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Q.--Will you tell us, please, about this case of Tsau Kung Wan?
A. From what I learnt from Wong Sing Tung himself, Tsau Kung Wan's con- cubine was going from Canton to Shanghai. She was brought on shore and detained in the Pó Léung Kuk for some reason. His number 4 concubine was entrusted to get this concubine for him at Shanghai, and this number 4 concubine has done something wrong I think. Of course they had some suspicion of her taking the girl to Shanghai, and so they brought her here and detained her here for some time. From what I heard, a member of the Committee asked this girl where she was going, and, of course, she said
I am going to Shanghai to find my husband there" and one of the Committee said "Why should you go and marry such an old man. It is no use. This is Hongkong, a British Colony, you can do as you like" and of course the girl said "My mother consents. They bought me in Canton. I am going up there" and then they brought some photographs of the old man to show the girl, and they told the girl that it was no use to go to such an old man. Afterwards the girl changed her mind, and would not go. I understood that after the girl had gone back to her mother in Canton, that one of the ex-members of the Committee of the Pó Léung Kuk took her for his concubine.
Q. Do you know that of your own knowledge, because the man himself denies it? Honourable C. P. CHATER.-The ex-member of Committee denies it?
The CHAIRMAN.-Yes. (To witness). How do you know all this?
A. One of the men who had some interest in it. Of course he told me confident- ially. He said they were disgusted with the Pó Léung Kuk because it interfered with private family life.
Q.-Is that the only case?
A.--I have heard that the Pó Léung Kuk have detained some brothel girls from Canton sometimes two or three weeks, and make the girls pay the expenses which sometimes were $50, $60, or $100, and when they get out they get registered again.
Q. Can you give us one case?
A. There was Só MUI.* Her sister was So FUK,
Q.--What happened to her?
A. In her case she went in the usual way to the registry office, and she told me that she met a European gentleman and his interpreter, and as soon as he saw her he told her to stand by.
Q.---Who told her?
A.-The interpreter in the presence of the European. She stood there for a while and then the man said "send her to the Pó Léung Kuk and she was detained there for three weeks, and members of the Committee asked her questions, and said "you are too young" but the girl said she was willing to go into a brothel. She was detained there and the holder of the register of the brothel made her pay expenses-ricksha, interpreter, and so forth--amounting to nearly $100.
Q.--She had to pay?
A. Yes.
Q.-To whom?
A. To the head man of the brothel.
Q. What expenses ?
A. The expenses of obtaining her release.
Q.--Paid to the Pó Léung Kuk?
A.--Somebody must have received the money.
* Seo Appendix 37.