205.
(Copy.)
No. 189.
Enclosure 1.
See (2).
19-
R.
Notice posted on Canton and Macao Steamers, and Chinese Passenger Ships leaving Hongkong.
The Harbour Master and Emigration Officer hereby issues a proclamation.
WHEREAS evils have arisen in connection with Emigration, notice is hereby given to you passengers, male and female, that you are, one and all, free agents, you cannot be forced away against your will. If you are unwilling and do not wish to emigrate, you are at liberty to complain now or after starting, to the officers of the ship, when steps will be taken for protecting you, and returning you safely to your home after the ship reaches its destination: These offers will save you from being deprived of your liberty, and the officials of Singapore and other ports will always be ready to help you to obtain your freedom. Do not disregard these instructions and do not be afraid to state your grievances and wrongs. A special notification.
(3)
Governor Sir G. F. Bowen, G.C.M.G., to Secretary of State for the Colonies.
GOVERNMENT HOUSE, HONGKONG, 15th August, 1883.
MY LORD,
In my despatch, No. 79, of the 22nd May ultimo, I stated that I had found that, before my arrival in this Colony, the Officer lately administering the Govern- ment (Mr. MARSH) had entrusted, Mr. Justice RUSSELL (then Registrar General and Protector of the Chinese), with the duty of preparing the report on
“the system of Child adoption and Domestic Service as it exists at Hongkong," for which Lord KIMBERLEY had called in his despatch, No. 40, of the 18th March, 1882. 2. Mr. RUSSELL'S subsequent promotion to the Bench of the Supreme Court and the pressure of his official duties necessarily delayed the completion of the Report. But he has now placed it in my hands, and I have great pleasure in transmitting herewith printed copies of it.
3. The delay that has occurred has had this advantage, that it has enabled me to give as close a study as my other manifold duties would permit, to the subject in question, and thereby has placed me in a position to appreciate the great practical value of Mr. RUSSELL'S labours.
4. His Report is a very able, full and yet concise summary of the important difficult, and hitherto little understood subject of which it treats. It should be carefully studied in connexion with the remarkable petition presented to the late Governor in 1879 by an influential section of the Chinese Community in Hongkong, and with the learned essay of Dr. EITEL, which are both printed at pages 44-57 of the "Correspondence respecting the alleged existence of Chinese Slavery in Hongkong," presented to Parliament in March, 1882.
5. Moreover, if it is desired to obtain a thorough grasp of this subject in its. true bearings, the Official Student should further make himself acquainted not only with the tenets of Confucius and Mencius, those ancient Legislators and Philoso- phers, whose laws and ethics are still the living guides of the Chinese, but also with the principles of the old Roman institution of the Patria Potestas, with which the immemorial" Patriarchalism" (as it has been termed), or Family Organization of Chinese Society, so closely corresponds. The adoption of the old Romans, and of the Chinese of the present day who still adhere to the laws and customs followed by their ancestors more than two thousand years ago, have been confounded by persons who look to superficial and apparent rather than to intrinsic and real resemblances and analogies, with Slavery, in the modern and technical sense of that word. But all who have mastered this question know that the adoption and Domestic Service of the Chinese, are derived from the primitive and patriarchal institution of the Patria Potestas; whereas the modern slavery of the Negroes and of other coloured peoples, is founded on the theory of the old Greek Philosophers, who, in view of the real or supposed intellectual inferiority of certain races of man- kind, laid down the doctrine that it was "fit and seemly that Greeks should rule. over Barbarians, for by nature Barbarian and Slave are the same thing."
6. As I have already said, the report of Mr. Justice RUSSELL is so full and yet so concise, that I will not attempt to analyse it at any length; and will rather recommend a steady perusal of it as a whole. I will confine myself on the present occasion to pointing out and illustrating some of its more salient features, and to stating the action which I propose to take with regard to carrying out its suggestions.
7. I will now briefly consider separately:-
(a.) Child Adoption.
(b.) Domestic Service.