplishments belonging to young gentlewomen, with a view to disposing of them at
a good price to some rich mandarin. (Du Holde, vol. 1. , page 305. ) A concubine is
always a subject for sale or hire, with the exception, however, that if the original bill
of sale stipulated that she is sold only to be used as a concubine, she cannot be sold to
be a labor slave or to be a prostitute.
She has no voice in the management of the house ; she cannot control her own
children ; she is not only a slave to the passions of her master, but she is a slave to the
envy, jealousy, and hatred of the wife of the master.
She may be chastised by either, and may be made to do household work . This is
what she is liable to. Her ordinary lot is, however, far different. If her master is rich
she is dressed finely, loaded with jewelry, has several servants, usually . slaves , at her
service, and has a far easier life than the wife of the house.
There are no limits to the supply of female children for this purpose . The poor are
anxious that their female children, when sold, shall become concubines rather than
labor-slaves or prostitutes . This desire, no doubt, arises in part from the natural
parental solicitude that their offspring may be happy and prosperous, but in part also
from the fact that, as a concubine of a rich man, she can help her poor relatives.
The Emperor sets the example, and creates the fashion for his people in this matter.
Williams, in his " Middle Kingdom," vol. 1., page 318, says :-
" Every third year His Majesty reviews the daughters of the manchu officers , over
twelve years of age, and chooses such as he pleases for concubines . There are only
seven legal concubines, but an unlimited number of illegal ."
62
In all parts of China large numbers of the poor people either strangle, expose, or sell
their female children at birth. It is said by Doolittle, Abeel, Barrow, and Bowring
that this practice prevails to a frightful extent.
A writer in the China Review, vol . 2, page 55, July 1873-June 1874 , estimates that
of the entire number of female children born in certain provinces twenty-five per cent.
are thus disposed of. Many girls are sold at a later age when they begin to develope
uncommon beauty of features or forms.
The third class, that of general slaves, is also numerous. Wherever in the empire
there is poverty and wealth, there children are sold and bought. The females in this
class largely preponderate.
Male children cannot be so readily bought ; they are more profitable to the parents to
keep. There is a wide field of labour awaiting them at higher pay. They cost no more
to rear, and they perpetuate the family name, watch and care for the family tombs, and
burn incense and worship before the ancestral tablets.
A daughter, on the other hand, costs just as much to rear and educate as a son ; when
she marries she has to carry clothing, furniture, and presents with her, and she takes and
perpetuates the name of another clan, and worships before other ancestral tablets ;
therefore, she is not desired, and is to be gotten rid of as a burden . If there have been
three or four sons before, then a male child may be exposed or sold or given away at
birth. It is, however, in after years, when poverty has reduced the family to extreme
distress, that the sons, wives, concubines, and even the head of the family, are mortgaged
or sold. Male and female slaves labor in the fields, especially in the cotton, tea, rice,
and silk districts ; others are used in the manufacture of various goods. Large numbers
of all ages may be seen in the cities at all trades ; many are expert mechanics ; some
bound till certain debts are discharged, others for life.
I am informed by good Chinese authority that almost every house of any wealth has
|: several female slaves as house servants.
Inasmuch as the pater familias can transfer his absolute authority, "the authority of
the master over his slave," with the person, and inasmuch as the person so transferred
owes all the obedience and respect to the new pater familias that he did to the old , there
is little resistance as a slave.
In case there is, the law assists the master in enforcing obedience and respect ; and, at
the request of the master, will inflict punishment or assist in reclaiming fugitives.
There is abundant proof of this in the Penal Code of China, before quoted , viz., section
cxvi. :-
" If a female slave deserts from her master's house she shall be punished with 80 blows,
or with 100 blows if she contracts a marriage during such absence ; and in both cases
she shall be restored to her master.
"Whoever harbours a fugitive wife or slave, or marries them, knowing them to be
fugitives, shall participate equally in their punishment, except in capital cases, when the
punishment shall be reduced one degree."
The slave is bound under the severest penalties to be respectful and obedient to his
master and his family.
---
Same Code, section cccxxvii . :-
" A slave guilty of addressing abusive language to his master shall suffer death by
being strangled at the usual period . If to his master's relations in the first degree, he
shall be punished with 80 blows and two years' banishment. If to his master's relations
in the second degree, the punishment shall be 80 blows. If in the third degree, 70
blows. Ifin the fourth degree, 60 blows. In these cases, as well as in others, the
abusive language must have been heard by the person to whom it was addressed, and
such person must always be the complainant."
The master's right of property or interest in the slave seems to have been in view in
this last paragraph, as he need not complain. If the slave is valuable, and he does not
wish to lose him or his services for a time, he may, by virtue of the patria potestas,
punish him to any degree.
-
Same Code, section cccxiv. (part 8)
" The master or the relations of the master of a guilty slave may, however, chastise
such slave in any degree short of occasioning his death, without being liable to punish-
ment. Nevertheless, if a master or his aforesaid relations, in order to correct a dis-
obedient slave or hired servant, should chastise him in a lawful manner on the back of
the thighs or on the posteriors, and such slave or hired servant happen to die, or if he is
killed in any other manner accidentally, neither the master nor his aforesaid relations
shall be liable to any punishment in consequence thereof."
H
227
63
The penalty for using violence to the master or his family is the severest known to the
Chinese law. The first five paragraphs of the Penal Laws in section cccxiv. read :-
:—
" 1. All slaves who are guilty of designedly striking their masters shall , without
making any distinction between principals and accessories, be beheaded .
" 2. All slaves designedly killing, or designedly striking so as to kill, their masters,
shall suffer death by a slow and painful execution .
" 3. If accidentally killing their masters, they shall suffer death by being strangled at
the usual period .
" 4. If accidentally wounding, they shall suffer 100 blows and perpetual banishment
to the distance of 3,000 li , not being allowed, as under similar circumstances in ordinary
cases, to redeem themselves from punishment by a fine.
" 5. Slaves who are guilty of striking their master's relations in the first degree, or
their master's maternal grandfather or grandmother, shall be strangled at the usual
period . If more than one are concerned , the principal shall be strangled , and the rest
suffer the punishment next in degree. All slaves who strike so as to wound such persons
shall, without distinction between principals and accessories, be beheaded at the usual
period."
""
This slow and painful execution mentioned is better known as the " slicing process
of execution, or " the 10,000 cuts." Foreigners have witnessed it, and the description is
too horrible to recite.
Several sections of the Penal Code seem intended to separate the slave and free classes
as far as possible. It provides severe penalties for inducing a free person to marry a
slave, viz. (section cxv.) :-
" If any master of a family solicits and obtains in marriage for his slave the daughter of
a freeman, he shall be punished with 80 blows. The member of the family who gives
away the female in marriage shall suffer the same punishment, if aware that the intended
husband is a slave, but not otherwise.
" A slave soliciting and obtaining a daughter of a freeman in marriage shall also be
punished in the same manner ; and if the master of the slave consents thereto, he shall
suffer punishment less by two degrees. But if he, moreover, receives such freewoman
into his family as a slave, he shall be punished with 100 blows. Likewise, whoever
falsely represents a slave to be free, and thereby procures such slave a free husband or
wife, shall suffer 90 blows. In all these cases the marriage shall be null and void,
and the parties replaced in the ranks they had respectively held in the community."
The master is protected against any breach of trust or confidence placed in the slave
as a domestic .
Section ccclxx. reads :-
" All slaves or hired servants who have been guilty of a criminal intercourse with their
master's wife or daughter shall be beheaded immediately after conviction. When guilty
of a criminal intercourse with their master's female relations in the first degree, or with
the wives of the male relations of their masters in the same degree, they shall be strangled
after remaining in prison the usual period . In the above cases the punishment of the
woman, if consenting, shall be less only by one degree. When guilty of a criminal
intercourse with their master's more distant female relations, or with the wives of his
more distant male relations, they shall be punished with 100 blows and perpetual banish-
ment to the distance of 2,000 li . If guilty of committing a rape upon the latter persons,
they shall be beheaded after remaining in prison the usual period . Except in the cases
of rape, the punishment of a criminal intercourse with any of the inferior wives shall,
generally speaking, be less than in the case of principal wives by one degree."
And section ccclxxiii. reads :-
" A slave who is in any way guilty of a criminal intercourse with the wife or daughter
of a freeman shall be punished at the least one degree more severely than a freeman
would have been under the same circumstances. On the contrary, the punishment of a
freeman for having criminal intercourse with a female slave shall be one degree less than
in ordinary cases. When both parties are slaves, the criminal intercourse shall be
punished in the same manner as in the case of free persons .
On the other hand, any offence against a slave by freemen is less severely punished
than when it is committed against free persons. Doolittle, in " A Social Life among the
Chinese," vol. II., page 211 , says :
" The descendants of slaves are admitted to literary examination, which shows that
it is not considered to be so degrading to be a slave as some other callings-that of actors,
for instance, whose descendants for four generations are not allowed that privilege."
64
The same work and volume, pages 211 and 212 , gives some prices for which persons
were sold, which came under the observation of the author : -
" The sole reason in this part of China considered sufficient to justify the sale of a
child to be the slave of another, or of a wife to be the wife of some other man, is the
excessive poverty of parents or husband , without friends able and willing to aid. The
price varies according to the age, sex, appearance of the child , the character and the age
of the wife, the dearness of provisions, &c. , from a few dollars to several tens or a hundred
or two.
" In the year 1858 a man. at Fuchow sold his wife for about $20. Another man,
about the same time, offered his only son, a bright lad of five or six years, for sale for
$16 ; he was offered $ 10 by a man who wished to adopt him for his son ; which offer he
refused . Several years since, a lad who had been attending a missionary free school in
this place (Fuchow) was sold by his mother to be a play-actor. A friend saw a girl of
about sixteen or seventeen years old, not a year ago, offered for sale for $100 by her
parents, who had brought her from her native place, some eighty or one hundred miles
to the south of this. A bright girl of about twelve years old was sold by her parents not
long ago for about forty thousand cash (840) ."
A writer in the " China Review," vol . 2, page 55, says :-
" A female infant is worth but 100 cash or 10 cents, while a healthy boy two or three
days old will fetch $15."
The fourth class- Prostitutes . — Of this class there is little to be said, as all the laws
applicable to slaves generally apply with full force to them.
They are a numerous class, and are to be found anywhere in the small country villages
as well as in the larger cities. They form no inconsiderable per cent. of the whole
population. They are all, at the commencement of their career, slaves .
They are either rescued when exposed by their poor parents at birth, or bought later
in life for the purposes of prostitution .
The law, or custom older than any existing law, permits such traffic. It only inter-
feres to prevent a girl who has been bought for a wife, concubine, or labour slave, from
being used for purposes of prostitution ; and in violation of this prohibition the number
of blows is no more than for a petty theft.
In the crowded streets of cities, and in the more thinly-settled country regions, fine-
looking female children are kidnapped and carried to distant places, and sold to be raised
for those vile purposes . Even grown women, wives and young mothers, are carried away
and sold . Persons charged with the offence of kidnapping are often before the courts .
Children are bought by members of the prostitute class, and reared with a view of
making the most money out of them. They are consequently well fed, and many of the
female accomplishments, such as vocal and instrumental music, taught them ; they are
not overworked in childhood, as that would make them coarse and masculine.
When from twelve to fourteen years of age the physical part of their occupation
commences, the moral development having been going on from infancy from their daily
surroundings . For years after the age of puberty they are a source of income to their
owners ; and when, from advancing age, they are no longer attractive, they are allowed
to emancipate themselves at a small price, and they soon manage to buy two or three
small girls and then rear them.
-
And so the system ever revolves, the bond-woman becoming free only to become the
owners ofthe bound . Although the treatment of these little children is good so far as
food and work is concerned, many of them are unmercifully beaten by their owners.
The whole system is such as to develop all the worst traits of human character ; hence it
would be difficult to imagine a more depraved and vicious class of people.
NUMBER OF SLAVES.
Class No. 1. - Eunuchs. - From the use of this class being confined to the imperial
families, it is not believed that there are more than 20,000 in the empire.
Class No. 2.- Concubines. - It is impossible to arrive at anything like an accurate
estimate of the numbers of this class, as all the men of all the classes, who are able, have
one or more concubines ; and , as they can be purchased and maintained cheaply, it is
within bounds to say that one head of a family in five practises concubinage, and a man
with moderate wealth may have two or three, or even more. I therefore conclude that
there are one-fourth as many concubines as families. If the basis of calculating the
number of families be assumed to be the same as with us, and the population estimated
at 300,000,000, there are 60,000,000 families in China. Therefore, from the above,
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65
there must be 15,000,000 concubines in the empire, all property, -bought as such, held
as such, and liable to be sold as such.
Class No. 3.- Labor slaves. —I have no figures by which to arrive at the numbers of
this class. I am compelled to rely entirely upon the opinions of the most intelligent
natives whom I can reach. They estimate that one family in five holds slaves ; and as
the richer people have several, I have concluded that the labour slaves are one-fourth as
many as the number of families, or 15,000,000 . It is very probable that those sold
permanently and those mortgaged temporarily are many more than this number.
Class No. 4. - Prostitutes. - In a recent decision of Sir John Smale , Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of the British Colony of Hong Kong , he says that in a population of
120,000 Chinese in that Colony there are at least 10,000 slaves, and that some people
estimate the number at 20,000.
There is therefore at least one slave to every eleven freemen in that British colony in
spite of laws prohibiting slavery.
I have no other data from which to estimate the numbers of this fourth class . I am of
opinion, however, that this class considerably outnumbers the second class through the
whole empire, and, in su ming up these estimates, I conclude that in all there are from
forty to fifty million sla s of all classes in China.
The first and second classes are composed of persons of some intelligence and moral
character, judged by the Chinese standard .
The third and fourth classes are illiterate, immoral , and miserable creatures .
It would be difficult to imagine people more hopelessly situated than the 30,000,000 of
these two classes. They are so inextricably bound, that usually the only hope for release
from their misery and degradation is in death.
To recapitulate :-
1. Slavery does now and has prevailed extensively in China through her whole historic
period.
2. That the present slavery of China has grown out of the patriarchal family organiza-
tion.
3. That the law of the Chinese family gives the pater familias absolute power and
control over the members of the family.
4. That this power and authority are transferrible by mortgage or sale, and can be
exercised, when so transferred, as by the original head of the family.
5. That the slaves of China are divided into four classes, and that these four classes
comprise one-sixth of the whole population of the empire.
6. That, judging from the result of thirty-seven years' experience by the British
authorities in Hong Kong, there is vitality and strength enough in the Chinese family
law and in the system of Chinese slavery to enable them to defy foreign laws and courts
even in foreign countries.
DAVID H. BAILEY,
Consul General.
SECTION CXV.
If any master of a family solicits and obtains in marriage for his slave the daughter of
a freeman, he shall be punished with 80 blows. The member of the family who gives away
the female in marriage shall suffer the same punishment, if aware that the intended
husband is a slave, but not otherwise.
A slave soliciting and obtaining a daughter of a freeman in marriage shall also be
punished in the same manner, and if the master of the slave consents thereto he shall
suffer punishment less by two degrees ; but if he, moreover, receives such free woman
into his family as a slave, he shall be punished with 100 blows. Likewise, whoever
falsely represents a slave to be free, and thereby procures such slave a free husband or
wife, shall suffer 90 blows.
In all these cases the marriage shall be null and void , and the parties replaced in the
ranks they had respectively held in the community.
SECTION CXVI .
If a female slave deserts from her master's house, she shall be punished with 80 blows,
or with 100 blows if she contracts a marriage during such absence, and in both cases she
shall be restored to her master.
Whoever harbors a fugitive wife or slave, or marries them , knowing them to be fugitives ,
shall participate equally in their punishment, except in capital cases, when the punish-
Q 2898.
4
66
ment shall be reduced one degree. The marriage present in all such cases is forfeited to
Government.
When, however, the person harboring or marrying the fugitive is really ignorant of her
criminality, he shall not be subject to any punishment, and shall even be entitled to
demand the return of the marriage present.
SECTION CCLXXII .
If hired servants or slaves steal from their masters or from each other, the punishment
shall be one degree less severe than in ordinary cases of theft, and the thief shall not be
branded .
NOTE. -Notwithstanding the tenor of this article, it is provided in one of the supple-
mentary clauses that the punishment of slaves guilty of theft shall be at the least equal
to that of thieves in general, and one degree more severe when the offence is committed
by them in combination with strangers.
SECTION CCXCIV.
Whoever is guilty of killing his son, his grandson, or his slave , and attributing the
crime to another person, shall be punished with 70 blows and one and a half year's
banishment.
Any slave attributing, previous to burial, the death of his master to a person innocent
thereof, shall, if aware of the falsehood of the imputation, be punished with 100 blows
and three years' banishment.
SECTION CCCXIII.
A slave striking a freeman shall, proportionally to the consequences, be punished one
degree more severely than is by law provided in similar cases between equals. If the
blow produces entire disability and incurable infirmity, the offender shall be strangled .
If death ensues , the offender shall be beheaded .
A freeman striking a slave shall in like manner be punished less severely by one
degree than in the ordinary cases of the same offence ; but in the case of the death
of a slave in consequence of the injury received, and in the case of a slave having been
killed designedly, the offender shall be strangled. Slaves striking, wounding, or killing
one another shall be punished as already provided in ordinary cases between
equals .
In cases of stealing, and other similar offences, between free persons and slaves, the law
of diminution and aggravation of punishment shall not take effect.
Striking the slave of a relation in the third or fourth degree, but without producing
a cutting wound, shall not be punishable. If the blow produces any greater injury short
of occasioning death, the punishment shall be two degrees less severe than in ordinary
cases .
Striking the slave of a relation in the second degree shall be punished three degrees
less severely than in ordinary cases. If in either case the blow occasion death , the
offender shall be punished with 100 blows and three years' banishment ; if the blow prove
mortal, and has likewise been struck with an intention to kill, the offender shall suffer
death by being strangled.
In the case of killing accidentally, no punishment shall be required.
Striking the hired servant of a relation in the third degree, without producing a cutting
wound, shall not be punished.
SECTION CCCXIV.
All slaves who are guilty of designedly striking their master shall, without making any
distinction between principals and accessories, be beheaded .
2. All slaves designedly killing, or designedly striking so as to kill their masters , shall
suffer death by a slow and painful execution. If accidentally wounding, they shall
t
suffer 100 blows and perpetual banishmen to the distance of 3,000 li ; not being allowed ,
as under similar circumstances in ordinary cases, to redeem themselves from such punish-
ment by a fine.
NOTE . This part of the law denouncing punishment even in cases which are
admitted to have been purely accidental is in some degree modified in the supplemental
clauses .
Slaves who are guilty of striking their master's relations in the first degree, or their
master's maternal grandfather or grandmother, shall be strangled at the usual period.
If more than one are concerned, the principal shall be strangled, and the rest suffer the
punishment next in degree.
231
67
All slaves who strike so as to wound such persons shall, without distinction between
principals and accessories , be beheaded at the usual period.
3. If accidentally killing, the punishment shall be two degrees less severe than in the
case of intentionally striking such person. If accidentally wounding, the punishment
shall be another degree less severe than in the case of intentionally striking.
All slaves who are concerned in the crime of designedly killing such person shall suffer
death by a slow and painful execution. A slave who is guilty of striking, or striking and
slightly wounding, his master's relations in the fourth degree, shall be punished with
60 blows and one year's banishment. If guilty of striking his master's relations in the
third degree, he shall be punished with 70 blows and banishment for a year and a half.
If guilty of striking his master's relations in the second degree, the punishment shall be
80 blows and two years' banishment.
4. If a slave is guilty of striking any of his master's relations in the fourth degree so
as to produce a severe cutting wound, the punishment shall be one degree more severe
than it would have been if he had so wounded a free person in ordinary cases ; in the
case of a master's relation in the third degree, two degrees more severe ; and in the case
of a master's relation in the second degree, three degrees more severe.
5. If by these augmentations the punishment in any case become capital, the offender
shall be strangled at the usual period ; but if the wound occasion death, then,
whether there was originally a design to kill or not, all the slaves concerned shall be
beheaded.
6. If in a case of a slave having been guilty of theft, adultery, or any other similar
crime, his master, or some one of his nearest relations in the first degree, or his
master's maternal grandfather or grandmother, instead of complaining to a magistrate,
privately beats to death such slave, the person who so offends shall be punished with
100 blows.
7. If any such person as aforesaid beats to death or intentionally kills a slave
belonging to his family, who has not been guilty of any crime, the person so offending
shall be punished with 60 blows and one year's banishment ; and the wife or husband
as well as the children of such deceased slave shall be thereupon entitled to their
freedom .
8. The master or relations of the master of a guilty slave may, however, chastise
such slave in any degree short of occasioning his death, without being liable to punish-
ment.
Nevertheless, if a master, or his aforesaid relations , in order to correct a disobedient
slave or hired servant, should chastise him in a lawful manner on the back of the thighs
or on the posteriors, and such slave or hired servant happen to die, or if he is killed in any
other manner accidentally, neither the master or his aforesaid relations shall be liable to
any punishment in consequence thereof.
SECTION CCCXXVII.
A slave guilty of addressing abusive language to his master shall suffer death by being
strangled at the usual period.
If guilty of addressing abusive language to his master's relations in the first degree,
he shall be punished with 80 blows and two years' banishment. If addressing abusive
language to his master's relations in the second degree, the punishment shall be 80 blows ;
if in the third degree, 70 blows ; if in the fourth degree, 60 blows.
In these cases, as well as others, the abusive language must have been heard by the
person to whom it was addressed, and such person must always be the complainant.
SECTION CCCLXX .
All slaves or hired servants who have been guilty of a criminal intercourse with their
master's wife or daughters shall be beheaded immediately after conviction ; when
guilty of a criminal intercourse with their master's female relations in the first degree,
or with the wives of the male relations of their master in the same degree, they shall
be strangled after remaining in prison the usual period . In the above cases the punish-
ment of the woman, if consenting, shall be less only by one degree. When guilty of a
criminal intercourse with their master's more distant female relations, or with the wives
of his more distant male relations, they shall be punished with 100 blows and perpetual
banishment to the distance of 2,000 li.
If guilty of committing a rape upon the latter persons, they shall be beheaded after
remaining in prison the usual period ; except in the cases of rape, the punishment of a
65
criminal intercourse with any of the inferior wives shall , generally speaking , be less than 8
in the case of principal wives by one degree. E
a
SECTION CCCLXXIII.
A slave who is in any case guilty of a criminal intercourse with the wife or daughter
of a freeman shall be punished at the least one degree more severely than a freeman
would have been under the same circumstances.
σσ
On the contrary, the punishment of a freeman for having a criminal intercourse with
a female slave shall be one degree less than in ordinary cases.
When both parties are slaves, the criminal intercourse shall be punished in the same
manner as in the case of free persons. n
SECTION CCCLXXIX . f
ព
No private individual , nor any officer of Government, excepting only the princes of
he imperial family, shall presume to educate castrated children in order to their being fi
employed as eunuchs in their domestic establishments. Every breach of this law shall h
e punished with one hundred blows and perpetual banishment to the distance of three t
housand li ; and the castrated children shall be sent back to the families whence they
H.O
were taken or to which they belonged. n
NOTE. The number of eunuchs employed within the precincts of the imperial palace
as ever been considerable ; and from the access they must necessarily have at all times
othe sovereign, in the capacity of his domestic servants, it is not improbable that they
nay still continue to exert some degree of undue influence ; it does not, however, appear
hat they are ever likely to enjoy, under a Tartar dynasty, that exclusive and dangerous !
onfidence which, while the government was in the hands of native princes, was some-
e
imes reposed in them. a
SECTION CCLXXV . id
The offence of entrapping and carrying off for sale, or persuading to come away
oluntarily for the same purpose, the lawful slave of any person, shall be punished one
egree less severely than that of kidnapping a free person under similar circumstances.
Any person who sells his children or grandchildren against their consent shall be
unished with eighty blows.
NOTE. -Although it would appear from this restriction that the power of a parent
ver a child, according to this Code, is much less extensive than that allowed by the
acient Romans, yet as the adoption of children and the purchase of inferior wives or
oncubines is a transaction of constant occurrence, and one in which the real parents
wfully may, and usually do, receive a pecuniary consideration, it can scarcely be denied
at the sale of children in China is practically allowed .
NOTE. It is to be observed , indeed, that the slavery which is recognized and tolerated
y the laws of China is a mild species of servitude , and perhaps not very degrading in a sh
ountry in which no condition of life appears to admit of any considerable degree of be
ersonal liberty and independence .
di
Mr. BAILEY to Mr. PAYSON.
ad
United States Consulate General, Shanghai, ex
21st October 1879 . be
IR, (Received November 29.) ct
REFERRING to my Despatch dated 21st October, relating to " slavery in China," no
have the honor to enclose herewith a copy of section cclv. of the Penal Code of China,
translated by Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart. , F.R.S., which is the only translation be
ver made, and which is accepted as accurate and authoritative.
As my Despatch did not attempt to treat of penal servitude, I did not transmit re
is section with the enclosures relating to slavery.
It is, however, of so much importance at this juncture of Chinese emigration to the or
Jnited States, and relates so forcibly to the question of the citizenship of this class of pe
migrants, that I have thought it my duty to transmit it with a special Despatch for the
formation of the Department. ac
In this connection I have to remark that the patriarchal organization of society in the
bina is such as to make the enforcement of this law easy and effective . The elder
ember of the family, the pater familias, has almost unlimited control and power over inf
very member of the family, and he is held to a close accountability for the actions of ba
233
69
all members of his family ; not only is he held, but every other member of that family
has a responsibilty in the matter of the actions of all the other members, and is held
accountable for their conduct to a certain degree.
The whole system of family relations is so interlocked in domestic life, and interwoven
with duties and obligations to the State, that it may almost if not quite be said that one
is responsible for all, and all are responsible for one, in all the different branches of the
family, even to remote degrees and to remote countries.
The whole Chinese philosophy inculcates this absolute power of the pater familias
over all the members of the family to the farthest degree, the duty of the most implicit
obedience due by them to the head of the family, and of the accountability of all
members of the family, as well as the head, for the conduct of any one of the family.
When a Chinese subject goes out to any other country, all the other members of his
family remaining in China are so many hostages that he will return, and that he will
maintain bis allegiance to his country.
The horrible punishment which may lawfully be inflicted on these hostages is suf-
ficient to account for the rarity of instances of naturalization which has occurred in the
history of Chinese emigration to the United States . This is the text and the theory of
the law, and no doubt has been the practical operation of the law for ages.
I do not assert that the full vigor of this section of the Penal Code has not been
modified by the contact of China with western nations and modern ideas in the last two
or three decades.
I believe that foreign intercourse with China is gradually effecting great changes, and
will in time remove many of the objectionable and repulsive features of her practices and
systems ; but that change will be very slow, very methodical, for the whole Chinese
fabric of society and government is surrounded by so much that is hallowed by tradition,
experience, the long duration of the empire, the teachings of her sages and philosophers,
as to make her people the most inapt of all people to believe in the efficacy of modern
ideas and a new civilization.
I have , & c. ,
Hon. Charles Payson, DAVID H. BAILEY,
Third Assistant Secretary of State, Consul -General.
Washington, D.C.
PENAL CODE OF CHINA.
[ Translated by Sir GEORGE THOMAS STAUNTON, Bart . , F.R.S. ]
SECTION CCLV. - RENUNCIATION OF ALLEGIANCE.
All persons renouncing their country and allegiance, or devising the means thereof,
shall be beheaded ; and in the punishment of this offence no distinction shall be made
between principals and accessories.
The property of all such criminals shall be confiscated , and their wives and children
distributed as slaves to the great officers of State.
Those females, however, with whom a marriage had not been completed , though
adjusted by contract, shall not suffer under this law. From the penalties of this law,
exception shall also be made in favour of all such daughters of criminals as shall have
been married into other families. The parents, grandparents, brothers, and grand-
children of such criminals, whether habitually living with them under the same roof or
not, shall be perpetually banished to the distance of 2,000 li .
All those who purposely conceal and connive at the perpetration of this crime shall
be strangled .
Those who inform against and bring to justice criminals of this description shall be
rewarded with the whole of their property.
Those who are privy to the perpetration of this crime, and yet omit to give any notice
or information thereof to the magistrates, shall be punished with 100 blows, and banished
perpetually to the distance of 3,000 li .
If the crime is contrived, but not executed, the principal shall be strangled, and all the
accessories shall each of them be punished with 100 blows and perpetual banishment to
the distance of 3,000 li.
If those who are privy to such ineffective contrivance do not give due notice and
information thereof to the magistrates, they shall be punished with 100 blows and
banished for three years.
70
All persons who refuse to surrender themselves to the magistrates when required, and
seek concealment in mountains and desert places in order to evade either the perform-
ance of their duty or the punishment due to their crimes, shall be held guilty of an
intent to rebel, and shall therefore suffer punishment in the manner by this law provided.
If such persons have recourse to violence, and defend themselves when pursued by force
of arms, they shall be held guilty of an overt act of rebellion, and punished accordingly.
Mr. BAILEY to Mr. PAYSON.
United States Consulate General,
Shanghai, 2nd December 1879.
SIR, (Received 7th January 1880. )
REFERRING to my Despatch, of 20th October 1879, covering a paper on the
subject of " Chinese slavery," I now have the honour to transmit herewith some
documents in print, extracted from the Hong Kong and Shanghai newspapers, relating
to the same subject.
Enclosure No. 1 is the decision of Sir John Smale, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of Hong Kong, and shows that as long ago as January 1845 the British Government
notified all residents of that Colony by a royal proclamation that-
" Whereas the Acts of the British Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade and for
the abolition of slavery extend by their own proper force and authority to Hong Kong ;
this is to apprise all persons of the same, and to give notice that these will be enforced by
all Her Majesty's officers, civil and military, within this Colony."
That at the present time there are at least 10,000 slaves in this Colony, and that the ?
trade in human chattels has been continuously carried on under the very eyes of the
officials , and that posters can be seen daily in public places offering rewards for the
return of fugitive slaves.
Enclosure No. 2* is an editorial from the " Hong Kong Daily Press " upon this decision.
Enclosure No. 3 is an extract from a recent editorial in the " North China Daily
News " upon the same decision, and contains some references to the Family Law of China,
confirmatory of my expressed opinion that the basis of this slavery is cxclusively the
patriarchal family organisation.
Enclosure No. 4 is a memorial by more than ten thousand of the Chinese gentry,
merchants, and other people of Hong Kong, to the Governor of that Colony, praying
that the British laws relating to the slave trade and slavery be not enforced in Hong
Kong. This petition contains the most complete and convincing proof of all the views set
forth in my paper on that subject, and will render nugatory all denials of the existence
and prevalence of slavery in China, or any apology or vindication relating to its
character.
Enclosure No. 5* is an editorial from the " Hong Kong Daily Press " upon the petition.
I have to remark that this is not a new subject to me, and I would refer the Department
to my Despatches from Hong Kong, printed in the Foreign Relations Correspondence,
1871 , pages 194 to 221 inclusive, and in 1873, pages 203 to 208 inclusive, together with
others on file in the Department, for the views I then held upon the subject. What I
have since seen and learned only tends to make my convictions stronger that this is ļ
real slavery, and that it prevails in every part of the empire and among Chinese where-
ever they go.
I repeat that Chinese slavery is an outgrowth of the family organisation , which, so far
as we know, is as old as Chinese society itself.
I see no hope for its abolition here but in the remodelling of the whole family organiza-
tion,- a herculean task beyond the vision of the most advanced Chinese statesman of
this generation.
It is significant to note that the Colony of Hong Kong, where it is now settled by a
judicial decision of its Supreme Court, and by admissions in solemn memorial of all the
leading native residents, that Chinese slavery exists and ever has existed as an essential
feature of the Chinese political and social system, is the entrepôt for all the Chinese
emigration to the United States. And perhaps it is worth while to query whether that
emigration is not thus shown to have in its every lineament the taint of human slavery ?
I have, & c.,
DAVID H. BAILEY,
Consul General.
* Not printed.
235
71
Supreme Court, 6th October.
Before the Hon. Chief Justice, Sir JOHN SMALE.
DECLARATION by the CHIEF JUSTICE that SLAVERY in every form in HONG KONG is illegal
and must be put down. *
CHINESE PETITION on the SLAVERY QUEstion.
We give the following translation of a petition sent in to His Excellency the Governor
by the Chinese community on the slavery question .†
Mr. EVARTS to Mr. YUNG WING.
Department of State, Washington,
SIR, February 17, 1880.
IN a recent Despatch to this Department in relation to the emigration
of Chinese subjects from their own land to other countries, one of the United States
consuls in China transmitted, for the information of the Department, what purports
to be a transcript of section cclv. of the Penal Code of China, as translated by George
Thomas Staunton, F.R.S. , an English baronet, whose translation is reputed to be the
only one known.
The law referred to is in relation to the various punishments to be inflicted upon the
relatives of a Chinaman who may renounce his country and allegiance, and it may there-
fore be of interest to this Government, in connection with the large Chinese immigration
on the Pacific coast, to be conversant with the nature of this among other Chinese
statutes touching the general subject.
I have the honour, therefore, to inclose herewith a copy of the translated law as
received from the Consul, and to inquire whether the same correctly represents the law,
and whether it is understood to be now in force in all or any part of the dominions of
His Imperial Majesty.
Accept, Sir, the renewed assurance of my most distinguished consideration.
WM. M. EVArts.
[ Enclosure. ]
Section cclv. of the Penal Code of China, concerning the renunciation of allegiance.
Translated by Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart . , F.R.S.
Mr. YUNG WING to Mr. EVARTS.
Chinese Legation, Washington,
March 2, 1880 .
SIR, (Received March 2.)
YOUR Communication of the 17th ultimo , containing an enclosure of a translation
of section cclv. of the Penal Code of China , as translated by Sir George Thomas
Staunton, and inquiring " whether the same correctly represents the law, and whether it
" is now understood to be in force in all or any part of the dominions of His Imperial
" Majesty," was duly received , and I have the honour to say in reply that section cclv.
of the Chinese Penal Code referred to has no reference whatever to Chinese emigration
as contemplated in and sanctioned by the Burlingame treaty. Under the general head
of " Renunciation of allegiance," the specific acts so carefully defined, with their corre-
sponding punishments , point to the presumptive existence of a lesser or greater degree
of treasonable intent against the Government , and it contemplates conspiracies and overt
acts of rebellion against the Government as being the logical sequence of " renunciation
Vide Enclosure 1 in No. 1. † Vide Enclosure 10 in No. 1.
72
of allegiance," which antecedes them both in time and existence ; hence their classifi-
cation under that head or section . Emigration, as sanctioned by foreign treaties, is
taken out of the category of treasonable acts, and is therefore beyond the scope of the
section.
In Article V. of the Burlingame treaty we find this language, which is conclusive on
this point : " The United States of America and the Emperor of China cordially
86
recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to change his home and
"
allegiance."
Accept, Sir, the assurance of my most distinguished consideration .
YUNG WING.
No. 3.
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIB, Downing Street, 20th May 1880 .
1. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 23rd
of January, and enclosures, including the extrajudicial declaration of Chief Justice
Sir John Šmale as to " Slavery in Hong Kong."
2. The points presenting themselves for consideration in these papers are-
u. kidnapping,
b. brothel slavery,
c. purchase for adoption and domestic service, and
d. the legal effects of extrajudicial declarations, and the power of a
Judge to direct prosecutions.
3. I will not allude further to the last point than to say that, apart from the question
whether Sir John Smale's declaration is well founded in fact or in law, I should have
been glad if, instead of adopting this form of expressing his views, he had addressed, at
all events in the first instance, a memorandum to yourself, which would have equally
answered his purpose of bringing forward the subject, and would have had the advantage
of enabling you to verify the statements of fact in the memorandum before submitting it
for the instructions of the Secretary of State.
4. With regard to kidnapping, the provisions of the local law (Ordinances 4 of 1865,
and 2 of 1875) ought to be sufficiently stringent, but it appears that the practice being
on the increase certain Chinese gentlemen in November 1878 asked permission to form
themselves into an association for its prevention , and that a committee appointed by you
to inquire into the subject suggested that the petitioners should form themselves into a
company for the purpose under the " Companies Ordinance 1865." It does not appear
that anything further has been done in the matter, and I regret that so much valuable
time has been lost . I therefore request that you will at once thank these Chinese gentle-
men for their offers of assistance in repressing this form of crime, and that you will
allow them to form themselves into an association of whatever kind they desire . But,
in order to obtain official recognition, its rules and organisation should be made known to
and approved by the Colonial Government. You will, of course, give them such
assistance as you may find practicable, and especially you will instruct the police to
co-operate with them in bringing to justice all offenders whom they may succeed in
tracing. If the association as at first organised should be found insufficient. it will be
time then to consider what other steps should be taken.
5. With regard to brothels , I may observe that the inmates, being on British soil, are
and always have been legally free, that any complaints of ill-treatment or coercion by
their keepers at any time ought to have been dealt with by the authorities, and that the
proposed Chinese Association would have given useful assistance in discovering cases
of ill-treatment and of purchases of females for purposes of prostitution . But I desire to be
more precisely informed what is the law referred to in the 7th paragraph of your Despatch,
what steps you have taken to enforce it in order to secure the freedom of these women,
and with what results. I may remind you that the Brothel Commission have recom-
* No. 1.
237
73
mended, and that you have supported the recommendation, that " houses for the sole
use of Chinese should not be in any way subject to Government supervision." It is
desirable that I shall receive your reply on this point without delay, as I am not
satisfied that your present proceedings are altogether in accordance with that recommend-
ation, and I am consequently unable to form a conclusive opinion on the report of the
Brothel Commission.
6. The buying and selling of children for adoption or domestic service has been
condemned by Sir John Smale as slavery, and as contrary to Chinese customs as well as
to British law. But both Dr. Eitel and the Chinese gentlemen who, in November 1878,
petitioned to be formed into an association for the suppression of kidnapping, and of the
purchasing of females for purposes of prostitution, represent that there is no connection
between the practice of adoption or domestic service and slavery ; that ( contrary to the
statement of Sir John Smale) these institutions are recognised and prevalent in China ;
that the custom has its foundation in the most sacred religious obligations and in the
necessities of the poor ; that the children are well cared for, and when they reach maturity
are placed out in life or given in marriage , and become as free as any other Chinese
men or women ; that if the adoptive parent or master does not do his duty the actual
parents have their remedy ; and that the lot of the children is far happier than if they
had been left to their ordinary fate.
7. I wish to be informed whether these statements are admitted by yourself and the
Chief Justice as an accurate representation of the facts connected with the adoption of
children and domestic servitude in Chinese families, and for what period and to what i
extent the persons purchased for these purposes cease to be free agents.
8. I also desire to know what is the precise offence which in the 20th paragraph of your
Despatch you propose to prosecute, and whether you would prosecute it as an offence
at common law, or under any, and, if so, what statute or ordinance.
9. I request also that you will ask the Chief Justice to be good enough to specify the
Acts of Parliament which he considers have not been enforced in Hong Kong, and the
particular sections to which he alludes. It may become necessary to consult the law
officers on the subject, and I therefore wish to be sure that I am in possession of the
exact views of yourself and of the Chief Justice. I feel at liberty to ask Sir John Smale
for this information, seeing that his declaration, although given from the Bench, was not
a judicial decision upon a question at issue before him, and did not proceed upon par-
ticular facts ascertained in evidence, nor upon the argument of counsel, and that I am
therefore not precluded from inviting his assistance, which I might have felt some
difficulty in doing had the declaration formed part of an authoritative judgment of the
Court.
I have, & c. ,
Governor Sir J. Pope Hennessy. KIMBERLEY.
No. 4.
COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.
SIR, Downing Street, 5th June 1880.
I AM direct b t E o K t a t r o y l
ed y he arl f imberley o cknowledge he eceipt f our etter
of the 30th April , * forwar a copy of a Despat from Her Majest
y's
Minist a
er t
ding ch
Washi , with enclos , relativ to slaver in China ; and in reply I am to transm ,
ngton ures e y it
for the inform of Earl Granvi , a copy of a Despat + which has been recentl
ation lle ch y
addres t t G o H K o t s .
sed o he overnor f ong ong n he ubject
I am , & c . ,
The Under Secretary of State, JOHN BRAMSTON.
Foreign Office.
* No. 2. † No. 3.
Q 2893.
74
No. 5.
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR, Downing Street, 30th June 1880.
SINCE I had the honour of addressing you in my Despatch ofthe 20th May,* I have
noticed the case of Cheong Sin Lin and two other Chinese , relative to the sale of a
male child, reported in the " Hong Kong Daily Press " of the 27th April last.
2. It is there stated that " the police have received orders not to prosecute in these
" cases until the authority of Government has been received," and I shall be glad if you
will inform me what is the ordinance or other law which confers jurisdiction upon the
magistrate in such cases, and what are the reasons why special anthority is to be
obtained for such prosecutions instead of their being undertaken in the ordinary course.
I am, & c. ,
Governor Sir J. Pope Hennessy. (Signed) KIMBERLEY.
Enclosure in No. 5.
" Hong Kong Daily Press," 27th April 1880.
Alleged PURCHASE and SALE of a MALE CHILD .
¡
CHARGE WITHDRAWN.
Cheong Sing Lin, Lam A-sz, and Lau Asai were charged with trafficing in the
purchase and sale of a male child, seven years of age, named Chung Tai, at Yow Ma
Tee, in October last.
Inspector Cameron said : -I am an inspector of police in charge of Yow Ma Tee. I
saw the child in court in the possession of the third defendant. From inquiries made, I
ascertained that she had purchased him from his parents, the first and second prisoners.
for $26. They admitted having sold , and she having bought, the boy. She produced
the stamped receipt in court for the money. Since making the charge I have learnt that
the police have received orders not to prosecute in these cases until the authority of
Government has been received . I therefore ask to be allowed to withdraw the charge.
The defendants were ordered to enter into their personal recognisance in $100 each to
appear at this court at any time they may be called on to answer the above charge with in
the next twelve months from this date.
No. 6.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL
OF KIMBERLEY.
(Received 9th August 1880. )
Government House, Hong Hong,
MY LORD, 23rd June 1880 .
IN the Despatch of the 20th ultimo, relating to kidnapping and similar
offences affecting the freedom of Chinese women and children, your Lordship desires
me to thank the Chinese gentlemen of the Colony who offered their assistance to the
Government, and wished to form a Society for checking such crimes ; and you instruct
me to allow them to form themselves into a Society or Association, of whatever kind
they desire, with that object, subject to the approval of the Colonial Government.
2. Your Lordship's decision on this point will, I have no doubt, be received with
great satisfaction by the whole community, as it has been by myself and my advisers.
* No. 3.
239
75
The Chinese gentlemen in question have already expressed much gratification' at finding
their views and labours appreciated by Her Majesty's Government.
3. In connection, however, with the formation of such a Society, a slight misconcep-
tion has arisen, for which I am probably to blame. Your Lordship says, in the Despatch
of the 20th of May 1880, " It does not appear that anything further has been done in
" the matter (the offer of the Chinese to form themselves into a Society for the Pro-
" tection of Women and Children) , and I regret that so much valuable time has been
" lost." In my Despatch of the 23rd of January last I ought to have mentioned
that, whilst awaiting the decision ofthe Secretary of State on the specific proposal therein
submitted, I had taken the responsibility of allowing these Chinese gentlemen to constitute
themselves provisionally and informally into a Society of the kind ; and from time to
time the local Government have obtained practical assistance from them. For instance,
in the enclosed papers your Lordship will see that Mr. Consul Giles, writing from
Amoy on the 30th of April, calls the attention of the Hong Kong Government to a
suspicious case in which a child was sent to this Colony. After a reference to the head
of the police and the emigration officer, the case was put, on the 10th of May, before the
Chinese Society for the Protection of Women and Children ; the Attorney General
advised that the child should be detained (though he did not think that a case of kid-
napping had been made out) pending the enquiries of the Society . Those enquiries
elicited all the necessary facts. Mr. Fung Ming Shan and the other gentlemen of the
Society were duly thanked in a letter from the Acting Colonial Secretary on the 31st of
May, and in a few days after the child was restored to the custody of his relatives.
4. The rules and organisation of the Society have been under the consideration of
Mr. Ng Choy, and they will be submitted before long to Mr. O'Malley, the Attorney
General, for official recognition .
I have, &c. ,
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
&c. &c. &c.
Enclosure in No. 6.
CHINESE SOCIETY for the PREVENTION OF KIDNAPPING and the PROTECTION OF WOMEN
AND CHILDREN.
ACTING CONSUL, AMOY, to ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
H.B.M.'s Consulate, Amoy,
SIR, 30th April 1880.
THE enclosed petition was put into my hands so close upon the departure of
the S.S. Kwangtung to Hong Kong, and of the S.S. Fokien to Foochow, that I have
only had time to glance at it. The circumstance of the case seem so suspicious that
s
I have allowed the child to remain in charge of Captain Ashton , of the Fokien , and the
alleged guardian of the child to be at large upon bail , pending advices from Hong Kong ,
which you might possibly forward me by telegram before the return of the Fokien .
The change in the character in the petition to is worthy of note .
I have, &c. ,
The Honourable (Signed) H. A. GILES,
The Colonial Secretary, Acting Consul .
Hong Kong.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
The Acting Captain Superintendent of Police and the Emigration Officer can enquire
and report what should be done.
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
2nd May 1880.
No. 3.
M
76
MINUTE by the ACTING CAPTAIN- SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE.
1 think it well that Dr. Eitel should see the father, and hear his statement.
(Signed) C. V. CREAGH,
8th May 1880.
REPORT by Dr. EITEL.
I have the honour to report that after seeing the alleged father of the little boy,
Au Múi, mentioned within, also So Ling and the shopkeeper who stood security, I
found that the story they have to tell tallies with that given in the statement which
Mr. Creagh forwarded . The alleged father of the little boy gave as the reason why he
wished to give his little boy to So Ling as an adoptive child, that he was going to
Annam, and that, as a widower, he could not provide for the boy.
I then asked the shopkeeper who is engaged in the Nam Pak Hong business to
bring me a written statement of all the particulars of the case after submitting it to
the principal members of the Nam Pak Hong Guildhall Committee for their opinion.
This was promised, but I have not received the paper yet.
To-day, acting with the approval of the Acting Colonial Secretary, I went on broad
the New Fokien, and had the boy handed over to me, and, after communicating with
the Tung-wá Hospital Committee, and the Chinese Society for the Protection of
Women and Children, sent the boy to the Tung-wá Hospital, where he will be kept until
His Excellency the Governor decides the matter.
I shall forward the papers from the shop which stood security, and the report which
will be presented after due enquiry by the Society for the Protection of Women and
Children, as soon as I receive the papers . Meanwhile, I place the above-stated facts on
record for the information of the Government.
(Signed) E. J. EITEL.
10th May 1880.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
Approved (as to the reference to the Chinese Society for the Protection of Women
and Children, and detention of the child in the Tung-wa Hospital) .
To the Attorney General (as to legal aspect of the case) .
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY,
11th May 1880.
MINUTE by the ATTORNEY GENERAL .
It appears to me that this is no case of kidnapping, and there is nothing that would
warrant a prosecution for that offence. There will probably be no risk in detaining the
child pending the enquiries of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children.
But it is clear that the father meant to give his child for adoption ; and I do not see
how the child could be detained from him, if he should come himself and claim it.
(Signed) E. L. O'MALLEY,
May 12th, 1880 . Attorney General.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY The Governor.
Act according to foregoing opinion.
( Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY .
14th May 1880.
241
77
MINUTE by the ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
To await report from the Society.
(Signed) FREDERICK STEWART,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
REPORT by Dr. EITEL.
Thanks to the detective employed by the Chinese Committee for the Protection of
Women and Children, I now enclose what I believe to be papers revealing the real truth
in the case, viz. , Enclosures marked B. , C., and D. A careful enquiry into the case on
the basis of these papers will leave no doubt as to the real merits ofthe case.
(Signed) E. J. EITEL.
27th May 1880.
Enclosure B.
(Translation .)
Careful enquiry shows that the boy sent here by order of His Excellency the Governor
is of the surname U and called Múi, 7 years of age, and a native of the Sam Shúi District.
His father, Ú A-pún, was killed by a fall in the Sugar Refinery in the Ting Cháu year
(1877). His mother, of the surname Fok, died in the Moyan year ( 1878). There are
three brothers left, the eldest of whom, called Ú A-lam, was brought up by his adoptive
brother. The younger brother, Ú Sai, was brought up by a cousin , called Ú Shun.
The boy above mentioned used to live either with his uncle Ú I, or with his cousin
Ú Shun. In present year, on the 17th day of the 3rd moon (25th April 1880), his
cousins U Shan and ÚTsui took the boy with them to sacrifice at the tomb (of his
father ?) , and after that he went to U Tsui's place, and had his dinner with him . After
the dinner the boy went himself to his uncle U I. On the 29th day of the 3rd moon
(7th May 1880 ) his cousin Ú Shun, finding that both the boy and his uncle Ú I had
disappeared, went to police station. As to how the boy was sold, no particulars are
known. His cousin Ú Shun resides at Sam Shap Kan ( Astor Buildings) No. 3, T'ung
On Lane, on the ground floor.
Translated by
'
(Signed) E. J. EITEL .
27th May 1880 ,
Enclosure C.
(Translation.)
As to the boy who was lately brought back from Amoy, I find that he himself says
he is Aú A-múi. But I find now that he is in reality U A-múi, 7 years old, a native
of Sam Shúi, and has neither father nor mother. There is an uncle U Ai, who was
formerly maintaining himself as a locksmith at Sai Ying-pún. I know not where he is
now. U A-múi has one elder and one younger brother. The elder brother is called
A Lam, 9 years old. His younger brother is called Sai-mui, 5 years old. Both are
still in Hong Kong. There is also a cousin Ú A-shun, 42 years old, an employé in the
Taicheung foreign clothes (washerman's ?) shop in Low Gough Street. There is also
an adoptive mother (step-mother ?) called A Ngan, who lives at Sam Shap Kau (Astor
Buildings) at No. 3, T'ung On Lane, on the ground floor. I find that U A-mui was
formerly either living with his uncle, or with his cousin, or with the adoptive mother
(step-mother ?) and thus brought up. Unfortunately, on the 17th day of the 3rd moon
(25th April 1880) the brothers went to the coffee plantation (at West Point or at
Wong-nel-chong ?) On the 18th day (26th April 1880) the boy had his dinner in the
evening with his cousin Ú Tsú, after which he was never seen again. On the 28th day
of the 3rd moon (6th May 1880) it was said that a notification was put up at the police
78
station. Accordingly on the 29th day (7th May 1880) Ú A-shun made a report at the
police station, and said U A-múi had been lost. I find now that U A-múi's uncle Ú Ai
has gone nobody knows where. I think that most likely Ai sold the boy to those
Fohkien people to be their adoptive son. But I do not know it for certain. I now send
you what I have found out so far as to reliable facts, and submit it all to your inspection.
As to what should be done in the case, I await the decision of the Government.
(Signed) FUNG MING-SHÁN.
13th day of the 4th moon ( 21st May 1880).
Translated by
(Signed) E. J. EITEL.
27th May 1880.
Enclosure D.
(Translation.)
DEAR SIR,
I HAVE acquainted myself with the contents of your letter commissioning me to
enquire into the case of U A-múi. I have now made careful detailed enquiries, and
herewith state the facts, which are reliable. Please report the matter to the Government
Offices, so that the boy may soon return home, as his cousin and aunt are much distressed
about the matter. The boy himself also is very desirous to return home.
Yours faithfully,
To Mr. Ming-shan. (Signed) LOK CHIN-WING.
Translated by
( Signed) E. J. EITEL .
27th May 1880.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
Thank the Society for the Protection ofWomen and Children ; and as to the custody of
the child, refer to the Attorney General.
J. POPE HENNESSY.
31st May 1880.
ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY to MR. FUNG MING SHÂN.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hong Kong,
SIR, 31st May 1880.
I AM directed by the Governor to request you to convey to the Society for the
Protection of Women and Children , His Excellency's thanks for the information you have
elicited , and furnished him with, regarding the child Amui sent down from Amoy.
I have, & c. ,
FREDERICK STEWART,
(Signed)
Fung Ming-shán, Esq. Acting Colonial Secretary.
MINUTE by the ATTORNEY GEneral,
I think the proper course would be to restore the boy to the custody of his cousin
and aunt mentioned in Lok Chin-wing's letter ; the aunt mentioned in that letter,
being, I presume, the same person as the stepmother A-ngan mentioned in Fung Ming-
shan's report.
( Signed) E. L. O'MALLEY,
June 1st, 1880. Attorney General.
243
79
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
Act accordingly.
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
1st June 1880.
MINUTE by the ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Will Dr. Eitel have the goodness to take the necessary steps for the restoration of
the boy to the custody of his cousin and aunt ?
(Signed) FREDERICK STewart,
2nd June 1880. Acting Colonial Secretary.
MINUTE by Dr. EITEL.
Done.
(Signed) E. J. EITEL.
10th June 1880.
No. 7.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL
OF KIMBERLEY.
(Received August 9, 1880.)
Government House, Hong Kong
MY LORD, June 23, 1880.
WITH reference to that portion of your Lordship's Despatch of the 20th of May,*
referring to paragraph 7 of my Despatch of the 23rd of January 1880,† on brothel
slavery in Hong Kong, I have the honour to report that in my opinion the existing law
against slavery, if properly enforced , is quite sufficient to secure the real freedom of
these women.
2. One of the evils of the brothel legislation in this Colony is that it substituted, to
all intents and purposes, a new law instead of ordinary enactments and the common law,
for dealing with prostitution, a new tribunal (until 1876) for administering the law,
and a small number of low-class officials, called Inspectors of Brothels, in lieu of the
ordinary police force.
3. As the late Mr. Charles May, who was for many years senior police magistrate,
pointed out, the brothel keepers looked on the brothel inspectors as their protectors.
Other witnesses before the Commission refer to the official authority the Government
license gives to these keepers ; and a late Acting Registrar- General, Mr. Lister, speaks
of the keepers as a horrible race, cruel to the last degree.
4. I have no hesitation in recommending that this real or supposed official status,
and this protection by Government officers, should be withdrawn from such persons, and
that they should be dealt with under the ordinary law. With that purpose in view, I
instructed the head of the police to let it be made known that any cases of the detention
of women against their will in such houses would be dealt with by the police in the same
way as a case of robbery or assault in such houses, and that the freedom of the inmates
would not be left in future to the limited and suspicious jurisdiction of the inspectors of
brothels.
5. Furthermore, the Chinese Society for the Protection of Women and Children was
consulted on the subject by Dr. Eitel, at my request. These gentlemen, as your Lord-
No. 3. † No. 1.
80
ship anticipates, readily promised their assistance. Indeed the existence of the Society
has already had a beneficial effect.
I have, &c. ,
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
& c. &c. &c.
No. 8.
The RIGHT HON . THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR, Downing Street , August 27, 1880 .
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 23rd
June, relating to the formation of a Chinese Society for the Protection of Women and
Children .
I shall be glad to receive copies of the rules when they have been revised by the
Attorney General .
I have, &c. ,
Governor Sir J. Pope Hennessy. (Signed) KIMBERLEY.
No. 9.
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR, Downing Street, September 29, 1880.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 23rd
Junet, on the subject of brothel slavery .
2. I have read this Despatch with some feeling of disappointment , as it does not
appear to me to meet the real difficulties of the subject.
3. You state that " the existing law against slavery, if properly enforced, is quite
" sufficient to secure the real freedom of these women ; " and again, " that any cases
" of the detention of women against their will in such houses would be dealt with by
" the police in the same way as a case of robbery or assault in such houses." But it
need scarcely be pointed out that the detention of a prostitute in a brothel against her
will is an exceptional occurrence, for which the legislation introduced by Sir A. Kennedy
in 1873 and 1875 effectively provides whenever evidence is obtainable.
4. The question, how to deal with what is termed brothel slavery, raises much wider
issues. The practices known under that name arise out of certain pecuniary trans-
actions habitually spoken of as purchase and sale, -transactions well understood, but very
difficult to prevent ; the result of which is that young women are compelled to live a
life of degradation and practical slavery, although not under actual personal restraint.
Something more is therefore needed than police interference confined to cases of
forcible detention ; and the difficulty which has to be met is that of providing some
means for preventing this abominable traffic in women who are bought elsewhere in
order to be made prostitutes in Hong Kong, or are virtually purchased in the Colony
for that purpose, and for giving protection in the Colony to the women themselves.
It is generally admitted that the personal liberty of these women is not directly
interfered with to any very serious extent ; and when your Despatch of the 23rd
January last, dealing with the question of slavery, was received, stating that you had
given orders " that the law, whatever may be the consequence to the brothel system,
should be strictly enforced so as to secure the freedom of these women ," it was
hoped that you had discovered some method of checking this traffic in women, and of
* No. 6. † No. 7. No. 1.
245
81
dealing with the whole subject of brothel slavery in a practical manner ; and you were
asked by means of what existing law you were enabled to attain this most desirable
object.
5. I am afraid, from the tenour of your reply now under acknowledgment, that I
must come to the conclusion that you have not yet fully appreciated the peculiar
difficulties surrounding this question, and that you have not formed any distinct plan
for grappling with this long-standing evil. The numerous Despatches which have been
received from you on this subject have reached no further than to point out the abuses
connected with the old system of inspection, and especially with the employment of
informers. I give you full credit for having lost no time in putting an end to the
revolting practices which had arisen from the employment of these informers ; but this
measure was taken by you as long ago as the end of 1877 ; and that particular portion
of the subject, having been finally disposed of, need not be further referred to in your
Despatches . In dealing with the general question, you do not appear to me to recognize
sufficiently that the establishment of the system of licenses and of inspection was a
police measure intended to give to the Hong Kong Government some hold upon the
brothels, in the hope of improving the condition of the inmates, and of checking the
odious species of slavery to which they are at present subjected .
6. Mr. Labouchere, in his Despatch of the 27th August 1856, says, " the Colonial
" Government has not, I think, attached sufficient weight to the very grave fact that
" in a British Colony large numbers of women should be held in practical slavery for
cc
purposes of prostitution, and allowed in some cases to perish miserably of disease in
" the prosecution of this employinent, and for the gain of those to whom they suppose
" themselves to belong. A class of persons who by no choice of their own are
"C
subjected to such treatment have an urgent claim on the active protection of
" Government. I am not at present prepared to say, and I wish you seriously to
consider, in what shape and to what extent it is practicable to give this protection.
" But I do not see how it can be given at all till the establishments in which such
" practices are supposed to exist are brought under the eye, and in some measure
" under the control , of Government. On these grounds, therefore, independently of
" those which have been pressed upon you by Sir J. Stirling and others, I think that
" these houses of ill-fame and their inmates should be registered, and subjected to
"6
police regulations , in the first instance, of a sanitary character ; that a strict medical
86
inspection should be enforced , and that all diseased persons should be removed to
66
hospitals and placed under treatment. The expense of their treatment should be
" paid either by the public, or, if possible, by the persons from whose control they are
" taken ; against whom, I will here observe, rather than their unfortunate instruments,
" the penal provisions of the law should be mainly directed . A law framed on these
principles, besides the direct effect it would have on the public health, would furnish
" some immediate protection to those who are the first victims of the present system ,
" and would facilitate such further measures as the Government might deem it expedient
" to take hereafter. " The same views were again expressed in his later Despatch
of the 11th August 1857 * , and were the grounds upon which the large powers contained
in section 7 of the Ordinance 12 of 1857 were given to the police as distinct from
the Colonial Surgeon. These humane intentions of Mr. Labouchere have been
frustrated by various causes , among which must be included that the police have from
the first been allowed to look upon this branch of their work as beneath their dignity,
while the sanitary regulation of the brothels appears from recent correspondence to
have been almost entirely disregarded . It is now proposed to destroy the machinery
which was intended to ameliorate the condition of the women ; but before abandoning
the present system it is necessary to consider carefully what can be put in its place,
since otherwise the evils pointed out by Mr. Labouchere will be left without a remedy.
As you have yourself recommended this step, it was reasonable to expect that, with the
advantages which you possess of local observation and experience, you would be pre-
pared , if not to submit a detailed plan for the future protection of these unfortunate
women, at all events to offer valuable suggestions for the formation of such a plan.
Notwithstanding the attention which you have very properly bestowed on the subject,
I cannot say that I have found in your Despatches hitherto received much information
of this kind, and as the question cannot be left any longer in its present position I
must proceed to deal with it, as far as may be possible, with the materials now at my
• Not printed.
11 9892
82
disposal. I shall do so without any avoidable delay, but it will, I fear, still be some
little time before I can communicate to you my views.
I have, &c.
Governor Sir J. Pope Hennessy , (Signed) KIMBERLEY.
&c. &c. &c.
No. 10.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the RIGHT HONOURABLE THE
EARL OF KIMBERLEY. (Received October 14, 1880.)
Government House, Hong Kong,
MY LORD, September 3, 1880.
1. I HAVE the honour to lay before your Lordship some further papers relating to
kidnapping and so-called slavery in Hong Kong .
2. The letters and minutes in these papers explain the questions your Lordship put to
me in the Despatch of the 30th of June 1880. *
3. Having called for a careful report from the police magistrates and the head of the
police on a statement made by the Chief Justice as to the alleged incapacity or inaction
of the police, I referred the papers to the Attorney General, who, on the 5th of July
1880, expresses the opinion that those officers have acted correctly, and that there is no
foundation for the charge of incapacity or inaction.
4. I am happy to say that, in forwarding the criminal calendar on the 7th of July 1880,
the Chief Justice, says :-
" The diminished number of serious crimes in the Colony is as creditable to the police
as it is satisfactory to the public."
In the same letter the Chief Justice expresses his satisfaction at the proposal ( which
your Lordship has sanctioned ) † of the Chinese community to assist in putting down
kidnapping .
5. With reference to what your Lordship says in paragraph 6 of the Despatch of
29th July 1880 , the remark I have just quoted of the Chief Justice as to the diminu-
tion of serious crime, is confirmed by a report just received from one of the acting police
magistrates, which I have the honour to enclose for your information. The most recent
reports of the police officers to the same effect were enclosed in my Despatch of
the 16th ultimo . ‡
I have , & c . ,
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley. (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY .
&c. & c. &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 10.
FURTHER PAPERS relating to KIDNAPPING and so-called SLAVERY in HONG KONG.
The Supreme Court, Hong Kong,
SIR, June 17 , 1880 .
You will have received from the Registrar the Criminal Calendar , sessions for
May 1880 .
Yong A-ip was, in case No. 3, charged with extortion, but that was properly aban-
doned , and in case No. 12 he was charged with obtaining money under false pretences ,
viz ., pretending that Mulgraves , inspector of nuisances , required bribes , which he, on
such false pretences , obtained and kept . It came out that Mulgraves , through his wife ,
said , " We are Government officials , and cannot take bribes ." Mulgraves brought the
matter to the notice of the Executive . I recommend him to the favourable consideration
of his Excellency the Governor .
In case No. 8, Ch'an A- leng was charged with unlawfully and by fraud taking away
a girl 14 years of age from the Colony for the purposes of emigration. The evidence
showed a case of taking her to Singapore for the purpose of selling her there as a
prostitute.
* No. 5. † No. 3. + Not printed.
247
83
This case was an instance of the inherent practice of the Chinese to sell young girls.
Hatred of the fate intended for her and unusual energy in the girl alone saved her.
In passing sentence in this case, I took occasion to express my despair that any
amelioration of the appalling system I have laid open would be produced , seeing that of
the 10,000 cases admitted to be existing in the Colony of domestic slavery (or bondage,
as Dr. Eitel, making a distinction without a difference, prefers to call it) , not one case
has, so far as I see, been brought by the police before the magistrates, and that of the
sales by parents of their children, admitted to be common, I find one only has been
brought before a magistrate, and then after it was proved it was abandoned by the
inspector, he alleging as his sole ground for doing so that he was forbidden to prosecute.
The evils within this Colony which I have denounced remain unchecked, owing to the
incapacity or inaction of the police.
I beg respectfully to bring these facts to the notice of his Excellency the Governor,
and to disclaim all responsibility on the judges that the grave state of things which has
been exposed remains and promises to remain unchecked.
I have, &c. ,
The Honourable Dr. Stewart, JOHN SMALE,
Acting Colonial Secretary , Chief Justice.
&c. &c. &c.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE Governor.
To the police magistrates and the head of the police for a careful report as to the
facts. Then to the Attorney General for his opinion.
June 17, 1880. J. POPE HENNESSY.
MINUTE by the ACTING POLICE MAGISTRATE.
Magistracy, Hong Kong,
July 2 , 1880 .
I HAVE read the letter of his Honour the Chief Justice addressed to the Honourable
the Acting Colonial Secretary, calling attention of the Government to the existence of
the system what is popularly termed the " domestic slavery " in this Colony, and com-
plaining of the inaction of the police to suppress it.
In accordance with the minute of his Excellency the Governor thereon calling for a
report from the police magistrates, I have the honour to state that since the short time
I have been on the magisterial bench it is natural that I have not acquired so much
experience as that of my colleague, but from what I have seen I would venture to say
that cases arising directly or indirectly from the so-called system of slavery constantly
come before the police court.
They consist principally of two classes -those that relate to women and girls for
immoral purposes , and those that relate to boys and girls for honest purposes . With
regard to the former class of cases, I would mention that whenever it is proved that a
woman was decoyed into or out of the Colony for the purpose of prostitution the magis-
trates do not hesitate to convict the offender and award a condign punishment, or, if it
should be deemed desirable, to commit the accused for trial at the Supreme Court.
Ordinance No. 2 of 1875 was especially enacted to meet cases of this kind, and, in my
opinion, it has borne good fruit, as instances of kidnapping or decoying do not now
occur so frequently as they did some years since.
With regard to the other class of cases which are brought before the police court, it
is not so easy to deal with them.
It not unfrequently happens that a woman, being in distressed circumstances, sells or
pledges her daughter for a sum of money, and after a short time makes a false report to
the police that her daughter has been lost or is being forcibly detained in a certain
house, with a view to invoke the assistance of the police to restore her daughter to her.
The magistrate has not only to protect the girl from being ill-used , but has also to
see that the purchaser be not unjustly punished on a false charge, and that the claimant
is the real mother of the girl . But when a bona fide case of detention or ill-treatment
of a girl is made out, the magistrate either punishes the offender summarily or sends the
case to the higher court for trial. It is, however, feared that a great majority of this
kind of cases coming under the cognizance of the magistrates are got up merely for the
sake of gain. I will state a case which came before me in May last, and which will
84
better illustrate my meaning. About two years ago a poor woman, being in need of
money, pledged her daughter, who was then seven years old, to a cook employed in
Messrs . Jardine, Matheson, and Co.'s, for $36. The girl was taken to the cook's
family house. She was well treated and well fed, and when she was ill a good deal of
money was spent on her account. In last April her mother was asked to repay the
amount she had borrowed, and to take back her daughter. This she was unable to do ,
as she had no money. About a month afterwards she came to the police court and
complained that she was ready to redeem her daughter, but that the cook was unwilling
to give her up.
Upon this a warrant was issued and the cook was arrested for unlawful detention of
the child. When the case came to be investigated I found that the woman had no
money, and that the sole object of her coming to the Court was to ask the Court to
order the cook to return her daughter to her without payment. The girl on being
questioned expressed a strong wish to be allowed to remain in the cook's family rather
than to go back to her mother. Naturally so, because she had intelligence enough to
perceive that her mother, being in very poor circumstances, was not in a position to give
her nice dress and plenty of food, which she had been enjoying in the cook's family, and
that if she went back to her mother she might in future again pledge her to another
person who might not be so good to her. However, I felt bound to inform the cook that
he had no legal right and control over the girl, and I had no alternative but to order the
girl to be restored to the mother.
I may be permitted to add that in my opinion the police ought not to be blamed for
the present state of things . When the servant girls (or slave girls as some prefer to term
them) in the families in this Colony are contented with their lot, and their parents do not
claim them, the police cannot be expected to interfere. If they did, the consequences
would be very serious. The police would have to find a home for them, as I fear most
of the girls' parents are not in the Colony.
NG CHOY,
Acting Police Magistrate.
REPORT by the ACTING POLICE MAGISTRATE and ACTING CAPTAIN-SUPERINTENDENT
OF POLICE.
SINCE the passing of Ordinance No. 2 of 1875, the police have been in the habit of
bringing all suspected cases of illegally detaining children before the magistrates for
investigation , and if it appeared from subsequent inquiry that the child had been properly
treated, and that the defendant had acted with the parents ' consent, the case was
invariably discharged.
Although contracts for the purchase or sale of human beings are of course invalid in this
Colony it was not customary for the police to prosecute or the magistrates to punish either
parents or legal guardians who, according to Chinese custom, sold their children as
servants or for adoption, or those who bought children for either purpose from their
guardians, The practice while not prohibited by any law was generally regarded as
beneficial to those concerned, especially the children , who were rescued from destitution
and provided with homes in well-to- do families, without being deprived in any degree of
the protection of the English law, which guarded them against ill -treatment.
Buying and selling children by the Chinese has been considered a harmless proceeding ,
its only effect being to place the purchaser under a legal and moral obligation to provide
for the child until the seller chose to repudiate the bargain, which he could always do
under English law.
But when the Chief Justice on 6th October 1879, in his judgment in the case of
R. v. Li A-kak, pronounced all such bargains to be illegal, and stated that those who
contracted them should be prosecuted for dealing in slaves, my colleague and myself
considered that in future it would be our duty to commit all such cases for trial in the
Supreme Court.
On 10th October 1879, however, the magistrates received his Excellency the
Governor's Minute, on the correspond ence relating to the girl To Tsün Fu (a copy of
which I attach) , directing that no action should be taken in such cases until his
1
Excellency had learnt the views of the Secretary of State. In view of this Minute and
the judgment of the Chief Justice referred to above, I considered that the best course
to adopt would be to call on the defendants in each case to find security under
Section XXI. of Ordinance No. 8 of 1858 , to appear in Court to answer the charge at
249
85
any time within 12 months, if called upon to do so. I have accordingly followed that
practice in dealing with the few cases which have since come before me.
C. V. CREAGH,
Acting Police Magistrate and
28th June 1880. Acting Captain- Superintendent of Police.
[Copy . ]
POLICE MORNING REPORT of 15th October 1879.
Girl claimed. Owner
A GIRL named To Tsün Fu, aged seven, found straying on the hillside,
will be prosecuted.
claimed by Aú A-ping, No. 33, Queen's Road East, who states that he
bought her in his own country, about 12 months ago, for $ 35. Summons to be
taken out.
W. M. DEANE,
Captain- Superintendent of Police.
MINUTE by His Excellency the Governor.
No. 11. Has the Attorney General authorised this prosecution ?
16th October 1879. J. POPE HENNESSY.
MINUTE by the ACTING ATTORney General.
CERTAINLY not, and I never know of any prosecution like this, unless referred to me by
the Governor, until cases are committed .
J. RUSSELL,
16th October 1879. Acting Attorney General.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE Governor.
MR. MARSH ,
REQUEST Mr. Deane to make a special report, and on receiving it refer such report
to the Attorney General. I am awaiting the Attorney General's views on the statements
recently made by the Chief Justice, and it is my intention to submit the questions, when
I have received Mr. Russell's views, and the opinions of other experienced executive
officers, to the Secretary of State.
16th October 1879. J. POPE HENNESSY.
CAPTAIN-SUPErintendent oF POLICE to COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Victoria, Hong Kong,
SIR, 17th October 1879.
In accordance with the commands of his Excellency the Governor , I have the
honour to forward a special report concerning case 11 of Police Morning Report of
15th instant .
2. At 4.45 p.m. on the 14th October 1879, a girl named To Tsün, aged seven years, was
brought to No. 7 station by Mak A-chün, watchman, Shek-tong-tsui Battery, having
been found straying on the hillside. She was afterwards claimed by Aú A-ping,
accountant, No. 33, Queen's Road East, who stated that he bought her in his own
country, about 12 months ago, for $35, and brought her to this Colony about a month
ago to be a servant.
3. I directed that the child should not be given up until further inquiry was made,
and for that purpose a summons was applied for at the magistracy against Aú A-ping
for detaining the child in this Colony, under Ordinance No. 2 of 1875, Section VII.
4. The summons was granted and is remanded for hearing for one week.
5. The trial of such cases as above is no novelty, but the almost invariable result is
the discharge of the prisoner at the magistracy, if the magistrate is satisfied that the
defendant's story is true, and that the child is likely to be properly cared for.
I have, & c. ,
The Hon. W. H. Marsh, W. M. DEANE,
Colonial Secretary, Captain- Superintendent of Police.
&c. &c. &c.
PAY
86
MINUTE by the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
REFERRED to the Acting Attorney General.
W. H. MARSH.
17th October 1879.
MINUTE by the ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL.
His Excellency the Governor is now in possession of the observations which I thought
the Chief Justice's declaration of the 6th October called for from me, and I think the
Governor will now the more clearly see the necessity of referring to the Secretary of
State the point (a) of my letter sent in yesterday.
I am glad to see from the minute on this document that his Excellency had already
determined on that course.
J. RUSSELL,
17th October 1879. Acting Attorney General.
P.S.-Mr. Deane should make complete private inquiry as to the truth of Aú A-ping's
statement, and get further adjournment.
J. RUSSELL .
MINUTE by the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Submitted.
17th October 1879. W. H. MARSH.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
LET the Captain- Superintendent of Police see these minutes, and also refer them to
the police magistrates to note. We had better not move in cases such as Mr. Deane
refers to in his letter of the 17th instant until I learn the views of the Secretary of
State.
18th October 1879. J. POPE HENNESSY .
MINUTE by the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
REFERRED to the Captain- Superintendent of Police, and then to the magistrates to
note.
18th October 1879. W. H. MARSH,
MINUTE by the CAPTAIN- SUPERINTENDENT OF POLICE.
Noted.
W. M. DEANE,
21st October 1879. Captain- Superintendent of Police .
MINUTE by the ACTING POLICE MAGISTRATE.
Noted.
C. V. CREAGH ,
28th October 1879. Acting Police Magistrate.
MINUTE by the POLICE MAGIStrate.
THE case forming the subject of this document was, in the first instance, adjourned
for a week upon the application of the inspector prosecuting, to enable him to obtain
further instructions in the matter. It was subsequently further adjourned on two
occasions through pressure of work. On the 27th instant Inspector Thomson brought
on the case, and Mr. Creagh and myself heard it under Section X. of Ordinance No. 2 of
1875, and after taking all the evidence for the prosecution , adjourned it until the
3rd proximo, to enable us to carefully consider the opinion expressed by the Chief
Justice in the case of Regina v . Keung A-to, in which he ordered the prosecution of the
purchaser of the child, and which appears to be a parallel case.
I beg to enclose the depositions in the case for the information of his Excellency.
C. B. PLUNKet,
29th October 1879 . Police Magistrate .
:
87
MINUTE by the COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Submitted .
29th October 1879. W. H. MARSH .
THE child ought, I presume, to be given up to defendant, if this has not already
been done, which does not appear from these papers.
29th October 1879. W. H. MARSH.
MINUTE by HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
To the Acting Attorney General.
J. POPE HENNESSY.
30th October 1879.
MINUTE by the ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL .
Mr. PLUNKET tells me that the magistrates have simply adjourned to consider what
they will do, and I have handed Mr. Plunket these papers, as he wants the depositions
to record his decision.
J. RUSSELL ,
31st October 1879. Acting Attorney General.
FURTHER MINUTE BY THE POLICE MAGISTRATE.
In R. v. Aú A-ping.
UPON the further hearing of this case upon its merits my colleague and myself dis-
charged the accused, and ordered the child to be given up to him.
C. B. PLUNKet,
12th November 1879. Police Magistrate.
Depositions retained .
MINUTE BY THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Submitted.
12th November 1879. W. H. MARSH.
MINUTE BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR.
Read.
13th November 1879. J. POPE HENNESSY.
MINUTE BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL .
I HAVE read the reports of the police magistrates, from which I gather that they have
acted upon what I conceive to be a generally correct view of their legal duty with
regard to questions brought under their notice in cases connected with the so-called
slavery system.
Having regard to the law, and to what I have seen of the steps taken to enforce it, I
know of no foundation for the charge of incapacity and inaction brought by the Chief
Justice against the police.
EDWARD O'MALLEY.
5th July 1880.
The Supreme Court, Hong Kong,
SIR, July 7, 1880.
You will receive, in due course, the Calendar of Cases tried at the Criminal
Sessions for June last. The diminished number of serious crimes in the Colony is as
creditable to the police as it is satisfactory to the public.
There were in the Calendar seven cases for trial, of which one resulted in an acquittal.
In the remaining six cases, there were eight several crimes, of which six convictions were
for kidnapping ; in other words, of the total convictions, gths or ths in number were for
kidnapping, a larger number and far greater proportion for such crimes than at any
former Criminal Sessions that I remember. In not one case of kidnapping do the police
appear to have intervened until their aid was demanded by parties interested.
88
In case No. 6, I thought it my duty to notice the fact that, although Chan Sz , the
brutal brothel keeper at Amoy, claimed to have purchased Chiu Tsan Kuk from her
uncle (a resident in this Colony) , and was ready to produce the bill of sale by him to
her, yet the police took no step to investigate that uncle's conduct, and that he was not
charged before the magistrate.
Case No. 6 confirms the view I have on former occasions expressed , that concubines and
adopted children are liable to be sold, and that they are in fact sold, at the caprice of their
master. In this case it is clear that the concubine and adopted daughter were imbued
with this as a common belief; and, so believing, they accepted as a fact the statement
made to them by the prisoner that their master had decided to exercise his right and to
sell them. This fear alone enabled the prisoner to entice them away.
I venture to express my satisfaction at the proposal by the Chinese community to
assist in putting down kidnapping, but their proposed action appears to me to fall short
of attempting to punish those who create the supply and the demand, -those who sell to,
and those who purchase from, these kidnappers. If these remain unpunished, kidnapping
will continue.
I say this without reference to the questions as to the adoption of children and the
condition of well-regulated domestic servitude.
I have, & c . ,
The Hon. Dr. Stewart, (Signed) JOIN SMALE,
Acting Colonial Secretary, Chief Justice.
& c. &c. & c.
No. 11 .
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR, Downing Street, November 26, 1880 .
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 3rd of
September last. *
desire again to call your attention to the 20th paragraph of your Despatch
of 23rd of January last, † in which, after informing me that no prosecutions in connection
with adoption and domestic servants would be instituted pending the receipt of instruc-
tions from me, you proceed as follows :-" He (the Chief Justice ) further recommended
" that the Chinese should be told that no prosecutions as to the past would take place,
" but that, in future, in every case where buying or selling occured in connection with
66
adoption or domestic service the Government would undoubtedly prosecute . This
" recommendation appears to me to be reasonable."
2. The Attorney General, Mr. Phillippo, was of opinion that transactions of this nature
are not criminal, and as the enclosures to your Despatch dealt very fully with the con-
dition of children who are the subjects of these transactions, I thought it right, before
giving any instructions on the subject, to inquire, in my Despatch of the 20th
May, whether the statements in the enclosures, in the opinion of yourself and the Chief
Justice, are an accurate representation of the facts connected with the adoption of
children and domestic servitude in Chinese families ; and I also desired to know what
was the precise offence which, in the above-quoted 20th paragraph, you propose to
prosecute ; and whether you would prosecute it as an offence at common law, or under
any and what statute or ordinance . I also requested you to obtain certain information
Trom the Chief Justice. I have not yet received the answer to these questions, although,
in your Despatch § of the 23rd of June, you replied to a question respecting brothel
slavery which I asked in the same Despatch .
Shortly after this Despatch was sent to you I noticed, in the Hong Kong newspaper,
that the police had received orders not to prosecute in these cases ( sales of male children )
until the authority of the Government has been received, and I accordingly, in my
Despatch of the 30th June, inquired, " What is the ordinance or other law which
" confers jurisdiction upon the magistrate in such cases, and why special authority
" is to be obtained for such prosecutions, instead of their being undertaken in the
ordinary course ?" You now transmit some printed documents and inform me that
the letters and minutes in those papers explain the questions which I have put to you in
my Despatch.
* No. 10. † No. 1. ‡ No. 3.
§ No. 7. || No. 5.
253
89
I have carefully examined these papers, but I am unable to find in them the informa-
tion I require. The principal point which I notice in them is at page 1 , a complaint by
the Chief Justice of the incapacity and inaction of the police in not bringing before
the magistrates sales of children by their parents ; Mr. Creagh explains that the
Chief Justice having , on the 6th of October 1879, pronounced all such bargains illegal ,
and stated , that those who contracted them should be prosecuted for dealing in slaves,
the magistrates considered that in future it would be their duty to send all such cases for
trial ; and he refers to your minute, dated the 18th of October, stopping all prosecutions
until you learn my views ; and looking to the gravity of the issues which are involved
in this matter, to the fact that you differ from your own law officers, and to the marked
manner in which public attention has been drawn to the subject by Sir John Smale's
declaration from the bench, I must recall your attention to the 7th, 8th, and 9th para-
graphs of my Despatch of the 20th of May, and to my Despatch of the 30th of
June,t and request that you will transmit to me the information which I asked
for in those Despatches, and which is required in order to enable me to form a conclusion
on the subject, and to consult, if necessary, the law officers of the Crown on the legal
aspects of the case.
I have, & c. ,
Governor Sir J. Pope Hennessy . (Signed) KIMBERLEY .
No. 12 .
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL
OF KIMBERLEY.
(Received December 23 , 1880. )
Government House, Hong Kong,
(Extract.) November 13, 1880 .
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordship's Despatch of
the 29th of September 1880 with reference to my Despatch§ of the 23rd June, on the
subject of brothel slavery in Hong Kong.
Having quoted an extract from my Despatch to the effect that the existing law
against slavery, if properly enforced by the police , should be sufficient to secure the real
freedom of the Chinese women referred to, your Lordship expresses the opinion that I
cannot have formed any distinct plan for grappling with this long-standing evil, and that
the Despatches I have written have reached no further than exposing the abuses
connected with the Government brothel system I found here, and especially the employ-
ment of informers . I venture, however, to point out to your Lordship that, in addition
to the agency mentioned in the extract from my Despatch, I indicated, in paragraph 5,
another source to which the Government would have also to look in dealing with this
subject, that is the co-operation of the leading members of the Chinese community.
I take some blame to myself for not having stated this more emphatically, as, in fact,
upon it depends the possibility of securing any beneficial effect in this important matter,
quite as much as upon the proper action of the police.
On receipt of the Despatch now under reply, I called for a précis of the recorded
views of the leading Chinese, and a statement of what the Chinese society your Lordship
had sanctioned in Despatch of the 20th May 1880 * had actually accomplished in this
matter, and on receiving this information I shall forward it without delay, when it will,
I think, be made clear to your Lordship that a beneficial effect has already been secured
by the action of the leading Chinese residents.
No. 13.
SIR JOHN SMALE to COLONIAL OFFICE.
(Extract.) July 15 , 1881 .
I also enclose a copy of the translation originally made by the translator to the
Police Court, and corrected by the translator of the Supreme Court, of a bill of sale of a
boy in 1879, of which I have the original, a form in general use up to the time when I
left, and from time to time produced in Court by prisoners as a justification of slave-
holding.
• No. 3. † No. 5. ‡ No. 9. § No. 7.
Q 2893.
90
Enclosure in No. 13.
An absolute BILL OF SALE of a boy made by a native of
WHEREAS, on account of daily maintenance being difficult to be obtained, 1 and my
partner, after mutual consultation, agree to sell my own son, aged eight years, born in
the hour of day month year.
I at first offered him to my relatives, which offer, however, was not accepted.
Through the intervention of one Lo Shap Yeung acting as a go-between, I was
introduced to a stranger (a Hakka) named U-wo-tong, who agreed to buy (my son), and
in the presence of both parties and the go-between the sum of taels of silver
in full was paid to the seller's own hand, and a document (bill of sale) was immediately
handed over to the buyer. This sum the seller has received in full for his own use.
This boy has not been kidnapped or anything of the kind. Should anything be found
to be wrong about him the buyer will not be responsible. The seller and the go-between
will clear up difficulties.
This boy is willing to be sold, (and the purchaser) is willing to buy with both consent.
The buyer is at liberty to take him home, and change his name and surname, and to
rear him up with prosperity. The seller has no right to redeem him in future.
If accidents befall him hereafter each accident will be regarded as the will of Heaven,
and no question will be raised about him.
To prevent any misunderstandings which might hereafter arise from a mere oral
agreement, this bill of sale is made out in writing, and handed to the buyer to be retained
by him as proof hereof.
In the presence of Lo- Shap Yeung, a go-between.
Kwong Shu, the 5th year, the 3rd intercalary month, of 30th day, this bill of sale of
my own boy was made (i.e. 20th May 1879) .
Translated by
Li Acheung, sworn interpreter.
4/6/79.
No. 14.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL
OF KIMBERLEY .
(Received July 25, 1881.)
Government House, Hong Kong,
MY LORD, 15th June 1881 .
WITH reference to my view of certain legal questions relating to the so-called
slavery in Hong Kong* on which, as your Lordship points out, I differed with the late
Attorney General , Mr. Phillippo , I have had some opportunities of considering them in
consultation with Mr. O'Malley , the present Attorney General , and the result is that,
whilst I am clearly of opinion that there is nothing illegal in the ordinary mode of
adoption of Chinese children in this Colony, I still think that, in the particular case of
Tsang San Fat's child, I was not wrong in instructing Mr. Phillippo to prosecute
Leung A Tsit, as in that case there appeared to be some evidence that the child was
about to be taken out of the Colony, against the wish of the parents , to be sold in
Canton. This seemed to me to involve an offence at common law.
2. In reply to your Lordship's further questions I have the honour to state that
renewed enquiries confirm me in the opinion that the description given by the Chinese
community, and by Dr. Eitel in his report of the 25th of October† 1879, of the
adoption of children and domestic servitude in Chinese families, is correct ; and that any
abuses that may occur will be exposed by the Chinese Society, with which, under your
Lordship's instructions, the police are co -operating ; that no further change is needed in
the executive machinery now dealing with this matter ; and that no alteration of the law
on this subject is required.
I have, &c. ,
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, J. POPE HENNESSY.
&c. &c. &c.
* Vide Nos. 1 and 10. † Enclosure 11 in No. 1.
255
91
No. 15.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the RIGHT HON. THE
EARL OF KIMBERLEY.
(Received July 25, 1881.)
Government House, Hong Kong,
MY LORD, 15th June 1881.
In reply to your Lordship's Despatch of 31st December* 1880, asking for
particulars as to the two Contagious Diseases Ordinances of 1857 and 1867 having
caused an increase of brothel slavery, I submit herewith to your Lordship the following
considerations in support of the statement I made on this subject in my Despatch of
13th November† 1880, to which your Lordship refers.
2. That under the Ordinance No. 12 of 1857 the evils of brothel slavery were
intensified, and assumed day after day a graver aspect, would seem to have been the
opinion of the Registrar General, Mr. Cecil C. Smith, who, ten years after Mr. Labouchere
gave the instructions which your Lordship quotes, wrote on 2nd November 1866 as
follows :-
" There is another matter connected with the brothels, licensed and unlicensed, in
" Hong Kong, which almost daily assumes a graver aspect. I refer to what is no less
" than the trafficking in human flesh between the brothel keepers and the vagabonds of
" the Colony. Women are bought and sold in nearly every brothel in the place.
" They are induced by specious pretexts to come to Hong Kong, and then, after they
are admitted into the brothels, such a system of espionage is kept over them, and so
" frightened do they get, as to prevent any application to the police."
So far for the Ordinance of 1857.
3. As regards Ordinance No. 10 of 1867, there is the testimony of another Registrar
General, Mr. Lister, who stated before the Commission in 1877 that he does " not
" think the new Ordinance had any real effect, or could have had any effect, upon the
" sale of women." Such is indeed the case.
4. But there is yet the important question whether or not the condition of a woman
once sold into virtual slavery to the keeper of a licensed brothel was in any way
ameliorated by the Ordinance of 1867. As regards this point I am disposed to say that
the Ordinance No. 12 of 1867, by giving larger powers to the Registrar General, and
thereby indirectly to the Inspectors, with whom the practical working of the Ordinance
lies, made the condition of the unfortunate women sold to the keeper of a licensed
brothel worse than it was before. For, as the experienced police magistrate, Mr. May,
stated in 1877 in his evidence before the Commission, " the licensed brothel keepers look
upon the Inspectors as their protectors." There can be no doubt of the truth of what
Mr. Pang Ui- Shang told the same Commission, that " the fact of licensing these brothels
" gives the keepers a sort of official authority," and that " they boast of the protection
" of the inspectors." The natural consequence of this is that the unfortunate women,
who, on being conveyed into the Colony, bring with them an extraordinary dread of all
foreigners, have no courage to seek their freedom ; and, as inspector Lee stated before
the Commission, " if they had complaints would not make them."
5. Another mode by which the Contagious Diseases Ordinance of 1867 intensified
brothel slavery is to be found in the compulsory medical examination of Chinese women
by foreign doctors, a system which has never been applied to the licensed brothels
generally in Hong Kong, but only to those licensed for Europeans. Nevertheless, as
Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell stated, this compulsory medical examination was
kept in reserve for all brothels, " as a species of penalty that may be inflicted whenever
" the expediency of such a measure was decided on." But this very species of penalty
is one of the means by which keepers of licensed brothels enforce submission on the part
of the Chinese women. Mr. A. Lister, who had been entrusted with the working of this
Ordinance, stated before the Commission that " new women would almost have preferred
" going to the whipping- post," and that " the mere threat of sending them to
" examination was generally sufficient to keep them in order." Thus also the keepers,
by threatening to place their houses under medical inspection, gained power over those
women.
* No. 36 of [ C. 3093] , August 1881. † No. 12.
92
6. It is well known that the lot of a prostitute in a brothel in Canton has less of the
characteristics of slavery than the condition of a prostitute in a Hong Kong licensed
brothel. An intelligent Chinese gentleman lately stated, in explanation of this circum-
stance, that the reason why brothel slavery became intensified in Hong Kong was that
the prostitutes of Canton are near to their own kith and kin, subject to a civic control
that is itself subject to public opinion, and that the keepers of brothels in Canton have
not that semi-governmental character which the keepers of brothels here appear to derive
from their licences, the support of inspectors of brothels, and the power of compulsory
medication by foreign doctors.
7. Mr. Cecil C. Smith recorded in 1869 his opinion that, as regards brothel slavery,
" as long as the Chinese fail to assist themselves by giving information on such matters
" to the police it seems hard to find a remedy for this evil." So far I entirely agree
with him. I am happy to add, however, that the Chinese have come forward, and , with
your Lordship's sanction, have established a society for the protection of women and
children, which society is now giving the Government valuable assistance in this matter.
I have, & c. ,
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, ( Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY .
&c. &c. &c.
No. 16.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G., to the RIGHT HON. THE
EARL OF KIMBERLEY .
(Received July 25, 1881. )
Government House , Hong Kong,
MY LORD, 15th June 1881.
WITH reference to your Lordship's Despatch of the 27th of August 1880,* I have
the honour to report that the rules of the Chinese Society for the Protection of Women and
Children have not been finally revised yet. I have waited for an opportunity of con--
sulting Mr. Russell, who, before his recent visit to Europe, had dealt with some of the
points in question.
2. Meanwhile I am happy to say the Society works smoothly and is doing good .
3. The acting Chief Justice tells me that he finds these Chinese gentlemen of great
assistance in the detection of kidnappers. Their operations and influence will , I am
convinced, do more than anything else to put an end to whatever was really bad in the
native customs to which Sir John Smale objected .
I have, &c .
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
&c. &c. &c.
No. 17.
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR, Downing Street, 28 July 1881 .
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch of the 15th of
June,† in reply to mine of the 31st of December 1880, asking for particulars as to the
Contagious Diseases Ordinances of 1857 and 1867 having caused an increase of brothel
slavery.
2. My Despatch of the 26th inst.,§ communicating the conclusions at which I have
arrived upon the Report of the Commission, was completed before the receipt of your
Despatch under acknowledgment, and I have allowed it to proceed, as I do not find that
there is anything in this Despatch to alter the opinions which I have expressed .
3. You will observe that under the proposed new regulations the inmates of brothels
used by Chinese only, which form the majority of the houses, will be exempted from all
liability to medical inspection. This will remove entirely the objections stated in the
fifth paragraph of your Despatch.
⚫ No. 8. † No. 15.
‡ No. 36 of [ C. 3093] , August 1881 . No. 38 of [ C. 3093 ] , August 1881 .
257
93
4. I can quite believe that the women in these houses are in great dread of their
keepers, and " have no courage to seek their freedom ." Unfortunately recent
experience has shown that this state of things is not peculiar to Chinese brothels, but
exists also in European countries ; but I am not prepared to agree in the view that these
unfortunate women will be benefited by the withdrawal of all control over the houses in
which they are immured , although it would, no doubt, relieve the Government from a very
disagreeable duty if matters were left to take their course, and it would probably be more
in accordance with Chinese ideas and habits if no interference were attempted with their
ご
peculiar brothel institutions. I view with much satisfaction the steps taken by the.
respectable Chinese to co-operate with the Government in their efforts to deal with this
evil ; and with their aid, and an intelligent and careful working of such regulations as I
have suggested, I should hope that a sensible check may be given to the nefarious
practices of the brothel keepers.
I have, &c.
Sir J. Pope Hennessy . KIMBERLEY .
(Signed)
No. 18.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the RIGHT HON. THE
EARL OF KIMBERLEY.
(Received September 12 , 1881. )
Government House, Hong Kong,
MY LORD, 4 August 1881 .
1. I HAVE the honour to submit to your Lordship the enclosed letters from Chief
Justice Sir John Smale on the so- called slavery in Hong Kong.
2. Some delay has occurred in obtaining the Attorney General's views on the subject,
but I hope to be able to transmit them by the next mail .
3. Since writing the despatches of 15 June 1881 * I have ascertained that the acting
Puisne Judge, Mr. Russell, has not seen reason to change the opinions he expressed about
о domestic servitude and adoption in this Colony in 1879. On these questions he concurs
generally in the opinions I had recently the honour of conveying to your Lordship.
4. The accompanying Report by Dr. Eitel gives a summary of the proceedings of the
Chinese Society, whose actions I provisionally sanctioned in January 1880. I venture to
recommend Dr. Eitel's valuable Report to your Lordship's attention.
I have, &c.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
&c. & c. &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 18.
The Colonial Secretary's Office ,
SIR, 25 June 1880.
THE Governor desires me to furnish you with the enclosed copy of a Despatcht
from the Earl of Kimberley with reference to the important observations made by your
Honour in sentencing certain prisoners in October last .
2. His Excellency wishes the whole of the Despatch to be sent to your Honour, as it
deals with a subject on every branch of which you have shown so great an interest, but
your Honour, no doubt, will notice that in paragraphs 7 and 9 the Earl of Kimberley
asks specifically for further information from you .
I have, & c.
To his Honour (Signed) F. STEWART,
Chief Justice Sir John Smale. Acting Colonial Secretary.
Nos. 14, 15, and 16. † No. 3.
94
Enclosure 2 in No. 18.
The CHIEF JUSTICE to ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
The Supreme Court, Hong Kong,
(Extract. ) 26 August 1880.
I HAVE the honour to have received, by directions of his Excellency the Governor,
a copy of a Despatch, * dated 20th May 1880, from Lord Kimberley to his Excellency, on
certain declarations by me as to " Slavery in Hong Kong.'
I very much regret that until now (the vacation of the Supreme Court) various most
urgently pressing matters have so constantly occupied my time that I have been unable to
write to you on the subject. His Excellency the Governor is well aware of the great
pressure of work causing this delay.
In paragraph 3 Lord Kimberley says he would have preferred my addressing a
memorandum to the Governor in the first instance instead of my making a public state-
ment from the Bench.
His Excellency will agree with me that I have had hitherto no encouragement to take
such a step. But in all matters pertaining to the administration ofthe law and the social
state of the Colony in reference to them, I have on principle abstained from referring
to the Government ; to do so for any purpose would be to reduce the administration of
justice to a Department of the Executive.
His Excellency the Governor will , I am sure, remember that by letter and in frequent
conversations he expressed entire satisfaction at the course I had adopted on each
Occasion as being the best, if not the only method, to turn public attention and discussion
on to evils we both deplored, whilst it left the Government absolutely unpledged, either as
to opinion or action, and free to influence the Chinese community in Hong Kong in the
direction of an improved humanity.
My observations in Court arose out of cases of kidnapping ; and, according to the
practice of the Judges in England in their addresses to the Grand Juries, and on sen-
tencing prisoners, I did as I thought it was my duty to do. I traced the cause of the
kidnapping to the demand for domestic bond servants, as Dr. Eitel calls them , and
for brothels.
In the pamphlet at pages 4 and 5 respectively, I said on the 7th October I expressly
indicate these two, and these two only, as the specific classes of slavery in Hong Kong
as then rapidly increasing.
I have carefully read all that I said on that occasion, and I cannot find a sentence in it
which indicates any attempt by the Court to reach criminally cases of concubines (being
women other than first wives). This is especially patent in my summary of propositions
in the end of the first pamphlet.
At paragraph 6 his Lordship says the buying and selling of children for adoption or
domestic servitude has been condemned by me as slavery.
I nowhere find I have denounced such transactions " for adoption, " or that the Chinese
community attribute this doctrine to me.
Under certain conditions which are stringent, as to being of the same surname, &c. ,
99
adoption " is lawful in China, but, where some of these condtions are wanting, " adoption
is punished by the Penal Code of China. ( See Pamphlet, pp. 15 to 16. )
I am therefore disposed to think (though I believe I now say so for the first time) that
inasmuch as the Chinese conditions cannot as a rule exist in Hong Kong, in 99 cases out
ofevery 100 cases such adoption as exists here would , according to Chinese law, be illegal ,
à fortiori that it would be illegal according to English law, and that if the status of
owner and owned exist between the parties, that is slavery.
I nowhere see an authoritative statement of the religious character of the adoption ; the
authorities I have cited are to the contrary.
I find that the Chinese Ambassadors in England assert that the adoption has a religious
character. But on what authority ?
All that I contended for in what I then said beyond punishing kidnappers was to bring
within the cognizance of the law those who bought from such kidnappers-the receivers
of such stolen " chattels, -" leaving such buyers to set up and prove a justification if they
could.
His Lordship the Secretary of State in paragraph 4 states that the law as it stands
ought to be sufficient to meet all cases of kidnapping. I said at p. 17 that the law
"as it exists " is strong enough, and that its arm is long enough, to reach all these illegal
acts. I went further and directed the Attorney General to prosecute a man said to
have been a purchaser of a kidnapped boy, whom (it was said in evidence ) that purchaser
* No. 3.
259
95
boldly asserted his right to hold as his servant under a bill of sale which be produced
from the kidnapper. It was important, in the state of divided opinion, that when a case
that would clearly raise the question occurred, it should be the subject of legal decision.
I have also read carefully all that I said on the 27th of October 1879. It is equally
confined in its judgment to kidnapping and to punishing a " broker of mankind, -8
receiver of stolen children to sell them on commission.
On that occasion I briefly, but in respectful terms, referred to the petition of the
Chinese community. I shortly alluded to the statement therein mentioned, that
domestic slavery was a Chinese custom ; and I showed that the Chinese gentry in the
same way called infanticide a Chinese custom, and thus that the two stood in the same
category. I said that I desired no sudden or violent intervention.
I concluded at page 8 with a short exposition of the legal remedies for these public
wrongs as I thought them.
On the 31st March 1880, prisoners in four cases of kidnapping,-one most harrowing,-
were sentenced. What I then said is reported in a pamphlet from the " Daily Press .
I there lamented, and I am sure every right-minded man will concur with me, that it
was the fact that the very poor were punished and the rich escaped. In that case it
clearly appeared that one, Leong Ming Aseng, apparently a respectable tradesman, at
all events a man of means, had given $60 for a young girl aged 13 years, to one of the
kidnappers, and he took her away beyond the reach of her distracted mother, under
circumstances from which, it would seem, he must have known that the child had been
kidnapped. But although the facts were known at the Police Court, and this man
remained exceeding 10 days afterwards in the Colony, no charge was ever made against
him. After passing sentences at this time, I made some observations on the " patria
potestas " theory. Dr. Eitel having painted this condition in China in what I thought
too favourable colours, I quoted pp. 8 to 11 from Doolittle's " Social Life in China "
unquestioned testimony as to what " patria potestas " was in China before the con-
troversy now raised, and from Mr. Parker, Her Britannic Majesty's learned 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. These questions remain unanswered. I have my
own individual opinion, but I did not answer one of these questions. These short
extracts were forced on me by statements made publicly, and as counterparts to the
favourable picture of the patria potestas as drawn by Dr. Eitel. This is the only
passage in what I said on all three occasions, as to which it can possibly be suggested
that I went beyond the absolutely necessary limits of observation in order to support the
degree of punishment I awarded ; but what I said was necessary to introduce the expres-
sion of my conviction at p. 12 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 kidnapping and buying and selling human beings.
The gravamen of all my complaints is, that the pauper kidnappers and sellers are
punished, whilst the rich buyers go free.
At page 13 I recognize the difficulties of the Government, and pay due tribute to the
respectable Chinese community, who, I am over and over again assured , entertain very
kindly and trusting confidence in me, whilst they differ from what I have said.
I have not gone beyond what I have above stated, except to say as a general pro-
position that I know of no case of domestic bondage for which, in my opinion, there is
not in an English Court of Justice a penal remedy. What the facts in each case may be
must form the evidence whether the servitude be bondage or not ; and as the facts differ,
so will the decision be different.
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 kidnapper. The then Attorney General exercised his
discretion, and did not prosecute. I am absolved, but the responsibility is with the
Attorney General .
I am not conscious that I ever expressed a suggestion that a man should be prosecuted
for having paid a price for his concubine who lives with him, or for his having bonâ fide,
according to and within the custom in China, " adopted " a child.
These are, in my estimation, relations which must according to English law be held
to be illegal, and which Judges are bound to state to be illegal, but I never said that these
relations when bonâ fide should be interfered with,
96
I said on this last occasion, 31st March 1880, at page 13, " I know that the Governor
" has done much in this direction (i.e. in spreading respect for high-toned civilization,
England's mission) , but difficulties, national, social, official, and financial, beset him in
" reference to the special questions I have raised."
There are no difficulties in the way of carrying out the punishment of kidnapping, and
sellers and buyers of children, or of keeping children by the purchasers, or in selling and
buying women for brothels, or in dealing with cases of brutal bondage.
Although former legal advisers of the Crown have declined to bring some cases of this
class before the Court the Governor has always desired to do so, and such cases are now
brought before the Court. As a rule the present Attorney General has at every monthly
Criminal Sessions charged cases of kidnapping, and recently I know of no case in which a
case could be made out against the buyer from the kidnappers. It is, however, quite
clear that there must be buyers of children where so many utterly destitute persons
kidnap children as they do in Hong Kong, and they the buyers escape in fact .
At paragraph 9 his Lordship the Secretary of State requests the Governor to ask
me to specify the Acts of Parliament which I consider have not been enforced in Hong
Kong. I am not aware that on any of the three occasions on which I have spoken on
the subject I have said anything to give rise to the question. I have above referred to all
the passages in which I have said anything on the subject .
The Acts of Parliament prior to 1843 relating to the subject are collected in " Russell
on Crimes ;" and I have, on the three occasions above referred to, cited all the Acts and
Ordinances which I thought apply.
I have throughout all proceedings studiously confined myself to the legal view of the
subject, not attempting to interfere with the policy or administrative dealing with it, but
I may be forgiven if I here add that I think the evils complained of might be lessened, —
1. By a better registration of the inmates of brothels, and by frequently bringing them
before persons to whom they might freely speak as to their position and wishes, and by
such authoritative interference with the brothel keepers as should keep them well in fear
of exercising acts of tyranny.
2. By a stringently enforced register of all inmates of Chinese dwelling-houses , &c.,
(at least of all servants, ) with full inquiry into the conditions of servitude, and an
authoritative restoration of unwilling servants to freedom from servitude. This would
apply to the 10,000 ( 20,000 according to Dr. Eitel ) bond servants in Hong Kong.
regret if my action and language in reference to these matters have not been satis-
factory to his Lordship the Secretary of State. I have spoken from criminal facts and
circumstances deposed to in Court : the Chinese inhabitants and Dr. Eitel have spoken
from the favourable surroundings of respectable domestic life in China . The conflicting
views thus presented are but a reproduction of conflicting testimony in reference to
Negro slavery in the West Indies, and more lately in the United States . Very benevolent
persons, some my own friends, looking at facts from the respectable stand-point, thought
that such slavery was based on human nature, and conduced to the spread of Christianity.
But the contrary view prevailed. I am quite satisfied that the right view on this question
will ultimately prevail.
As a man I have very decided views on these subjects, but as a judge I feel it is not
for me further to debate them. I expressly retired from doing so on the 27th October
1879, page 7, although I thought it necessary in March last to comment on what I
thought to be an erroneous view of the patria potestas.
Enclosure 3 in No. 18.
The ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY to the CHIEF JUSTICE.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hong Kong,
SIR, 28th August 1881 .
YOUR Honour's letter of the 26th of August with reference to the Earl of
Kimberley's Despatch of 20th May 1880 , (a copy of which was transmitted to your
Honour in my letter of the 25th of June , ) has been laid before the Governor, who will
forward a copy of it to the Secretary of State .
I have, &c.
The Hon. Sir John Smale, (Signed) FREDERICK Stewart,
Chief Justice, Acting Colonial Secretary .
&c. &c. &c.
261
97
Enclosure 4 in No. 18.
CHIEF JUSTICE to ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
The Supreme Court, Hong Kong ,
(Extract. ) 24th November 1880.
His Excellency the Governor has had the kindness to suggest through you to me
that in my letter to you, dated the 26th of August last, being a letter written in
consequence of the Despatch, dated the 20th of May 1880,* from Lord Kimberley to
his Excellency, I have not been sufficiently explicit in answering the enquiry contained in
the 7th paragraph of that Despatch .
I thought that I had in the 4th paragraph, and by the reference therein to the Pamphlet, †
pp. 15 and 16, annexed thereto, fully expressed my views ; but I will now proceed more
explicitly to state them. His Lordship says, paragraph 7, " I wish to be informed
" whether these statements (i.e. in the 6th paragraph) are admitted by the Chief Justice
66
as an accurate representation of the facts connected with the adoption of children and
" domestic servitude in Chinese families, and for what period and to what extent the persons
purchased for these purposes cease to be free agents ." My remarks immediately
following refer to the statements in paragraph 6 above mentioned .
I do not admit the statements of Dr. Eitel. They do not apply to Hong Kong, but they
may and probably do apply to certain respectable classes in China Proper, where China
family life proper exists. What I assert is that family life does not, in the proper Chinese
sense, exist in Hong Kong, and that although, under certain very restricted conditions , the
buying and selling, and adopting and taking as concubines, boys and girls in China Proper,
is permitted as exceptions to the penalties inflicted by Chinese law in China Proper, these
conditions do not exist in Hong Kong ; and that the conditions necessary to these
exceptions in their favour in the Chinese Criminal Code do not exist in Hong Kong, and
that the penalties in that Code would apply, ifin China, to all such transactions as I have
denounced in Hong Kong, of that I have no doubt.
Dr. Eitel's vindication is of a system as recognised in an express exception to the
Penal Code in China Proper, which may, for aught I know, work well in China. what I
have said is that the practices in Hong Kong do not come within the cases which are
only the exception to the penal enactments in the Chinese Code against all such bondage
in China.
I have never said, as the 6th paragraph attributed to me, as a general proposition , that
all buying and selling of children for adoption or domestic service is contrary to Chinese
law. What I have said is that all such buying and selling of children as has come
within my cognizance in Hong Kong is contrary to Chinese law ; but I do think that
buying and selling, even for adoption and domestic servitude under the best circumstances ,
constitutes slavery ;-legal according to Chinese law, but illegal according to British law.
"
Reference is made to Chinese gentlemen : I believe that not one of them has his " house '
in Hong Kong : the wife (small-footed) is kept at the family house in China. Each of
them has his harem only in Hong Kong. There may be an exception to this rule, but I
have never heard of any such exception . (I knew of one only of a Chinese gentleman,
who, for certain reasons , was afraid to return to China. )
As to those Chinese gentlemen who ( I refer to paragraph 6) in November 1878
petitioned to be formed into an association for the suppression of kidnapping and of the
purchase of females for the purposes of prostitution I think they have not shown their
bona fides ; for not a step has, so far as I know, been taken by them to form such an
association, which required no aid from the Government .
They refer to " these institutions " (of adopting sons, &c. ) , which do not as a rule exist
in Hong Kong .
I have not known a single case of adoption by a Chinaman in Hong Kong. They may
exist in China Proper, and possibly in Hong Kong, but they are not very prevalent there
(in China) . They are not in China Proper a sacred religious obligation, except in very
rare cases indeed, in which the conditions of clanship and other stringent conditions are
precisely complied with ; and they have as much to do with the necessities of the poor, and
no more than would be the case in England or Ireland in the time of a famine.
These Chinese gentlemen say that the children are well cared for. If girls eligible for
marriage or concubinage, they are sold for that, and form a profitable investment to a
Chinese gentleman. If not so eligible, they are sold for any, even the worst purpose,
-brothels according to my experience in the Criminal Courts of Hong Kong. If the
former, it may be that they do well ; but if the latter, no slavery is worse. ( See as to this ,
Mr. Francis ' memorandum herewith.) This as to females. And as to males the purchaser
* No. 3. † Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Q 2893.
98
holds them till they can redeem themselves, and, according to my experience, generally
never.
Again, the Chinese gentlemen allege that if the adoptive parent or master does not do
his duty the actual parents have their remedy. The answer is, so far as Hong Kong is
concerned, the far greater number of actual parents are far away in China, have
entirely lost sight of the child, and are far too poor to seek a remedy in Hong Kong.
They would have a remedy, if they were present and knew it, but they do not know that
there is any remedy. They had their remedy from the first in China Proper. Well, a
remedy in the Mandarin Court, where the longest purse prevails, and into which a poor
man seldom dares to enter as a complainant.
Lastly, it is said that the lot of these children is far happier than if they had been left
to their ordinary fate. So say these Chinese gentlemen : so said the noble and the wealthy,
the much respected slave trader and holder, a century ago in England . The answer to
him then is the only answer for these Chinese gentldmen. It is a long one which presents
itself to every one who has studied the slavery and the slave-trade question.
Besides this long argumentative answer, one question must be answered :-Is it right
to do or sanction wrong that good may come ?
I repeat that I have never intended to attack the morals or the habits of the Chinese in
China Proper. I have always held that to be beyond my province. But when I have
denounced acts clearly contrary to English law, I have referred to Chinese law to
show that what I have thus reprobated as contrary to law in this Colony is also contrary
to Chinese law, not being even within the exceptions to its penalties in China
Proper.
It was an omission in my former letter not specifically to advert to paragraph 2 of
Lord Kimberley's Despatch, in which he enumerates four points which the papers he
refers to present for consideration . I supply that omission, referring to the four points.
I now do so seriatim.
(a.) As to kidnapping . This I brought into prominent public notice, and no one
objected that this was not desirable or even necessary to be made extensively known in
order that Chinese public opinion might be brought to bear, and, if necessary, be educated
as to it, and that it may be suppressed .
(b. ) Brothel slavery. No one has objected to what I have said or done in bringing
this evil into prominence, or has suggested that it ought not to be put down by all the
powers available.
(c.) Purchase for adoption and domestic servitude . In reference to the first branch of
this question- purchase for adoption,--I say that there has not been a single case of a
purchase for adoption that has come before me, or to which I have referred , in Hong
Kong. I never knew or heard of such a case in this Colony. If such a case should
arise in the Criminal Court, it will be time enough to deal with it. I anticipate that if
the conditions of the penal code of China Proper creating exceptions in its favour shall
have been complied with, or have been honestly intended to be complied with, that no
Attorney General would file an information against parties who have bonâ fide intended to
comply with the exceptions to the penal code of China. Nothing I have ever said tends to
show that such discretion not to prosecute would not receive my sympathy. And with
reference to the second branch of his Lordship's question under division (c. ) ,- purchase
for domestic servitude,-I at once said that I hold as an abstract question that every
purchase of a boy or girl to be held for the mere purpose of domestic servitude is, accord-
ing to English law, a misdemeanour. I presume that this would not be questioned in
the case of such a purchase without the concurrence of the parents .
I think that, even if the purchase were from the parent, it is still a misdemeanour within
the scope of English law, though the circumstances may be such as to reduce the moral
crime (as in cases of assault with extenuating circumstances) to a minimum . The law
of England, as I have learnt it, is that no one can sell his own liberty, or that of any
dependent ; that to sell or buy such liberty is an offence against the law ; and therefore, in
the absence of special penalty, a misdemeanour, to every phase of which Judges are bound
on conviction to bring the common sense applicable to each separate case in mitigating
circumstances.
So thoroughly is the wrong understood in England that it never arises there ; but the
wrong is universal here among the Chinese. Every Chinaman of substance has one or
more bond servants, as Dr. Eitel calls them, bought in this way, for which no one has cited
Chinese law as a justification. Chinese custom or practice, contrary even to Chinese law,
has been alone cited . I have elsewhere said what I understand to be practically the
condition of such boys, that they believe themselves to continue bound till by some
263
99
arrangement they work out their freedom ; and as to girls, till the Chinese owner repays
himself with a profit by their sale as wife, concubine, prostitute, or bond servant.
(d.) The legal effect of extra-jndicial declarations. I at once admit that I have always
thought that extra-judicial declarations are not legally binding as expositions of law.
They stand on the same footing as the dicta of Judges in the course of long argument
leading up to a judgment, which alone is legally binding. This distinction has been,
if I rightly remember, (as I read more than 30 years ago, ) emphatically drawn by Lord
St. Leonards in his " Law of Property administered by the House of Lords." The effect of
such dicta is simply to be tested by their being or not being in accord with truth and
right, and law and good sense.
The Judges in England have very frequently, almost as a habit, delivered extra-judicial
declarations. Lord Chief Justice Cockburn (apropos of nothing before the court) made
a very long and learned and most effective exposition of the law as to Regina v. Eyre
(see " Times " of April 11th, 1867) , and on every circuit Judges made extra-judicial decla-
rations in addresses to grand juries, and on sentencing prisoners, expounding new laws,
denouncing agrarian and trades union outrages and riots, and garotting, and expressing
views on special tides of crime and vice, as drunkenness, and on other local circumstances
generally. Eminent Recorders have done the same. I instance the late Mathew Daven-
port Hill, who, in his persistently recurring charges, " ictibus crebris," his motto to his
book to the grand juries of Birmingham, collected during the tenure of office, and published
in 1857, a work found in the library of every social reformer, of which he boasted that
they " provoked controversies. " These ended in the legislation of a system of reforma-
tories, of which no one ever said that his utterances were in excess of duty or propriety,
and of which all parties now approve.
It has, therefore, seemed to me to be the right and bounden duty on fitting occasions
for Judges in Colonies , where the law is less known than in England, to make extra-
judicial declarations when special circumstances call for them. I thought the state of
kidnapping, prostitution, and domestic servitude (or, as Dr. Eitel prefers it, bondage)
required the light of public opinion, and the education of public opinion, to be brought to
bear on them. I therefore made extra-judicial declarations thereon , of which I say with
confidence that his Excellency the Governor has not in a single instance expressed
disapproval.
Although I have acted on a decided conviction that the course I have adopted was
my duty, I.have on the other hand always fully appreciated the special difficulties of a
Governor here, who naturally desires to lead rather than to drive the Chinese community
in reference to these questions.
(e. ) And, finally, as to the power of a Judge to direct prosecutions. The state of my
opinion on this point is clearly expressed at paras. 17 and 18 of the pamphlet* annexed.
I thought it to be my duty (and in a sense within my power) to direct a prosecution as
the only constitutional way open to me, in order to prevent the escape from trial of a
supposed culprit, to set in motion those whose duty it is to prosecute, when upon the
trial of a case criminality appeared primâ facie to rest on a party not under prosecution.
I stopped there. It will be seen that I said that thereupon the responsibility was shifted
from the Judge, and rested on the public prosecutor.
That responsibility extends to considering and investigating the case, and thereupon
proceeding or not with it, as the evidence may call for, or as under all circumstances may
be expedient, just as in any other case, and no further.
In this, I thought, and still think, that I was acting according to precedent. I know
of no express authority in the books for such direction ; the larger portion of judicial
action is without such proceedings, but I feel sure that I have seen cases in which
Judges in England have directed such prosecutions. They have been, according to my
memory, in the habit of giving directions to the police to prosecute, and to other
officers. Their right to do so is because they are, according to Lord Coke and to
Chief Baron Comyns, the sovereign justices of the peace. (The Judges have by
ordinance equal authority within this Colony.) I incline to think that these directions
in England or in this Colony are of no legal obligation , creating misdemeanours for
non-obedience, but they create serious responsibilities officially affecting the officer to
whom they are given in case of any miscarriage if the direction is not followed. The
practice seems to me to be useful when reserved for special occasions. Believing that
there has been such a practice, I know of no principle or precedent to the contrary
So far as I remember, the only occasion in which I have directed a prosecution was
against a Chinawoman who bought a kidnapped child under circumstances which
Enclosure 1 in No. 1,
100
showed she must have known that the child had been kidnapped . That was a clear
primâ facie case within one of our ordinances.
I trust I have now satisfactorily referred to all points contained in Lord Kimberley '
Despatch.
A very long time has elapsed since I received your letter forwarding that Despatch
in June last ; but the delay has been advantageous, as it has enabled me to obtain a
memorandum on the subject (enclosed) by Mr. Francis, barrister here, and for a year
acting Puisne Judge in the place of Mr. Justice Snowden. I write on this subject
from an experience in Hong Kong since early in 1861 ; Mr. Francis from a very
extensive experience both in China Proper and in this Colony since some years
previously.
As advocate in the Kwok-a- Sing case, the coolie who was charged with murder in
respect of killing the Captain in the " Nouvelle Penelope " tragedy in 1871 , Mr. Francis
of necessity studied the matter fully, and the whole law on the subject of slavery ( or
bondage) in every form here, with a viewto that case ; and, without professing to be able
to vouch for all the statements and conclusions in his exhaustive memorandum, I think
it a most valuable and truthful and painful statement of facts, and view of the questions
to which this letter and my letter of the 26th August refer.
I ask attention to the conclusions he sets forth at the end of the memorandum , -
conclusions which flow from the facts collected, -conclusions entirely inconsistent with
the views set forth by Dr. Eitel, and the assertions of the Chinese gentlemen as they
affect Hong Kong.
I must here repeat that the bona fides of the request of these gentlemen to be allowed
to associate to put down kidnapping in 1878 has been best tested by their, so far as I
know, entire inaction ever since.
Enclosure 5 in No. 18.
Memorandum on the subject of SLAVERY in HONG KONG, and on the STATE of the Law
as applicable to such SLAVERY.
1. Hong Kong was obtained by conquest and cession from China . It, therefore,
belongs to that class of Colonies technically known as Crown Colonies (as distinguished
from Settled Colonies) , in which the power of the Sovereign in respect of legislation is
absolute. The inhabitants retain their own laws and institutions by sufferance only, and
only until the Crown sees fit to alter them.
2. In accordance with this well recognized principle, the Proclamation of the
1st February 1841 , notifying to the inhabitants of Hong Kong the cession of the Island
to Great Britain, promised them the enjoyment of their own laws, customs, and usages,
pending Her Majesty's further pleasure," and no longer.
3. Her Majesty's pleasure was declared :-
First. By a special proclamation, dated the 24th January 1845, in which it is notified
that "the Acts of the British Parliament for the Abolition of the Slave Trade and for
"9
" the Abolition of Slavery extend by their proper force and authority to Hong Kong,'
and will be enforced by all Her Majesty's officers, civil and military, within the
Colony.
Secondly. By Ordinances 6 of 1845 , 2 of 1846, and 12 of 1873 , by the combined
operation of which the law of England, common and statute, as it existed on the 5th day
of April 1843 , became the law of Hong Kong.
4. From the date of the Ordinance 6 of 1845, therefore, the Common Law of England
became the law of Hong Kong, and the rights, duties, and relations of all persons within
the Colony became subject to the rules of the Common Law ; all Chinese law, usage,
and custom to the contrary notwithstanding. The relations of husband and wife, parent
and child, guardian and ward, master and servant, whatever they may have been while
Hong Kong was Chinese, became from the date of that Ordinance what English law
made them, and nothing more nor less . And ever since, whenever any case involving
the consideration of these relationships has come before the Courts, English law has
always been applied ; never Chinese usage or custom . If concubinage , domestic
servitude, the right of adoption, &c. &c. , have prevailed in Hong Kong, they have been
simply tolerated, not legalized.
265
101
5. With the rest of the Common Law came the doctrine enunciated by Lord Mansfield .
in Somersett's case, when he said :-
" The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on
" any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law." " It is so odious that
" nothing can be suffered to support it but positive law." Whatever inconveniences ,
therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case can be approved of by the
law of England.
In the case of " Fæteine " ( 1 Dods. Adm. Reports 856) slavery is declared “ repugnant
" to the law of nations , to justice, and to humanity."
6. Such being the nature of slavery in the eye of law here existing, there can be no
difficulty in treating any act of slave-holding or slave-dealing as an offence at Common
Law. It would come under the head of " Undefined Misdemeanours," as defined by
Stephens in his Digest of the Criminal Law, Art. 160, p . 95 , note 1 .
7. But in addition to the declarations of the Common Law on the subject, these are in
full force in Hong Kong :-the Act of the 5th George IV. c. 113, the Act of the
3rd & 4th William IV. c. 73, and the Act 6th & 7th Victoria, c. 98, which have in the
widest possible terms abolished slavery throughout the British dominions.
These Acts declare it unlawful for anyone owing allegiance to the British Crown,
whether within or without the dominions of the Crown, to hold or in any way deal in
slaves, or to participate in any way in such dealing, or to do any act which would
contribute in any way to enable others to hold or deal in slaves.
8. This simple declaration, if it stood alone, would make every act of slave-holding or
slave-dealing 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.
9. These Acts further declare that persons holden in servitude as pledges or pawns
for debt shall, for the purposes of the Slave Trade Acts, be deemed and construed to be
slaves , or persons intended to be dealt with as slaves.
10. 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.
11. In addition to the above-mentioned Acts of George, William , and Victoria, there
is also the Imperial Act, entitled " The Slave Trade Act, 1873, " (34 & 37 Victoria,
c. 88,) 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, section 50 and 51 , and 2 of 1875.
These provide especially against-
(1.) The forcible taking or keeping of any person, with intent to sell or obtain a
ransom for such person.
(2.) The taking or keeping by force or fraud of any child under the age of 14 years,
with intent to deprive any person entitled thereto of the possession of such child, or
with intent to steal from such child.
(3.) The bringing into the Colony of any woman or female child, sold or purchased
outside the Colony, for purposes of prostitution, or with intent to sell them within the
Colony for such purpose.
The bringing into the Colony by force or fraud of any person for purposes of emigra-
tion or for any purpose.
(4. ) The receiving or harbouring any woman or female child, knowing that she has
been bought or sold for purposes of prostitution, or with intent that she may be bought
or sold.
(5.) The detaining by force or fraud of any person for purposes of emigration, or for
any purpose whatsoever.
The detaining by force or fraud of any woman or female child, with intent that she
may become or be induced to become a prostitute.
(6.) The selling or purchasing of any woman or female child for purposes of prostitu-
tion .
The deriving any profit from any such sale or purchase.
The inducing by any fraudulent means any woman or female child to prostitute
herself.
12. Offences against the provisions of these Ordinances relating to emigration and
emigrants now very rarely come before the Courts . When contract emigration to Peru
and Havannas was ruthlessly stripped of its disguises, and declared to be slavery, it came
to an end, the man-stealing, and the buying and selling of men, to which it had given
rise. Offences against the provisions of these Ordinances , so far as they relate to women
or children, are still very common, and are growing more numerous every day ; and until
102
the system of prostitution which prevails in this Colony, and the system of breeding up
young girls from their infancy to supply the brothels of Hong Kong, Singapore, and San
Francisco, is declared to be slavery, and is treated and punished as such in Hong Kong,
no stop will ever be put to the kidnapping of women and the buying and selling of
female children in Hong Kong. This buying and selling and kidnapping is only an
effect of which the existing system of Chinese prostitution is the cause. Get rid of that,
and there is an end of kidnapping.
13. The Chinese custom of adoption, whether of boys for the purpose of continuing
the family and worship of ancestors, or of girls for the ordinary purposes . of domestic
service, is not the foundation of all this buying and selling of women and girls ; it is
only the pretext and excuse.
14. In the first place, the buying and selling of boys is rare, as compared with the
buying and selling of girls. There are very few families , in the proper sense of the word,
living in Hong Kong. Almost all the better class of Chinese here have their wives and
families in China. If male children are wanted , the transaction takes place at the place of
residence of the father of the family, and not in Hong Kong. It can be but very seldom
& son has to be purchased, as, if the first wife does not present her husband with a male
heir, he takes a second or a third wife, and gets a son in that way. Still children (males)
are bought and sold in Hong Kong for adoption, and in their respect strict Chinese
custom may possibly prevail. They may become by such sale sons, not slaves.
In the second place, as to the girls. There are so few bona fide Chinese families of any
means living in Hong Kong that the purchase and sale of female children for the purpose
pure and simple of domestic service or servitude can be but very small. Girls are not
bought and sold in Hong Kong for domestic servitude under the Chinese custom. They
are bought and sold for the purpose of prostitution here and elsewhere, and instead of
being apprentices to the domesticities, and of being brought up to be good wives and
mothers, they are bought and sold ,-brought up and trained for a life of prostitution, a
life of the most abject and degrading slavery.
By the last census there were in Hong Kong 24,387 women (Chinese) to 81,025
Chinese men .
What that means is easily told . Of these 24,000, the late Mr. May was
of opinion that 20,000 or five-sixths " come under the denomination ""of prostitutes to
" whom money being offered they would consent to sexual intercourse.
A Chinese doctor of large experience fixed the number of quasi respectable women at
a fourth of the whole number, or say 6,000, leaving 18,000 prostitutes. These opinions
were taken and adopted by the C.D.O. Commission 1877-79. See their Report, page 31 .
Who and what are these prostitutes who form by far the greater bulk of the Chinese
female population of Hong Kong. The Report of the C.D.O. Commission, answers the
question :-" The great majority of them are owned by professional brothel keepers or
" traders in women in Canton or Macao, have been brought up for the profession, and
" trained in various accomplishments suited to brothel life, and have actually breathed
" the atmosphere of brothels for years before attaining maturity. They frequently know
" neither father nor mother, except what they call a ' pocket mother,'- that is, the woman
" who bought them from others .'
They feel, of course, that they are the bought property of their pocket mother or
keeper.
They have the chance of being taken as second, third, or fourth wife of some wealthy
gentleman, " or they may endeavour to raise money by singing, music, and prostitution
their freedom, but to set up for themselves, buying,
66 combined, and not only to purchase
rearing, and selling girls to act as servants, concubines, or prostitutes, or they may
finally come to keep brothels for wealthy capitalists or speculators."
" There is further a certain proportion of Chinese prostitutes in Hong Kong who have
by the hands of their parents or husbands been mortgaged or sold into temporary
" service as prostitutes ."
" There is, however, one class of women in Hong Kong who can scarcely be called
prostitutes, and who have no parallel in China outside the Treaty Ports or in Europe.
They are generally called ' protected women .' She resides in a house rented by
her protector, who lives generally in another part of the town ; she receives a fixed
salary, and sublets every available room to sly prostitutes, or to women keeping a sly
brothel."
" The principal points of difference between the various classes of Chinese prostitutes
" of Hong Kong and the prostitutes of Europe amount therefore to this : that Chinese
prostitution is essentially a bargain for money, and based on a national system of
female slavery."
267
103
" There are natural causes at work (among the Chinese) which almost necessitate
" prostitution, · excessive over-population national
" system of polygamy, · legalized concubinage
" the universal practice of buying and selling females, combined with the system of
" domestic slavery ."
" This intermixture of female slavery with prostitution has been noticed in Hong Kong at
99
" the very time when the Legislature first attempted to deal with Chinese prostitution .'
All these extracts are from pages 3, 4, 5, and 6 of the Report of the C.D.O. Com-
mission.
Again at page 45 of the Report may be read :-
" There can be no doubt that, with the exception of a comparatively few who have
" been driven by adversity to adopt a life of prostitution when arrived at a mature age,
" the bulk of girls are, in entering brothels, merely fulfilling the career for which they
" have been brought up.'
It seems to us (the Commissioners) , having regard to the evidence given us by the
brothel-keepers whom we examined, that everything that strikes foreigners as most
objectionable flourishes practically unchecked within the regulated institutions.
Young girls, virgins of 13 or 14 years of age, are brought from Canton or elsewhere
" and deflowered according to bargain, and as a regular matter of business, for large sums
" of money, which go to their owners, frequently it would appear their own parents .'
(Evidence of Ho A-yee, answers 1203 to 1209, 1227 to 1230, pages 30 and 31. ) " The
86
regular earnings of the girls go to the same quarters, and the unfortunate creatures
" obviously form subjects of speculation to regular traders in this kind of business who
" reside beyond our jurisdiction.'
At pages 29, 30, and 31 of the evidence taken by the C.D.O. Commission is to be
found the evidence of Ho Tai Ngan (answers 1160 to 1198) , Ho A-yee (answers 1199 to
1263) , Leong A-you (answers 1264 to 1285) , all keepers of first-class Chinese brothels
in Hong Kong, having 37, 26, and 20 inmates respectively.
What is their story ? It requires a capital of $2,000 to start a first- class brothel. Its
staff numbers over 100 people. Its monthly expenses are about $700. The
girls' ages vary from 16 to 24. They are owned in Macao and Canton. They are
bought as infants . They are brought up in Canton in family houses ; nurses are
employed to bring them up . They come to Hong Kong at 13 or 14, and are deflowered
for a special price, which goes to their owners. Seven girls earn about $100 a month.
The owner gets the whole of that, and even gets presents given to the girls, who are
allowed three or four dollars a month pocket money. The girls can buy their discharge,
but Ho A-yee never knew an instance of that being done.
When some of the girls are sent away on account of age, new ones are got from
Canton. There are about 8 or 10 changes a year (among 20 girls) ; they remove into
other Chinese brothels, or go back to Canton . No woman is kept in a first- class Chinese
brothel after 24 years of age. Then if they are not married , the parents (pocket
mothers) take them away. What becomes of them is not known . They become, perhaps,
hairdressers, servants or prostitutes in other brothels .
If these girls are not slaves in every sense of the word, there is no such thing as slavery
in existence. If this buying and selling for the purpose of training female children up for
this life is not slave-dealing, then never was such a thing as slave-dealing in this world.
As Dr. Eitel points out in his Report of the 25th October 1879, 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.
There are 18,000 to 20,000 prostitutes in Hong Kong, to 4,000 or 5,000 respectable
Chinese women. The bulk of these prostitutes, those from 16 to 25 , are slaves owned by
persons residing here, in Macao, Canton, or elsewhere . The rest have been prostitutes,
and are brothel-keepers, or breeders and trainers for the brothels.
Nine years is the outside limit of a prostitute life, as a money-making machine, barring
all accidents . Five years is, it may be fairly assumed, the average. Once in five years
the stock has to be renewed
It is for this purpose, and not for the legitimate or quasi legitimate purposes of Chinese
adoption and Chinese family life, that children and women are kidnapped and bought
and sold.
What is said by the Chinese themselves in their Memorial to the Governor of the
9th November 1878, asking leave to form an association to suppress kidnapping ?
L
--
104
They speak of " go-betweens, and old women who have houses for the detention of
kidnapped people, and, as it may be, inveigle virtuous women or girls to come to Hong
Kong at first, deceiving them by the promise of finding them employment and then
"
proceeding to compel them by force to become prostitutes, or export them to a foreign
66
port, or distribute them by sale over the different ports of China,-boys being sold to
" become adopted children, girls being sold to be trained for prostitution ."
The same gentlemen say in another place, " Hong Kong is the emporium and thorough-
" fare for all the neighbouring ports. Therefore those kidnappers frequent Hong Kong
" much, it being a place where it is easy to buy and sell."
There is no necessity to make further citations.
The published papers on the subject, ( 1 ) the Report of and Evidence taken by the
C.D.O. Commission, and (2) the Papers published in Government Notification No. 28,
of the 4th February 1880, show in the clearest possible manner,-
1. That there is relatively little or no family life in Hong Kong amongst the Chinese,
and therefore no legitimate demand for either adopted male children or for female
domestic servitude.
2. That from three-fourths to five-sixths of the Chinese women in Hong Kong are
prostitutes or living directly by prostitution.
3. That the bulk of these prostitutes are slaves, bought and trained up at considerable
i
expense for the purpose, owned here, at Canton or Macao, prostituted for the sole profit
of their owners, redeemable only by purchase, and rarely able to purchase their own
freedom . Ho Tai Ngan says in her evidence that she never knew such a case.
4. That every Chinese woman who is not in the actual practice of prostitution engages,
if she can get the means, in buying and rearing girls to the work.
5. That Singapore, Australia, and San Francisco are supplied from Hong Kong with
prostitutes, kept women, and concubines.
6. That the profits of this trade are so great, and the demand so strong, that Chinese
men and women are daily tempted into a career of open crime as kidnappers of women
and children to supply the demand not sufficiently supplied by the breeders.
7. That there is a veritable slave class and a genuine slave trade carried on in Hong
Kong, and that on a very large scale indeed.
8. That the prosecutions under the Local Ordinances only touch the fringe of this
garment of crime, only the abuses that have grown out of this tolerated slavery and
slave trade.
9. That until this slave -holding and slave-dealing is entirely suppressed the grosser
abuses arising out of it and incidental to it (kidnapping of women and children) can
never be put an end to.
(Signed) J. J. FRANCIS,
1st October 1880. Barrister-at-Law.
1
Enclosure 6 in No. 18.
CHIEF JUSTICE to ACTING COLONIAL SECRETARY.
1
The Supreme Court, Hong Kong,
SIR, April 2nd, 1881 .
I have the honour to refer to my letters to you ; viz . to, first , a letter dated
August 26, 1880 , being my reply to your letter, with remarks on the official Despatch
from the Right Honourable Lord Kimberley, dated May 20, 1880 , to his Excellency
the Governor, respecting kidnapping and domestic slavery ; to secondly, a supplement
ary
letter, dated November 24th , 1880 , being my letter to you containing further observatio
ns
on kidnapping for brothel slavery , adoption and domestic slavery , and on my extra -judicial
declarations thereon ; with its enclosure of a Memorand , dated October 1st , 1880 ,
um
by Mr. J. J. Francis, barrister-at-law, on slavery in Hong Kong , and on the state of the
law as applicable to such slavery .
I had hoped that these letters would have been forwarded last year, in the belief that
they might have induced a less unfavourable 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, either under the
269
105
law as it now stands, or if, contrary to my opinion, the present law is held to be ineffectual
then under some law to be enacted to meet the mischief.
I am informed that His Excellency the Governor has been unable to obtain the opinion
of the Attorney General on the points raised . I can quite understand, therefore, that it
might be improper for His Excellency the Governor to forward my letters without that
legal advice thereon by which he is constitutionally to be guided .
I the less regret that my letters have not been forwarded, because time strengthens the
case for stringency in suppressing the evils which I have denounced .
Enclosed I forward an extract from the Criminal Calendars of convictions for kidnapping,
eight in number, and for almost unprecedented brutal assaults on bought children, two
in number, during the three first months of this year.
I also forward reports froin the newspapers of my observations on passing sentences on
some ofthe prisoners convicted .
The cases of kidnapping present very little of novelty, except perhaps a slight increase
in numbers convicted, owing to more prompt denunciations by China men and women,
-a very hopeful sign . But, 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 kidnapping detected cannot be one half per cent. of the children and women
kidnapped .
The 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 13 years of age
was bought by a brothel -keeper for $200, and forced, by beating and illtreatment, 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 that such slavery is easy of suppression .
In a few remarks at the end of passing sentences on the 24th March I have expressed
my views of the present state of the question.
I have now, I presume, concluded my judicial labours in reference to these subjects .
It is due to His Excellency the Governor that I should take this opportunity to repeat
what I have very frequently said, that he has honoured me with sympathy in most of my
views. But I can well understand that the questions involve many considerations of
expediency which naturally weigh with him in opposition to my judicial views, and that
political and legal considerations and opinions naturally influence him ; but I feel grateful
to him for the friendly and generous way in which he has treated this matter, and for his
general courtesy, as well when we have differed as on the more frequent occasions when it
has been my pleasing satisfaction to concur with him, ever since his arrival in the Colony.
I have, & c.
The Hon. F. Stewart, LL.D. (Signed) JOHN SMALE ,
&c. &c. &c. Chief Justice.
Enclosure 7 in No. 18.
LIST of CASES of KIDNAPPING, eight in number, and of BRUTAL ASSAULTS on BOUGHT CHILDREN, two in
number, CONVICTED at the CRIMINAL SESSIONS for MONTHS of JANUARY, FEBRUARY, and MARCH 1881 .
Extracted from the Criminal Calendars.
No. in Name ofPrisoner. Crime. Date of Trial. Verdict. Sentence.
Calendar.
JANUARY.
Wong A-Ping Unlawfully by force leading away a 20th January - Guilty 1st February 1881.
child under the age of 14 years, Three years' penal servitude.
with intent to deprive the father
of the child of its possession.
1. Leung A-Kit. Unlawfully by force leading away a 20th January . Both prisoners guilty 1st February 1881.
2. Wong A-Cheung. child under the age of 14 years, unanimously. First prisoner three years'
with intent to deprive the father penal servitude. Second pri-
of the child of its possession. soner one year's imprison-
ment with hard labour.
I. Lai a Chaw. 1. Unlawfully by force leading away 8th February - First prisoner guilty on 8th February 1881.
2. Leong A-Mi. a child under the age of 14 years, first count, not guilty First prisoner three years'
with intent to deprive the person on second count, penal servitude. Second pri-
having the lawful custody of the unanimously. Second Boner one year's imprison-
child of its possession. prisoner guilty on ment with hard labour.
2. Unlawfully by force detaining the second count, not
said child with the same intent. guilty on first count.
Q 2893.
106
No. in Name of Prisoner. Date ofTrial. Verdict. Sentenco.
Calendar. Crime.
FEBRUARY.
Lam A-Chun . Unlawfully and by fraud enticing 18th February Guilty 9th March 1881.
away from this Colony a woman Two years' imprisonment with
named Li Shau Ho for the pur- hard labour.
poses ofprostitution.
Yau A-Fung. Unlawfully and by force detaining 19th February First and fourth pri- 7th March 1881.
Ng A-Fong. and taking away a child named soners guilty; second First and fourth prisoners two
In A-Cheung. Kwok A-I under the age of 14 and third prisoners years' imprisonment with
Un A-Po. years, with intent to deprive the not guilty. hard labour, and to be kept
father of its possession. in solitary confinement for
two months in each year, not
exceeding one month at any
MARCH. one time.
Mak A-Pang. Assault on bought girl, occasioning 2nd March Both prisoners guilty 9th March 1881.
Tang A- Lon. actual bodily harm. Three years' penal servitudo
ench.
Chan San Unlawfully and by fraud enticing 18th March Not guilty.
into this Colony a boy named
Leung A-Wing for the purpose of
selling him.
1. Ching A-Chau. Unlawfully and by force detaining 19th March Second, fourth, and fifth 24th March 1881.
2. Chau A-Num . within this Colony one Chau A-Fat prisoners guilty : first, Two years' imprisonment with
3. Au A-Pat. for the purpose of selling him. third, and sixth not hard labour each.
4. Chan A-Cheung. guilty.
5. Li A-Yeung,
6. Lau A-Ng.
3 Iam A-Yau Assault ona bought girl, occasioning 18th March Guilty 24th March 1881.
actual bodily harın. Three years' ponal servitude.
1. Chau A-Lam. Unlawfully and by fraud enticing 19th March Both prisoners guilty on 24th March 1881.
2. Lai A Yik. intothis Colony a boy named Chau both counts. Three years, penal servitudo
A-Yun for the purpose of selling each.
him.
Enclosure 8 in No. 18.
Taken from the " Daily Press " of 10th March 1881 .
Supreme Court, 9th March.
Before His Honour the Chief Justice Sir JOHN SMALE.
SLAVERY.
His Lordship now passed sentence on Lam Achun as follows :-
You, Lam Achun, have been found guilty by the Jury of having enticed away a
woman named Li Shau Ho from the Colony, for the purpose of prostitution, on the
15th of November 1880. The facts of this case are that the prisoner, a friend of the
deceased husband of Li Shau Ho, a widow, who was living in Queen's Road West, induced
her, she being very poor, to agree to go to Kowloon City as a cook at $2 a month. He
took her to a boat ; and took her, not to Kowloon, but to Sha Ching, in the Sun On
district . He detained her for eight days, and then forcibly took her to a brothel there ,
sold her for $24 , and left here there in the brothel . She was compelled to act as a
prostitute, and in consequence she sent a letter to her uncle, Su Tsing Tai, who was
living in Hong Kong. He was a poor man, and it took him some time to save the
money ; but he raised it and went to the brothel, paid $24, and redeemed his niece
on the 7th of January, and brought her to Hong Kong, and the prisoner was pointed
out to the police and arrested. Lam Achun , of your guilt there can be no doubt.
You consigned this poor woman to a course of life abhorrent to her. Your crime is a very
bad, but neither an uncommon nor remarkable crime in China. I must punish it severely.
The sentence of this Court on you is that you be imprisoned and kept to hard labour
for the term of two years.
Mak A-pang (a female) and Tang Alon were then brought up for sentence.
His Lordship said, -Upon an information charging you, Mak A-pang and Tang Alon,
with having made an assault on Mak Tai Yau, a young girl of the age of 13 years,
and with having beat, wounded, and illtreated her, thereby occasioning to her actual
bodily harm, at Victoria, on two occasions, viz. , on the 3rd of November and on the
3rd of December last, the Jury after an anxious and careful hearing have come to the
only conclusion possible, -that each of you is guilty. The repeated deliberate statements
which you, Mak Apang, made in your defence, that you have lived with the second
prisoner as his paramour, and that you were not his wife, relieved the Court from all
question of marital coercion , which under some circumstances might have arisen in your
271
107
favour, but which I had, before you made these statements, concluded did not and
could not arise in your favour upon the evidence of independent wicked intent proved
against you. Your victim, the victim of both of you, Mak Tai Yau, formerly a healthy
child though of delicate frame, was brought into this Court in the arms of an inspector
of police. She could not stand, and was placed in a chair, much emaciated , with pale
and hollow cheeks, to the eye of a non-medical man almost dying ; and she then
narrated the history of her sufferings, of which I will now give a short outline. This
child of about 13 years of age lost her father ; and about a year ago her mother, who
lives at Heung Shau, near Canton , distant three days by passage boat from Hong Kong,
sold her to some one who brought her to Hong Kong, and sold her to the female
prisoner. From the time of her purchase of the child, the female prisoner beat her
very often. The second prisoner, the man, beat her less often . She had been beaten
sometimes with a rattan, and sometimes with firewood taken from the ordinary bundles
of split firewood, perhaps two or three times a week. She was beaten with firewood on
the 3rd of November last , when her leg was broken ; she cannot walk even now. Some
time after that the female prisoner burnt her on the arm and hand with a hot crimping
iron. The little girl showed eight places where the marks of the burning remained.
On cross-examination by the female prisoner it was elicited that the man tied her up,
and the woman beat her. In answer to questions subsequently put to her, the poor
child said nothing was said to her before she was tied up ; her mistress did not often
speak to her ; she thus beat the girl, and said it was because she was lazy. From the
evidence by the neighbours it appeared that the child had been frequently beaten,
mainly by the woman, with rattans ; at one time with two as big as a finger tied together.
One neighbour described the beating on the 3rd of November last, that the little girl
was tied up by her hands to a bamboo which hung from the ceiling by the clothes line,
by the male prisoner, and that she was beaten by the woman with a piece of firewood
(described as being about two feet long, and about two inches in diameter) . This
witness saw the female prisoner strike this little girl two or three times on one of her
legs ; then the man struck the little girl, still tied up ; and he then untied her, and on
the support of her being tied up failing her, the little girl fell down. Before this beating
on that day, which was deposed to as being on the 3rd of November , the little child
was seen out in the street ; but after that date she did not go out. The fact that the
female prisoner burnt the little girl with the crimping iron was deposed to by a neigh-
bour. The little girl said of herself, " When I got there (i.e. to the house of the
prisoner) I could do work ; I could move very heavy things ; I could carry water. I
" had strength to play. I was not then hollow-cheeked like I am now." It seems
that the neighbours (doing what the Chinese are most loth to do) gave information to
the police, and the two prisoners were arrested, and the little girl was taken to the
civil hospital. I am bound to say, to the credit of the Chinese, that since the evils of
kidnapping have been explained from this Bench to them, since the miseries consequent
on the system have been discussed , a right public opinion has been growing up, and
kidnappers have been denounced ; and now, when the evils of the state of this domestic
bondage , of this natural result of traffic in children , of this boasted patria potestas , of
this phase of the national religious sentiment , as it has been called, became known , it was
denounced to the police. It seems that this poor child was brought by the police to the civil
hospital on the 7th of January, but she was too ill to be taken as a witness to the Police
Court until the 11th of February. When she gave evidence at the trial in this Court on the
2nd of March, Dr. Wharry, the surgeon superintendent of the civil hospital, gave evidence ,
of which I proceed to extract the main particulars . He said, " I examined that child
" when she was admitted, brought by the police ; she had a compound fracture of
" the left leg, just above the ankle ; there were stripes as of a rattan across the
" left temple, very well marked, and on both hands. The fore-arms, left side and leg,
" and the left hand and arm, were badly beaten, the skin being broken in many places,
" the right eyelids were both contused, and the skin broken." He said, " I have looked
" at injuries said by a witness to have been caused by a hot iron . I see that some were
" caused by burning, and others caused by a rattan. The child appeared emaciated . I am
" of opinion that it is partly from want offood, and partly from ill-treatment. The leg had
" been broken not less than a fortnight before she was brought to the hospital . There are
" marks of beating of a more recent date than the fracture, and some of these recent marks
"6 are on the fractured leg itself. The child was in a very low state, and she is now in very
a
" much improved state. The child was apparently suffering from neglect as well as from
" ill-treatment." It having been suggested by one of the prisoners that the fracture had
been occasioned by a fall, Dr. Wharry said, " I think the fracture was more likely to have
" been caused by a blow than from a fall. The child is not able to walk on the injured
108
" leg yet." The child was taken back to the hospital, where she may be seen by persons
who feel an interest in the case, in a state apparently to be little removed from death.
The Jury without hesitation found both prisoners guilty of the crimes charged. It is
now my duty to sentence both prisoners . You, Mak A-pang, are more guilty than your
fellow prisoner, -your paramour, as you call him. You bought the child, and you seem to
have exercised most of the cruelties on her. The main excuse for you is that you are
what you are from education in evil, probably a domestic bondswoman yourself. You say
that you were the inmate of a brothel. Cruelty begets cruelty, and the life you have
been forced into has educated you to cruelty till one feels pity even for such a criminal
as you are, whilst retaining to the full indignation at the crime. You, it may be, are in
your crime as much the victim of Chinese customs as the poor child whose young life
you have blasted ; but justice must be vindicated ; and in order to mark how such atrocities
as you have been guilty of are abhorred, it becomes my duty, and I sentence you to
penal servitude for three years : the law gives me no power on this information to inflict
a heavier punishment. As for you , Tang Alon, you appear to have been less active
in the cruel treatment of this young child, but you certainly took a very active part in
the atrocity of tying up and flogging this poor young girl, and in breaking her leg, and
in other assaults on her ; but as a man not educated to crime as your fellow prisoner
has been, I think you liable to a punishment as severe as that imposed on her. The
sentence ofthe Court on you is that you be kept to penal servitude for three years. I cannot
part with this case without asking whether it does not justify all that I have said from
this Bench against kidnapping, and against that domestic bondage which I call domestic
slavery, of which , in low natures and in bad hearts, the crimes of which these prisoners
have been convicted are the natural fruits ! Everyone must feel that it would have
been far better for this poor girl if she had died in the midst of the days when her checks
were not hollow as they are now, when she could play and did play in happy childhood ,
than that, in emaciated and in ruined health , she should, even when rescued, drag out a
blighted life. I know of no.case in the actual annals of slavery, nothing in the fictions
of the great anti-slavery novelist, which tends more to excite sympathy and pain. But
is this a solitary case . I fear that though it may be pre-eminently atrocious, hundreds,
nay thousands, of cases of a like kind have existed in this Colony under the British flag.
The propriety of what I have said on this subject from this Bench has been questioned.
I, however, hold it to be my duty to law, -to humanity, the highest law, —in the only
effectual way in my power to lay bare before the public how much yet remains to be done
before it can be said that in this Colony " slavery has ceased to be in use." I am more
inclined to blame myself because so many years have passed without the system presenting
itself to my notice, rather than to take blame for any excess of zeal in denouncing the
system since its enormities have forced themselves on my attention.
Enclosure 9 in No. 18.
SLAVERY.
REPORT by Dr. EITEL.
IN reporting on the letters (and enclosures) of Sir John Smale, dated respectively
26th August 1880, 24th November 1880, and 2nd April 1881 , I leave all questions of a legal
nature, referred to in these papers , aside, as beyond my ken, and confine myself to indicate ,
as briefly as I can, how far my knowledge and experience of Chinese social life enables me
to agree with, or compels me to differ from, the views expressed or sanctioned by Sir
John Smale in the papers before me .
2. As far as I understand the position Sir John Smale takes (independently and
through Mr. Francis ' report enclosed in these papers ), it virtually amounts to the follow-
ing propositions , in which I concur :—
a. That there is buying and selling of human beings going on in Hong Kong and
elsewhere, specially also in connection with Chinese emigration to the Straits
Settlements and Australia.
b. That comparatively little of this system of buying and selling human beings, as far as
it is visible in Hong Kong, is connected with the Chinese systems of adoption and
domestic servitude, and that what little there is of it here does not merit the
designation of slavery, nor does it call for the interference of the law.
109
c. That there is, however, a system of buying and selling women and girls, and
especially also kidnapping, conducted in Hong Kong, in connection with the exist-
ing system of prostitution of Chinese women in Hong Kong, in the Straits
Settlements and elsewhere, and that herein is to be found the fountain-source of
what, in a certain sense, may be called slavery and slave trade.
d. That the remedy lies, in the first instance, (to use Sir John Smale's words, ) " in a
" better registration of the inmates of brothels, in frequently bringing them before
66
persons to whom they might freely speak, and in authoritative interference with
" the brothel-keepers ."
So far I am entirely in accord with Sir John Smale.
3. I would, however, add that, in my opinion, the remedy here indicated is not suffi-
cient in itself, but that further remedies, to which Sir John Smale might consistently
agree, consist, firstly in a reform of the present system of examinations of passenger ships
and emigrants, as conducted by the emigration officer in Hong Kong ; secondly, in
systematic co-operation, on the part of the emigration officer, the officer entrusted with the
working of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, and the Superintendent of Police, on the
one hand, with both the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Women and Children
and the Government of Singagore, on the other hand ; and, thirdly, in a reform of the
system of examining Chinese female immigrants in Singapore.
4. As regards the points of difference between Sir John Smale's views as expressed in
the papers before me and my own reports on the subject of slavery, I have but few remarks
to make. In the first instance, I observe that in these papers the term " slavery " is
indiscriminately used, -now in a strictly legal sense, and then again in its ethical or senti-
mental sense. As in the latter sense the word " slavery " can idiomatically be applied to
any irksome form of drudgery people in many ranks of society have to submit to in all
countries, the indiscriminate use of the terms • " slavery " or " genuine slavery " is a source
of confusion and error, to which I can trace some apparent differences between Sir John
Smale and myself. Secondly, as regards all other points of difference between the views
expressed in the papers before me and my own reports, I can also be brief. Sir John
Smale asserts, whilst I positively deny, that the conditions of social life among the
150,000 Chinese in Hong Kong are radically different from the social life in China, that
there is no ground to believe that the system of adoption has a religious basis, that there
is relatively little or no family life among the Chinese here, that few if any well-to- do
Chinese have their first wives here, that not one of the leading Chinese has his home here
in Hong Kong, and so forth. Whilst positively asserting the reverse of each of these
propositions, I must point out these are matters of which Sir John Smale could hardly be
cognizant, as they lie as much beyond his sphere of knowledge and experience as English
law lies beyond mine ; whilst, on the other hand, the above-named propositions of Sir
John Smale refer to matters which came under my daily observation, professionally, I
may say, during the last nineteen years I was living here. I may further point out that
independent and authoritative sources of information, such as are afforded by the Chinese
Embassy in London and by the latest publication (Chinese Immigration , New York,
1881 ) of Mr. Seward, late United States Minister in Peking, appear to me to confirm
the substance of my reports on slavery, whilst they tend, as it seems to me, to contradict
the views expressed by Sir John Smale. Finally, it may not be uncalled -for to state that
the reason why Sir John Smale fell into error is not merely that he wrote on a part of the
subject of which he had no experimental knowledge, but chiefly also on account of his
drawing at the time his information from a tainted source . I know that the person
who supplied the information underlying the statements reiterated in these papers by
both Sir John Smale and Mr. Francis is a foreigner,-ignorant of the written language of
-
China, but possessed of a smattering of the lowest slang of Hong Kong, a man whose
knowledge of Chinese social life is confined to an intimate acquaintance with the lowest
class of Chinese prostitutes .
5. There is , however, one other assertion of Sir John Smale's which requires refutation.
Sir John Smale states, in his letter of 24th November 1880, with reference to the Chinese
gentlemen who started the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, that " they
have not shown their bona fides, for not a step has, so far as I know, been taken by
" them to form such an association, which required no aid from the Government ." If
Sir John Smale had taken the trouble to inquire, he would have found that in most of
the cases of kidnapping he tried at the time when he wrote this erroneous sentence, it
was due to the efforts of these very gentlemen that, in the first instance, the offenders
were brought to justice. I have before me a list of 123 cases of kidnapping and illegal
sale of women or children which this Society took up and dealt with between 15th
January 1880 and the present day. An abstract I made of this record shows that,
、、༔
during the time mentioned, these gentlemen, whom Sir John Smale supposed to have
110
been inactive, detected and brought before the police 26 cases of kidnapping, inquired,
at the request of the Colonial Secretary, and reported on 19 other cases of kidnapping,
and took charge of and eventually sent to their homes 98 kidnapped people. Of these
kidnapped people 80 were sent to the Society by the Police Court, the Superintendent
of Police, the Registrar General or Emigration Officer, and 18 from Singapore or other
places. There are piles of correspondence between the Colonial Secretary and the
Chairman of the Po-léung-kuk, as this Society is called, lying at the Colonial Secretary's
Office, testifying to the immense activity of these gentlemen and their detectives. So
far from their not having taken any steps to constitute themselves, as far as they could ,
without Government aid, they have materially aided the Government in detecting crimes
of kidnapping ; they caused a considerable increase in the number of cases of this nature
brought before Sir John Smale, who saw an increase of crime where there was merely an
increase of detection of crime. This Society, informally established since January 1880,
has already compelled the kidnappers to change their mode of operation, and will, if duly
supported by the Government, undoubtedly succeed to reduce the crime of kidnapping
to a low ebb. But it is requisite that the solicitations and suggestions they made in
correspondence with the Colonial Secretary be attended to ; viz., that the Society be
incorporated under a special Ordinance, and that the system of examining immigrants and
female Chinese passengers by the Emigration Officer be amended so as to make the
examinations more searching and more efficient by securing the co-operation of the
Society in such examinations .
( Signed) E. J. ETTEL .
2nd August 1881 .
No. 19.
GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE HENNESSY, K.C.M.G. , to the Right Hon. The
EARL OF KIMBERLEY.
(Received October 24th, 1881.)
Government House, Hong Kong,
MY LORD, August 31st, 1881 .
I HAVE the honour to enclose a copy of the Report, dated the 17th instant, of the
Attorney General, Mr. O'Malley, on Chief Justice Sir John Smale's statements, made
from time to time by his Honour in sentencing prisoners for kidnapping, or in delivering
judgments relating to the brothel slavery in Hong Kong.
2. I find nothing in the Attorney General's report that renders it necessary for me to
add to what I have already written on the general question .
3. The apparent difference between Mr. O'Malley's views on brothel slavery and the
views of Sir John Smale is due to the fact that Sir John Smale knew that the real
brothel slavery exists in the brothels where Chinese women are provided for European
soldiers and sailors ; whereas Mr. O'Malley, in discarding the use of the word slavery,
does so on the assumption that all the Hong Kong brothels form a part of the Chinese
social system, and that the girls naturally and willingly take to that mode of earning a
livelihood . This is a misconception of the actual facts ; for though the Hong Kong
brothels, where Chinese women meet Chinese only, may seem to provide for such women
what Mr. O'Malley calls a natural and suitable manner of life consistent with a part of
the Chinese social system, it is absolutely the reverse in those Hong Kong brothels where
Chinese women have to meet foreigners only. Such brothels are unknown in the social
system of China. The Chinese girls who are registered by the Government for the use
of Europeans and Americans detest the life they are compelled to lead . They have a
dread and abhorrence of foreigners, and especially of the foreign soldiers and sailors.
Such Chinese girls are the real slaves in Hong Kong. The statement made many years
ago by a Registrar General, Mr. C. C. Smith, which your Lordship quotes in a Despatch
of the 26th July, 1881 , * to the opposite effect, is entirely misleading.
4. To drive Chinese girls into such brothels was the object of the system of informers
which Mr. C. C. Smith for so many years conducted in this Colony, and which in his
evidence before the Commission on the 3rd of December, 1877 , he defended on the
ground of its necessity in detecting unlicensed houses, but which your Lordship has now
justly stigmatised as a revolting abuse.
5. On another point the 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
No. 38 of C. 3093 of August 1881 .
111
realized the public opinion of the Chinese community on the subject of kidnapping. In
sentencing a prisoner for kidnapping, 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
two kidnappers 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 afterwards 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 kidnapping as a crime against
society calling for active suppression."
6. 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 satisfac-
tion 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."
7. It will no doubt be gratifying to Her Majesty's Government to notice that the
final words of Chief Justice Sir John Smale in the Supreme Court of Hong Kong testify
to the practical value of the Chinese Society your Lordship has done so much to
promote. It is only due to Sir John Smale to add that his own action has greatly con-
tributed 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.
I have, &c.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, (Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
&c. &c. &c.
Enclosure in No. 19.
THE following documents are sent to me, and I understand that it is desired that I
should make a report upon them :-
Chief Justice
99 to Colonial Secretary, August 26th, 1880, * with a pamphlet+ " Slavery
in Hong Kong.'
Chief Justice to Colonial Secretary, April 2nd, 1881 , with a calendar of cases tried at
criminal sessions, and newspaper reports of sentences.
Chief Justice to Colonial Secretary, 24th November 1880 , with a memorandum on
the subject of slavery by Mr. Francis. §
I think that paragraphs 4 and 11 of Mr. Francis' memorandum correctly describe the
law applicable to kidnapping and slavery in this colony.
Amongst the statutory provisions mentioned as forming part of that law are sections
50 and 51 of Ordinance 4 of 1865 and sections 23 , 45 , 67-8 of Ordinance 2 of 1875.
I think that these sections, together with Ordinance 5 of 1865 ( relating to accessories
and abettors) , make sufficient provision for the punishment of all persons convicted of
being concerned in the crime of kidnapping.
It is stated by Sir John Smale and Mr. Francis that the crime of kidnapping prevails
to a great extent in this Colony, but they do not refer to the evidence upon which they
rely for their statement.
I think the criminal statistics furnish information upon this point which may be trusted.
The convictions for kidnapping, abduction , and detention in the Supreme Court and in
the Magistrates ' Courts during the last seven years have been as follows :-
Convictions in Convictions in
Year. Magistrates' Supreme Total.
Courts. Court.
1874 11 1 12
1875 18 2 20
1876 23 1 24
1877 11 3 14
1878 13 7 20
1879 9 4 13
1880 7 17 24
Enclosure 2 in No. 18. † Enclosure 1 in No. 1 .
Enclosure 6 in No. 18. § Enclosures 4 and 5 in No. 18.
112
The decrease in the cases in the Magistrates' Courts and corresponding increase in the
Supreme Court is, I believe, owing to directions which were issued to the effect that
cases of this kind should be committed for trial in the Supreme Court instead of being
dealt with, as the law allows, in the Magistrates ' Courts ; it is not an indication of any
increase in the gravity of the type of the cases brought to notice.
There is no reason that I know of to suppose that the proportion of undetected to
detected crimes is specially large in this particular class of offences . The police are
active, rewards are given for assisting in the detection and apprehension of offenders,
and the sentiment of the Chinese inhabitants of the Colony strongly condemns the
practice.
The numbers of cases actually brought under the cognizance of the Courts during the
period above mentioned are as follows :-
1874 50
1875 67
1876 67
1877 - 76
1878 - 101
1879 - 88
1880 - 107
I submit that these statistics show that while there has been increased vigilance in
bringing suspected cases to trial, the crime does not prevail to any very great extent, and
is not increasing in the Colony.
I think, therefore, that some exception may be taken to Sir John Smale's statement,
under the head " Increase of Kidnapping," on page 24 of his pamphlet , and to the
subsequent passage, on page 35, in which he refers to that statement as laying bare the
extent to which kidnapping existed .
A like exception may be taken to Mr. Francis' statement, in paragraph 12 of his
memorandum, where he says that " offences against the provisions of Ordinance 4 of
66
1865 and 2 of 1875 , so far as they relate to women and children , are still very common,
" and are growing more numerous every day."
There can be no doubt that there are special inducements and opportunities for the
crime afforded by the situation of the Colony and by the brothel system , which is one of
the social institutions of the Chinese inhabitants . But I do not know of any facts that
show that the established machinery of police and justice, aided as it is by the vigilance
of the Chinese themselves, is not equal to the necessities of the case.
For the purpose of dealing with the larger question as to slavery raised by Sir John
Smale, it is necessary to distinguish between slavery in the legal sense of the term and
slavery in the sentimental sense.
I apprehend that the only status that the law regards as one of slavery is a status of
subjection or restraint created or maintained by force, whether legal or otherwise, or by
fraud-a status inconsistent with the liberty of the person occupying it a status in which
according to the language of section 2 of 6 & 7 Vict. c. 98, the person is held in
servitude.
Taking the term slavery as limited in this sense, I think that the following provisions
of Ordinance 2 of 1875, viz. :-
VII. Whosoever shall by force orfraud imprison or detain any person within the Colony
for the purpose of emigration, or for any other purpose whatsoever, shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be liable to the punishments
herein-after provided .
VIII. Whosoever shall by force, intimidation , or any fraudulent means bring, lead,
take, decoy, or entice any person into or away from the Colony for the purpose
of emigration, or for any other purpose whatsoever, shall be guilty of a mis-
demeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be liable to the punishments hereafter
provided.
IX. Every person who shall be convicted of any offence against the provisions of
this Ordinance shall be liable to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding two
years, with or without hard labour.
make sufficient provision for the punishment of any person who does any act amounting
to the holding of any other person in slavery.
Further, taking the term slavery in this sense, and applying it as a test, I do not think
there is ground for saying that the women in the brothels or the servants in the houses
of Hong Kong are as a rule in a state of slavery.
In the eye of the law these persons are fully entitled to all the rights of free people.
This law will not enforce any restraint that it may be sought to put upon them ; it
113
treats any assumed right to put such restraint upon them as void ; and it punishes any
attempt to put such restraint upon them as a criminal act.
Nevertheless if these persons were proved to be as a rule detained against their will ;
if the protection which the law provided for them were proved to be unavailing, either
because they were ignorant that there was such protection, or because, though knowing
that there was such protection, they were unable to invoke it ; or if it were shown that
the exercise of force or fraud was resorted to to keep them in their position, and to
exclude the operation of the law in their behalf, then it would be no great stretch of
language to say that they were in a condition of slavery.
But if this is not so, and if these persons occupy their positions voluntarily, I submit
that their condition is not one of slavery at all.
What is the true state of the case is a question of fact upon which Sir John Smale
adduces no evidence.
If these persons had been brought up with European notions of morality, so that the
position was one which one might expect them to regard as strange and repulsive, or
as one of hardship and degradation, there would be room for some presumption that they
were not free agents, and that the protection of the law had not been adequately brought
to bear upon them.
But the circumstances , so far as I have been able to understand them, do not raise
such a presumption, and the practice of the Registrar General's office, as I am
informed that it is carried out, goes some way to prove that so far as the brothel girls
are concerned they are as a rule acquainted with the sort of protection that the law
throws around them, and are able to avail themselves of it if they choose.
I suggest as a probable explanation of the willingness of the brothel girls to lead the
life they do the following, which I understand to be notorious facts :-
1st. That this brothel life is one recognised career for girls of a certain grade in the
Chinese social system, and that they are brought up to look at it as a natural and
suitable manner of life for a time.
2nd. That many of them have at the time when they are old enough to enter a brothel
no traceable relations or other assured means of support.
I submit therefore that the language used by Sir John Smale and Mr. Francis is likely
to convey an erroneous impression as to both the legal and practical bearings of the state
of things that prevails in Hongkong.
This remark applies particularly to the following passages in the pamphlet :
" The gravity of the fact that two specific classes of slavery exist in this Colony to a
very great extent, viz . , so-called domestic slavery and slavery for the purposes of
prostitution.
" The enormous extent to which slavery has grown up in this Colony.
" On this dot in the ocean it is estimated that the slave population has reached
10,000.
" The laws against slavery not having been enforced within this Colony, the only
excuse that can be urged is ignorance of the existence of the extent of slavery here.
" The fiat of universal public opinion has gone forth that slavery, abolished everywhere
else under the Crown, shall not be allowed to lurk even in this small eastern Ultima
Thule of the British dominions ."
And to the following passages in Mr. Francis' Report :- :-
" Girls are bought and sold for the purpose of prostitution--brought up and trained
for prostitution, a life of the most abject and degrading slavery."
"The report of C.D.O. Commission , February 1880, shows that there is a •
slave class and a slave trade carried on in Hong Kong, and that on a
very large scale indeed. "
The moral to be gathered from these passages, and indeed from the whole tone of the
pamphlet and memorandum, is that it would better to discard the use of the word slavery
in connexion with this subject, and to deal with the brothel system and the domestic
servitude system upon their real merits, to recognize that they are parts of the Chinese
social order maintained in this Colony without force and without assistance from the law
by virtue of the concurrence of all parties concerned in them. If it is thought right for
moral reasons to put them down as such, it would be better to say so, and deal with them
accordingly ; but I think it is a mistake to call them by a name which does not describe
them, and is not applicable to them either in law or in fact.
Sir John Smale states, in page 19 of his pamphlet, that what he has said on this subject
of slavery has been said to meet arguments, doubts, and difficulties which have paralysed
public opinion and public action here-arguments, doubts, and difficulties which are the
less easy to combat because they have been rather hinted at than avowed.
Q 2893.
279
115
MINUTE of the GOVERNOR.
In what state are my minutes about the Chinese Society for the Protection of Women
and Children, calling for a report, &c. ?
Also as to my minutes on the Chief Justice's letters to Lord Kimberley ?
(Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
29th March 1881 .
MINUTE by the ACTING COLONIAL Secretary.
THE papers were sent to the Attorney General on the 30th September last ( 1880) .
(Signed) FREDERICK STEWART,
29th March 1881 . Acting Colonial Secretary.
MINUTE by the GOVERNOR .
No doubt this will now be attended to.
( Signed) J. POPE HENNESSY.
30th March 1881 .
Enclosure 2 in No. 20.
(Translation .)
RULES and REGULATIONS agreed upon for the ASSOCIATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF
HONEST PEOPLE, for the DETECTION and SUPPRESSION of CRIMES of KIDNAPPING, as
well as for the PROTECTION of WOMEN and CHILDREN.
1. The subscribers shall conjointly constitute one Society, viz., the (above mentioned )
Association, and may from among the members of the Association publicly elect ten
Directors, who shall have power to carry into effect all legal measures.
2. No distinction shall be made as to the amount of subscription, but subscribers of
$10 shall be considered as members of the Committee of the Association, and shall have
a vote at all public discussions of the same. After the first subscription has been made,
no further subscription need be raised unless the funds of the Association are found
insufficient to meet the expenses and cause a stoppage of its operations , whereupon the
members of the Committee of the Association will exert themselves and raise an
additional subscription , but the amount of the individual subscriptions will be left to the
voluntary effort of each, and there shall be no compulsion.
3. The Association is established with a view to afford protection to honest women
and to children, that is to say, to discover and repress crimes of kidnapping and to rescue
kidnapped persons.
4. Whenever any male or female children have been kidnapped and are unlawfully
brought to Hongkong, be it for purposes of prostitution or for domestic servitude , for
the purpose of sale for adoption or apprenticeship, or for the purpose of hypothecation
or re-sale to a foreign port, or when any person is brought here under false and specious
pretence, and not of his or her free will and accord, in any such case coming to the
knowledge of the Association, some means must he devised for the rescue of such
persons, so as to enable them to return to their homes.
5. Whenever it happens that any kidnapped person, male or female, is required to wait
till the case has been tried in Court before he or she can be discharged, such person
shall be temporarily detained by the Association until the case has been finally settled,
when such person shall be assisted to return to his or her native place.
6. When it happens that a kidnapped person has no home to go to, the Association
shall, in the case of a girl, make arrangements for her betrothal or find some trustworthy
persons who are willing to adopt her or bring her up to be a daughter-in-law, and in the
case of a boy, he shall be given in adoption, or apprenticed, or other provision made to
give him a shelter, so as to prevent his being homeless . For these reasons, it will be
necessary to erect a building where homeless persons may find temporary residence and
comfort, and it is for this purpose that subscriptions are required.
116
7. All charitable persons who will subscribe ten dollars, whoever they may be, or
wherever they may reside, will be considered as members of the Committee of the
Association.
8. If the Directors for the time being of the Association find it desirable to have
Agents to assist them at other ports for purposes of effective co-operation, they can
bring the matter up for discussion, and from among the Committee members at such
port there shall be elected one or two persons to be Agents of the Association.
9. The Agents elected and appointed by the Association may at their respective ports
call a meeting of the Committee members for the transaction of all business, and anything
furthering the objects of this Association may be carried into effect as may be deemed
convenient, but in cases of importance or difficulty they shall , by letter, consult the
Hongkong Association, and await reply before taking action. If any Agent wishes to
resign, or mismanages bis duties, the Association may at any time elect another person to
take his place.
10. The Association shall use a seal with an inscription both in English and Chinese
characters, and such seal shall be used in cases of purchase of property or of important
public matters, when an impression of that seal shall be affixed, but whenever the seal is
thus used, it shall be necessary that the signatures of two Directors for the time being be
added before the matter can be looked upon as authentic.
11. All affairs of the Association, whether important or unimportant, provided they are
of advantage to the members of Committee or concern the Association, may at any time
be brought before a meeting for discussion, and action shall be taken according to the vote
of the majority.
12. All lawsuits in which the Association may be involved by charges preferred on
account of the public acts of the Association, shall be authoritatively dealt with by the
Attorney whom the Government may appoint, or by the Attorney General, and all expenses
shall be paid by the Government.
13. All Ordinances enacted by the English Government, or hereafter to be enacted,
for the repression of kidnapping or selling persons for purposes of prostitution, and
similar offences, may at any time be published by the Association for general information,
or the Association may issue special advertisements to be sent into the inland districts
with a view to make them known far and wide, so as to warn people.
14. The Directors of this Association shall in the first instance be the ten persons to
be elected publicly, and they shall record the names of all Committee members in a
Register, and those ten persons first elected shall be considered the founders of the
Association . But they shall resign at the end of a year, and others shall be elected
from among the Committee members to take their places. They shall, however, de
eligible for re-election for a term not exceeding three years.
15. All Directors newly elected every year shall forward their surnames and names to
be submitted to His Excellency the Governor for ratification.
16. All transactions of the Association shall be carefully recorded, and such records
shall at any time be open to the inspection of the members of the Committee and of the
Government .
17. All expenses incurred by the Association, and the accounts of receipts and
disbursements , shall be annually exhibited (in a balance sheet), which shall be printed
and copies distributed for the information of the Committee members, and a copy of the
same shall be submitted to the Government for scrutiny and verification .
18. The salaries of all Secret Detectives , informers or managers employed by the
Association shall be defrayed out of the public funds. The Detectives shall be first
sworn in by the Government, and when approved by the Government shall be considered
as if they were Police Constables, but such Detectives shall confine themselves entirely
to the detection and repression of crimes of kidnapping and to the arresting of kidnappers ,
as also to the rescue of kidnapped persons. Whenever any business they have in hand
from day to day concerns the Superintendent of Police or the Harbour Master, they
shall be bound to report the matter to them and apply for their co-operation. But the
Superintendent of Police or Harbour Master shall not use such Detectives in pursuance
of other matters.
19. Whenever in a case of kidnapping there are persons who gave the information,
they shall not be rewarded until the Police Court or the Supreme Court have decided
the case, when, according to the regulations existing, the Government will determine
upon a cominensurate reward, and no such reward need be paid by the Association.
20. When any transaction of the Association requires authority exceeding the powers
of the Association, application shall be made to the Government for assistance and
117
co-operation, but if by accident the Association should unwittingly exceed its powers,
application shall also be made to the Government for forbearance.
The above twenty regulations are herewith expressly submitted to His Excellency the
Governor for ratification, and an official reply will be awaited before they are given
effect, and further, the Government is entreated to embody these Rules and Regula-
tions in a Special Ordinance to ensure their permanency. Such is the Petitioners'
earnest prayer.
28th September, 1880.
(Translation.)
RULES and REGULATIONS of the COMMITTEE of the ASSOCIATION for the
PROTECTION of HONEST PEOPLE.
1. This Association will call every year at a certain time one General Meeting of all
the Committee members to arrange for the public election of Directors, also to examine the
accounts, which will then be submitted to the Government for its information and so
forth.
2. All Committee members who have been elected Directors, will, when their term of
office is about to expire, or at least half a month prior to its expiry, tender their resignation,
so that others may be elected from among the number of Committee members, but if again
elected they may resume their office. The names of the persons so elected will, however,
have to be submitted to the Government for the information of His Excellency the
Governor.
3. When the time comes for the Annual General Meeting, previous notice thereof must
be given to all Committee members, inviting them to come and take part in the meeting,
or notice be given at least 7 days previous by insertion in one of the Chinese newspapers,
so that all may be informed.
4. At the ordinary meetings of the Directors three Directors present to sign the papers
shall form a quorum .
5. Managers or Agents or others employed by the Association will , if involved in any
litigation, being charged by others on account of public business, or charging others on
the same account, have all their expenses paid from the public funds.
6. From among the Directors who have been publicly elected out of the number of
the Committee members, there shall be elected a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, and a
Treasurer, and they shall be responsible for what they do.
7. The Treasurer shall be selected from among the Directors and be appointed by
them, and shall be authorized to make all arrangements for getting good interest and so
on. If the said officer is found deficient in his accounts, the nine other Directors shall
be responsible for the amount, and no excuse will be allowed. As to putting out money
on loan , the said officer shall at the time consult the other members and act accordingly.
8. Each of those who have been elected Directors shall, on entering office, sign a
declaration on oath to signify his sincerity and disinterestedness.
9. Every Detective to be employed by the Association must find two respectable and
substantial persons to stand security for him, each signing a bond for $250 guarantee
against extortion, coercion or trumping up of false charges or other offences, and on
entering office he shall further be required to sign a declaration on oath in proof of his
good faith.
10. Any Rules and Regulations passed by the Directors from time to time after due
discussion may be successively added with a view to consolidate the system and to perfect
it in details .
11. All Committee members should be careful to cherish the principle of human charity
and entirely refrain from any improper action, but on meeting with kidnapped persons
proceed with increased alacrity or join other members of the Association in energetic
efforts for their rescue, and further, by some means or other, get the kidnappers arrested
and handed over to the Government to be prosecuted, all with the hope that these evil
practices be eradicated , when all people will rejoice over the riddance, which is the great
aim of this Association.
12. All Committee members should be careful not to listen to any slander and there-
courage and draw back half way, which would be wasting all the trouble taken
upon lose
in organizing this scheme. But it is hoped they will deal with every case with straight-
forwardness, when they need not be ashamed before gods or men, but will be able to face
the bright spirits, and if after all there is vituperation or praise, they need not trouble
118
themselves about it. Besides, it must be considered that the English Government wields
great power in its hands, and is surely able to see through all the intricacies of each case
and will certainly prevent those criminals to play secret mischief.
13. This Association must establish a Register of the Committee members, account-
books for receipts and disbursements, also a Day-book, Letter-book, Minute-book and so
forth, to facilitate inquiries that may be made at any time by Committee members.
14. At the first starting of this Association, it has been agreed to use temporarily the
Tung-wá Hospital for the purpose of meetings and for a place of detention of kidnapped
persons until funds have been collected, when the English Government will be petitioned
for the grant of a piece of ground suitable for the erection of buildings where destitute
people can be accommodated.
The above 14 rules are designed for the guidance of the Committee members of this
Association, and are now expressly transcribed and submitted to His Excellency the
Governor for scrutiny and ratification .
MINUTES BY THE ATTORNEY GENERAL .
I have revised the rules, and have pointed out such amendments as appear necessary
to reduce them to a form in which the Government might recognize them. Apart from
this, I have left them precisely as I found them. They are Chinese in their structure,
and I presume that those who drew them up are satisfied that they are suited to the
object in view.
EDWARD O'MALLEY.
March 31st, 1881 .
I send herewith also some draft rules which I have drawn up, showing how the objects
of the Society might be provided for, subject to the conditions that seem to be necessary
from a Government point of view.
EDWARD O'MALLEY.
April 1st, 1881 .
NOTES OF SUGGESTED AMENDMENTS.
1. " Association¹ for the protection of honest people " is too comprehensive a title for
an association of this kind.
2. I think the word " unlawfully " should be inserted before the word " brought,"
otherwise the proposed scope of the association's operations would bring it into conflict
with the law.
3. I presume " maintained " is intended . The association could have no power to
detain.
4. It is very doubtful how far the detailed arrangements here specified' are such as
Government could properly countenance. To avoid difficulties, I think this passage
should be made general thus : " Association will endeavour to make suitable provision
for their welfare.'
5. I should think that this ought to be limited to the Colony . It depends upon what
sort of powers it is intended to confer upon the management ; but, as a matter of
principle, if any special police powers are to be given at all, persons outside the Colony
should have no voice in directing them.
6. This article seems to me to involve a serious question , viz ., whether this Govern-
ment could properly give official recognition in any degree to agencies working outside
the Colony, particularly where the work of such agencies is specially likely to bring them
into conflict with foreigners.
7. I think this article' might be omitted . The reference to the " purchase of property
and other important public matters " is vague, and apt to raise false inferences as to the
powers ofthe association.
8. This article is, I think, inadmissible . Whatever countenance the Government may
give to the association as being one intended for a good purpose, it certainly should not
assume any responsibility for the lawfulness of the acts of the association. }
¹ In rule 1. Refers to rule 6. 7 Rule 11.
In rule 4. 5 Refers to rules 7 and 8. 3 Rule 12.
• In rule 5. • Refers to rule 8.
119
9. There is, I think, an objection to recognizing the publication of Ordinances by any
one except the Government itself. The Government should be described as the
Government, not as the English Government.
10. The effect of this would be apparently to make the Government responsible for
the audit of the accounts.
11. This article" provides for a body of private detectives to be armed with the
powers of constables and to exercise such powers not under the immediate supervision
and control of the Government. I do not know of a precedent for any delegation of
police functions of this character. An Ordinance to provide for it would, I think, be
unconstitutional. All that might be required might, perhaps, be secured by telling off
a few constables to perform special duties in aid of the association's inquiries, but even
this would have to be very cautiously guarded.
12. This is¹² a matter with regard to which the Government should keep a complete
discretion so far as the law leaves it in its own hands.
13. According to our law, persons or associations who exceed their powers are dealt
with by the law, and the Government cannot enter into any understanding beforehand
by which it might appear that it either could or would control the operation of the law.15
14. These rules , if amended in accordance with the foregoing notes, would require no
Ordinance to give them effect, nor do I understand that it is contemplated by the
Governor to do more than give countenance and assistance to an association conducting
its operations subject to the existing law, and having for its object to assist and watch the
operation of that law so as to make it as effectual as may be for the suppression of kid-
napping.
15. This should be omitted.14
16. This article is subject to the observations in note 11.15
17. Handed over " to justice " would be the right way to express this.10
(Draft Rules sent withforegoing. )
RULES for the SOCIETY for the PROTECTION of WOMEN and CHILDREN.
1. The object of the Society is to assist in the suppression of the crime of kidnapping,
and to provide for the rescue and restoration of kidnapped women and children.
2. The Society shall consist of subscribers of ten dollars, residents in the Colony.
3. The Society shall have an office in Hongkong.
4. The affairs of the Society shall be managed by a Committee of ten members, who
shall be residents in the Colony.
5. The Committee shall be elected annually.
6. Members of the retiring Committee will be eligible for re-election, but no member
can be a member of the Committee for more than three years in succession .
7. The names of members elected on the Committee must be submitted to the
Governor within a week of the election, and upon the Governor notifying to the
Committee his objection to any member whose name is so submitted, such member shall
cease to be a member of the Committec, and the Committee may themselves elect
another member of the Society in his place, subject in the same way to the Governor's
objection.
8. The Committee shall elect from amongst its members a President, a Vice-president
and a Treasurer.
9. The President or Vice-president or Treasurer and two other members shall form a
quorum of the Committee.
10. There shall be an annual meeting of the Society to be held at the office in the
month of •
11. At the annual meeting, the election of the Committee shall take place, and the
outgoing Committee shall present a report of its proceedings for the preceding year,
including a complete statement of the financial position of the Society, duly audited.
12. The Society will endeavour by correspondence and inquiry to assist in the detec-
tion and bringing to justice of persons guilty of kidnapping and kindred offences. The
Society will also endeavour, by the establishment of a Home in Hongkong, to provide
temporary accommodation for destitute women and children who may be rescued from
• Rule 13. 11 Rule 18. 13 Refers to rule 20.
10 -Rule 17. 19 Rule 19.
14 Refers to rule 5 in the second list of rules. 15 Refers to rule 9 in the second list of rules.
16 Refers to rule 11 of the second list.
120
illegal custody. The Society will also endeavour to restore rescued women and children
to their relatives, and in the case of those who are friendless, to make such provision as
may be proper for their welfare.
13. Detective and other constables may, from time to time, be placed at the service
of the Society upon such conditions as may be sanctioned by the Governor.
14. Detectives and constables employed by the Society shall act only under written
instructions signed by the President or Vice-president of the Society.
15. The Committee first elected shall appoint two of their number to be trustees , and
such trustees shall be the lessees of any Crown Lease granted by the Government to the
Society for the purpose of a Home. In case of the death of a trustee, the Committee for
the time being shall elect one of its members to take his place.
16. The Committee may, from time to time, make and revoke rules for the manage-
ment of the affairs of the Society ; such rules being submitted for the Governor's
approval before they are put into operation.
No. 21.
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR, Downing Street, 3rd November 1881 .
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatch, of the 31st of
August, forwarding printed copies of rules which have been drawn up for the Society for
the Protection of Women and Children, together with the Attorney- General's criticisms
upon them and alternative rules which he has drawn up.
2. Judging from the previous correspondence on the subject, I conclude that the rules
which Mr. O'Malley has submitted have received the official recognition of your Govern-
ment, and if this be the case it only remains for me to reply to the second paragraph of
your
66 Despatch, in which you recommend that an Ordinance should be sanctioned " giving
legislative force to the regulations and corporate existence to the Society."
3. I am unable to see the necessity of passing a special Ordinance as you suggest, and
it appears from the Attorney- General's Note, No. 14, that he is of the same opinion ;
nor do I understand why the Association requires corporate powers. If, however, such
powers are required, it would seem to be sufficient that the Association should be formed
under the Companies Ordinance of 1865 ; and that formal approval should be given to
its rules and organisation by the Local Government. I expressed my opinion to that
effect in paragraph 4 of my Despatch of the 20th of May 1880. +
I have, &c.
Sir J. Pope Hennessy. ( Signed) KIMBERLEY .
No. 22.
The RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF KIMBERLEY to GOVERNOR SIR J. POPE
HENNESSY, K.C.M.G.
SIR , Downing Street, 18 March, 1882 .
I HAVE had under my consideration your despatch of the 31st August 1881 ,
transmitting a report by the Attorney General, Mr. O'Malley, upon Sir John Smale's
statements from the Bench respecting the alleged existence of slavery in Hong Kong.
Mr. O'Malley's remarks appear to me to be well considered and convincing, and I have
now the Honour to transmit to you in print the correspondence on this subject, which is
to be laid before the House of Commons, and to which this Despatch will be added .
2. In your Despatch of the 23rd January 1880, you forwarded with other documents§
a copy of a statement made by Chief Justice Sir John Smale from the Bench on the
6th October 1879, in the course of which he observes (rage 7 of print) that on the
24th of January 1845 a proclamation was issued in these words :-
"Whereas the Acts of the British Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade and
" for the abolition of slavery extend by their own proper force and authority to Hong
No. 20. ↑ No. 3. No. 19. § No. 1.
285
121
Kong, this is to apprise all persons of the same, and to give notice that these Acts
" will be enforced by all Her Majesty's officers, civil and military, within the colony."
Sir John Smale concludes his statement with a summary of his views, divided under
eight heads (page 9 of print) ; in the fifth of these he cites the above-mentioned procla-
mation as declaring that the English laws against slavery would be enforced by Her
Majesty's officers, and in other places he asserts that these laws had not been enforced.
with the result that there are now a great number, 10,000 or even 20,000 slaves, in
Hong Hong .
3. Desiring to be more precisely informed of the circumstances in which Sir John
Smale's statement, involving so grave a charge against Her Majesty's officers responsible
for the administration and execution of the law in the colony was made, I instructed you
in my despatch of the 20th of May 1880* to request him to be good enough to specify
the Acts of Parliament which he considered have not been enforced in Hong Kong,
and the particular sections to which he alluded . Your Despatch of the 4th of August
1881+ transmits Sir John Smale's reply to my question in a letter dated the 20th of
August 1880, in which he says : " I am not aware that on any of the three occasions on
" which I have spoken on the subject I have said anything to give rise to the question
*
I have on the three occasions above referred to cited all the Acts
" and Ordinances which I thought apply. "
4. These occasions are the 6th of October 1879 (pages 5-10 of print) , the 27th of
October 1879 (pages 10-13), and the third apparently on the 31st March 1880 (see
page 99). It seems that Sir John Smale does not allege that the existence in Hong
Kong of the slavery to which he refers arises from the neglect to enforce any specific Act
of Parliament, and looking to the first head of his summary, page 9, to the passage on
page 13, and to a sentence in his letter of the 24th November 1880 (see page 101 ) , I
gather that this last sentence (page 102) states succinctly the views upon which he bases
the assertion that children who are said to be bought and sold in Hong Kong become
the slaves of their so-called purchasers.
5. At page 102 Sir John Smale says : " The law of England, as I have learnt it, is
" that no one can sell his own liberty or that of any dependant ; that to sell or buy such
re
liberty is an offence against the law ; and therefore, in the absence of a special penalty,
" a misdemeanour."
6. There can be no doubt of the correctness of the first clause of this proposition, and
it follows that no one can become legally a slave where the law of England prevails.
Slavery in its technical sense can only exist in a country where the law recognises and
will enforce the claim of the master to dispose of the person and liberty of the slave, or
at least will not interfere to control the authority of the master over the person and
liberty of the slave, except perhaps for the repression of cruelty such as would in a
civilised state be repressed in respect of domestic animals . There can be no doubt
also that whoever commits an act which the law prohibits is guilty of a misdemeanour
(supposing the law has not declared such act to be a felony) , but the middle term of this
proposition "that to buy or sell such liberty is an offence against the law, " fails to
distinguish transactions which are effectual, and would be lawful unless prohibited , from
transactions which in view of the law are empty forms having no tangible effect or result.
Going through a form which is a nullity cannot, I apprehend, be a criminal offence ex-
cept by the operation of an express statute giving it that character, and I know of no
Act of Parliament which makes a pretended sale of human liberty a crime.
7. You will find at page 94 of the print a copy of a document called a bill of sale
which Sir John Smale adduces as proof of slave-holding in the colony, but I fail to
perceive that he has anywhere explained how this process can produce so singular a
result as that when a father for a sum of money delivers his son into the control of
another person and the transaction is evidenced by a document in this form , the son,although
on British territory, thereby loses his status as a free person. Yet it would be necessary
that this result should be clearly established before it can be admitted that the transaction
creates slavery or amounts to slave-dealing. The fact appears to be that Sir John Smale,
in his praiseworthy aversion to anything savouring of slavery, has been misled by the
66
terms and " sale," and with the best of intentions has failed sufficiently to
purchase " and
examine whether those terins are correctly applied to the transaction which they represent
in this case.
8. It may be a question whether the subsequent treatment of children, boys or girls,
who are said to be sold for adoption , domestic servitude , or prostitution, is such as to
* No. 3. † No. 18.
Q 2893.
286
122
merit the term slavery in its colloquial sense, but if so, such treatment would presumably
result in acts sufficient to bring within reach of the criminal law the persons to whom
the children have been delivered . It seems, indeed, that the criminal law of the colony
is not only strong enough to reach all ordinary cases of ill-treatment, but that it affords
special protection to women and girls ; and the fact that the law if invoked by or on
behalf of such children will afford them the same protection as to other members of the
community is in itself a proof that they are not slaves in any technical sense.
9. It is desirable, however, putting aside the question of slavery in the legal sense of
the term, to consider what, if any, is the legal effect of such a contract as is evidenced
by the so-called bill of sale of which a copy is given on page 94 of the print. This
document appears to be in effect an agreement for valuable consideration , whereby the
father divests himself of the control of his son, an infant of tender years, and transfers
this son to the custody of a stranger. Whatever may be its effect if made in the Empire
of China, it is quite clear that in Hong Kong, where the common law of England prevails,
such an agreement is absolutely void, as being contrary to public policy. It is to the
interest of the State that the boy should be properly brought up, and the law which
recognises the power of a parent over his child requires him to discharge the correlative
duty of education, and will not allow him, by divesting himself of the control, to
incapacitate himself from seeing to the education of the child. The father may of course
deliver his child to another for education, but he may at any time reclaim the child from
the person to whom he has been temporarily confided . And this principle is carried so
far that, although the power of the parent over the child is subordinate to that of the
State, the State by the courts of law will only interfere against the parent in cases
where the father has been guilty of the abandonment of the parental duty, or abuse of
the parental power, and the father may in England assert his rights in the following
manner.
10. The father as being entitled to the legal custody of his child, if still a minor may
sue out of a writ of habeas corpus addressed to any person who detains the child against
the father's will, even though such person has received the child from the father. The
child being thus brought before the Court will , if of tender years, be delivered to the
father, but if of an age to judge for itself will be discharged from the illegal custody,
and be left free from all restraint, and at liberty to go where it will , even, if it pleases,
to the care of the person from whose custody it has just been discharged . But the rule
must be understood with this qualification , that if it appears to be improper that the
father should have the custody of the child who is too young to make an intelligent
choice, the Court may exercise a discretionary power in assigning the custody of the
child to some other person .
11. And it should be observed that in a case of habeas corpus the question is as to
the liberty of the child , and the decision will be given without reference to any pecuniary
questions that may arise out of the father's transactions with the person claiming custody
of the child .
12. It is right, however, to refer to the system of apprenticeship as known in England.
That system is one of special contract, in which the apprentice, although a minor , is
allowed by the law to join, as being to his advantage, and it entirely depends upon his
consent, so that a deed of apprenticeship though signed by the master and father is invalid
unless executed by the apprentice himself. But it is unnecessary to pursue this branch of
the subject, for I understand that the transactions at Hong Kong do not take the form
of binding lads with their own consent to particular persons for a definite number of
years to learn particular trades.
13. There seems to be some uncertainty as to facts in the matter of Chinese adoption
in the Colony, for I notice that Sir John Smale at page 102 says that he never heard of
a case of purchase for adoption in the Colony, not a single case has come before him .
It is not very clear, however, what else is the condition of the boy referred to in the
document at page 94. " The buyer is at liberty to take him home and change his name
and surname, and rear him up with prosperity," and I also observe that Dr. Eitel in
a Minute forwarded by you on 23rd January 1880 ( p . 14 of print) speaks of the demand
for young children under the system of adoption and domestic service as being large
at an average price of $40 . On the other hand you say in paragraph 20 of your
Despatch of January 23rd 1880* (p. 4 of print) . " My advisers recommended that no pro-
" secutions in connexion with adoption and domestic service should be instituted pending
" the receipt of instructions from you (the Secretary of State) . I mentioned this recom-
No. 1.
123
" mendation to the Chief Justice who entirely concurred in it. He further recommended
" that the Chinese should be told that no prosecutions as to the past would take place,
" but that in future in every case where buying or selling occurred in connexion with
" adoption or domestic service the Government would undoubtedly prosecute. This
" recommendation appears to me to be reasonable. "
14. You have, however, since satisfied yourself, as you inform me in your Despatch of
the 15th of June 1881 * (page 94) , that there is nothing illegal in the ordinary mode of
adoption of Chinese children in the Colony. Mr. Francis, page 112, paragraph 14, says,
" The buying and selling of boys is rare as compared with the buying and selling of
66
girls Still children (males) are bought and sold in Hong Kong for
" adoption They may become by such sales sons, not slaves."
15. But if children bought for adoption do not become slaves it is still true that there
is in Hong Kong a certain and perhaps a considerable number of children who have
been the subjects of what purported to be transactions of sale. I cannot doubt that in
the majority of these transactions the sellers have believed they have validly sold, and
the buyers that they have validly bought that for which money has passed, and the
children themselves can scarcely help believing that they are in bond to their possessors.
Such a system evidently requires most careful consideration, especially if Dr. Eitel's
opinion be accurate (p. 14) that there is cause to believe that the abuses naturally
connected with it tend to encourage kidnapping .
16. I put aside for the present the question of brothel girls. Their condition and the
means by which the supply is kept up are well known, and I do not find that any
additional light is thrown upon them by these papers. The Ordinance No. 2 of 1875
has already made the sale or purchase of any woman or child, or the bringing into the
Colony of any woman or child sold or purchased for purposes of prostitution, or the
receiving or harbouring of any woman or child known to have been so sold, a mis-
demeanour. I have also directed you in my Despatch of July 26, 1881 , † to register
brothel houses, and facilitate inspection of them, so that the inmates may have full
opportunities of appealing in cases of wrongful treatment, or of their detention against
their will, and I shall at any time be most ready to consider any practical measures for
bettering the condition of this unfortunate class which your local knowledge or that of
any other gentleman on the spot may devise .
17. The questions arising out of the condition of adopted children, or of children
employed in the domestic service, are more perplexing. It may be that these children
also are adequately protected by the law as it stands. If a mistress beats her servant
girl, or a man ill - treats his adopted son , the law is doubtless strong enough to punish his
offence ; and any charge of kidnapping would equally be dealt with by the Courts.
The so-called sales are nullities ; they do not either give the supposed purchaser any
rights over the liberty of the child, or deprive the parent of his right to the custody, if
he chooses to reclaim the child by the proper legal process ; or deprive the children
of the right to appeal to the law for protection against ill-treatment, in whatever
form such ill-treatment may be found ; and it is, I apprehend, open to anyone who can
establish a primâ facie case to show that a child is improperly detained, to sue out a writ
of habeas corpus requiring the child to be brought before a proper Court.
18. Still I cannot avoid the conviction that the position of the children now under
consideration is one of peril which may require safeguards. It would be possible to
provide that entering into any agreement, written or oral, by which the right of possession
of a child purported to pass for a valuable consideration , should be a misdemeanour ; but
this would probably brand and punish as offences many transactions, advantageous to the
child, both immediately and in after-life, and it would not reach such transactions when
effected, as appears frequently to be the case, in the Empire of China, the child being
subsequently brought into the Colony. Another course would be to make all such
transactions misdemeanours unless they confirmed to certain specified conditions pre-
scribed so as to secure, as far as possible, that they should be for the welfare of the child.
A third course would be to require all children taken into adoption to be registered, and
thereafter subject to visitation , such as is voluntarily undertaken in the case of what has
been called the " gutter-children " of this city, who have been conveyed by charitable
agencies to the dominion of Canada and there apprenticed .
19. But I am checked in the consideration of these and other propositions by my
uncertainty as to the facts of the system of child adoption and domestic service as it
No. 14. † No. 38 of [ C. 3093 ] of August 1881.
:
288
124
prevails in Hong Kong, which are represented with the greatest diversy by those who
approve and disapprove of the system. I desire, therefore, that you will institute a full
and trustworthy inquiry into the facts, forwarding to me as soon as it can be completed
a report thereon ; and I request that in connexion with such report the question may be
considered whether any, and if so what, measures should be taken to remove any of the
evils that may be brought to light by the inquiry.
20. I have to add that the draft of this Despatch was submitted to the law officers of
the Crown, who have informed me that the statement of the law on the subject as con-
tained in it is correct.
I have, & c .
Sir J. Pope Hennessy. ( Signed) KIMBERLEY.
LONDON:
Printed by GEORGE E. EYRE and WILLIAM SPOTTISWOODE ,
Printers to the Queen's most Excellent Majesty.
For Her Majesty's Stationery Office.
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