207*
Enclosure 2.
21
4 It is shewn that claims set up by Chinese to ownership on the ground of purchase have been promptly set aside in Hongkong and the claimants punished for any assault or offence committed against the person claimed- and that no opportunity has been lost of proclaiming the freedom of the subject.
5o. It has been shewn that the laws have been amended from time to time to the utmost limit to protect women and girls and children against forced or fraudulent emigration or sales for purposes of prostitution, (see Ordinance 2 of 1875, annexed).
6 It has been shewn that the supervision of brothels, the instructing the registered women as to their rights, and the system of photographing re- gistered prostitutes and women and children who intend to emigrate, have done much good and that there has been an enormous reduction in the kid- napping cases and selling women for prostitution since the introduction of those measures, convictions being 29 persons in 1882 as against 68 in a former year, and only 4 up to the present date.
•
7. It has been shewn that there are fatal objections to the registration of children purchased for adoption or domestic service, and it is suggested that the Registrar General and a Chinese Committee should investigate cases of a suspicious nature with power to call upon "pocket-mothers" to give security for their bona fides towards "pocket-daughters "; also that the Registrar General should be able to apply to a Judge in Chambers for a writ of Habeas Corpus with the view of taking away from improper custodians a purchased child. It is also suggested that stone tablets stating the law of freedom on English soil should be erected in places of public resort.
13. It will be perceived that any infringements by contract or sale of the personal liberty secured by English jurisprudence and custom however in harmony with Chinese jurisprudence and custom, such infringements may be, are null and void in the eye of the law in the English Colony of Hongkong, while any attempts to enforce such contracts or sales would be liable to severe and deterrent punish- ment by the English Courts. Then persistent efforts of the Colonial Government and Legislature during a series of years to protect the personal liberty of every sex and class of the Chinese denizes of this island, cannot be regarded as otherwise than praiseworthy, and, to a large extent, successful. From my personal know- ledge I can bear witness that the Executive Government and the Judicial Bench are now of one mind on this subject.
14. With regard to Mr. RUSSELL's practical suggestions for further exertions in the same direction, they meet with the hearty concurrence of the present Registrar General and Protector of the Chinese, (Mr. STEWART). They have also been approved by myself and by the Executive Council; and I propose to take the necessary measures for carrying them into execution, subject to Your Lordship's
sanction.
15. In conclusion, I would repeat the remarks made in a previous despatch to the effect that the English in Hongkong are in an utterly different position from that held by the English in India. In the latter country, we succeeded to the rule of great nations and countries which had already long before our arrival, attained to a high degree of civilized organization, and whose laws and institutions we were. bound to respect and maintain, so far as they were not repugnant to humanity and to the imperial policy of England. But the island of Hongkong on the contrary, when annexed to the British Empire in 1843, was merely a barren rock, unin- habited save by a handful of fishermen and pirates. The Chinese Merchants and others who have since voluntarily sought the protection of the English flag are not, with few exceptions, native born, or naturalized British subjects, nor permanent residents in this dependency. The Chinese like the English and other Europeans, come here for a time, to make money, hoping to return ultimately to their native homes. They must be taught as I recently, with all courtesy, informed an in- fluential deputation of the Chinese community, that if they deliberately choose for their own purposes, to dwell on British territory, they must, while entitled to the protection of the English laws, learn to obey those laws.
I have, &c.,
The Right Honourable
THE EARL OF DERBY,
(Signed)
G. F. BOWEN.
$c., $*c.,
fc.
Page 210Page 211
208