[xiii]
Case No. 6.
In the year 1890, 17th November, a girl named Ho KAM YUK, aged 15, was found on board a steamer going to Sandakan, and brought before the Acting Registrar General to whom she stated that she did not wish to go to Sandakan. The girl was handed over under security to a woman LEUNG YAU and had to come to the Registrar General's Office every quarter. A few days ago a man came to this office and said he wished to marry Ho Kaм YUK and take her to Singapore. The man was not known to this office, so the Pó Leung Kuk was requested to make inquiries, which was done, and a report received saying that there was no doubt regarding the bona fides of the man in question. The Registrar General accordingly approved of the marriage and the bond usual in such cases was duly signed, sealed, and delivered.
Appendix 8.~
Case of Lau Ts'oi-lin.
As the accompanying case illustrates how the Pó Léung Kuk succeeds in detecting cases of kidnapping and bringing the kidnappers to justice, I circulate it herewith for the information of the members of the Committee. The facts of the case are briefly as follows:-On the morning of the 9th instant, a Pó Léung Kuk detective was at the Canton wharf awaiting the arrival of the night steamer from Canton. After the steamer had arrived he saw a woman and a girl land, and, his suspicions being roused with regard to them, he asked the woman who the girl was, to which the woman replied that the girl's mother had requested her to take her daughter to Annam to meet her husband. The detective, then, questioned the girl, and as she did not speak the same dialect as the woman and was in a great fright and did not want to go with the woman, he took the woman and the girl to the Pó Léung Kuk, and they were sent from there to the Registrar General. The Registrar General questioned the girl, who made the following
statement :-
"I am aged 16. I am a native of Kwong Sai, Kwai Lam. My father is dead, "My mother is alive. She is very poor and lives in Kwai Lam. She "sold me.
I do not know for how much. I was married to a man who "is in Annam. His name is WONG TSOI. He sent for me to go to "Annam.
The woman outside brought me to Hongkong. She lived "next door to me. She was going to take me to Annam to my husband. "I have ten cents. I have no other money. My husband will pay my expenses when I get to him. The woman outside is going to pay for She will pay my passage money which will cost 50 taels. The woman told me it would require 50 taels to get me to Annam."
46
me.
The statement made by the girl seemed to indicate clearly that she had been brought into the Colony under false pretences for the purposes of emigration, so the Registrar General gave directions to have the woman charged before the Magistrate and the girl placed temporarily under the care of the Pó Léung Kuk. The case was tried by Mr. WODEHOUSE, on the 10th June. A copy of the minutes of proceedings is attached, from which it will be seen that it came out in evidence that the girl had been purchased for $250 by the defendant, who is a keeper of a brothel in Annam, and was being taken to that country for the purposes of prostitution. The defendant was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment with hard labour.
J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,
Chairman.
HONGKONG, 13th June, 1892.