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trouble which registration would give to would-be servants must make the supply scarcer and dearer. Here, however, it seems to us that the supply of servants (if we pay no regard to their "fitness) exceeds the demand considerably. "Weeding out" -is urgently needed. The surplus of incom- petents and rogues bring the masters no advantage, but distinctly the contrary. Such bad charnoters are precisely those who would most resent the trouble of trying to get registered, and it is them whom it is desirable to discourage.
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There is of course an alternative to com-
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
netera with these dishonest servants or had been deluded with borrowed papers. Some residents are even rash enough to engage coolies or boys without a written character, accepting, for the sake of avoiding trouble, the assurance of the candidate for service that he had lived with Mr. or Mrs. So aud So for a certain period, and had previously acted in similar capacity with other well known former residents, but had lost his papers. This story, always plausibly told, and sometimes supported by na obvious knowledge of the persons nimed, is too apt to impose up in fresh arrivals in the Colony, pulsory registration of domestic servants, who thus not infrequently take into their and this we see our Rangoon contemporary service known bad characters or servants mentioned above advocates. It is the with a record for insolence and squeezing. establishment of a servants' agency, with It is high time that some check should voluntary registration! If such were be imposed upon this system of chartering "well run, in time the certificate of such rascality. Good servants are not infrequently an agency would hall-mark the most driven to refuse to take service in houses "desirable servants; and those employers where they find some notorious blackmailer "who now ask for compulsory registration installed, who insists upon receiving a "could pledge themselves to take only those proportion of their wages as a premium for "servants who were registered in this admission iuto the household, which he runs voluntary agency." We imagine that the to his owu profit and his employer's detri- well known Chinese weapon of “ boycott"|ment and loss. If the Government would on- would imperil the chances of success ly permit the establishment of a compulsory of such an institution here. Besides, system of registration, as suggested by the the registered servaut would necessarily, Commission appointed some time
ago to it looks, have to be higher-priced than report on the desirability of the registration the unregistered, so that the pledged of servants, it would do much to remedy employers would have to pay for their the present unsatisfactory state of affairs, principles-no doubt to the amusement of The Cominission recommended that the the less self-denying. Unless compulsory private chair-coolies their report was registration can be shown radically un- limitel to this class of servant-should be sound, which it has not yet been shown to registered by the Police, and photographs be, the present supporters of the idea attached to the certificate of registration. This would be unwise to abandon it in favour latter provision was, we believe, regarded with of a scheme which cannot even be called disfavour by His Excellency the Governor, a half-and-half scheme.
who thought the coolies would object to be photographed. Possibly some of them would at first; indeed, it is highly probable that some of them have excellent reasons for objecting to such a provision, as it Whilst it is very satisfactory to hear of might prove exceedingly inconvenient if they the recovery by the Police of the bulk of followed previous practices and decampad jewelry stolen from the Hon. Dr. ATKINSON'S
one fine day with their masters' property. house at the Peak on the 17th June last; The honest decent coolies would not object of the smart capture of a coolie in the to be photographed any more than do the employ of Mr. FRANK BROWNE, Government engineers and other Chinese who are Analyst, who made off on the 5th July with employed in launches, etc., who are registered articles of the value of upwards of $320; and and photographed. If some did object, it of the trial of another domestic servant for might well be construed against them as a the extensive robbery of valuables from point for suspicion, for more prejudice is his mistress, Mrs. GILLANDERS, as showing always soon overcome in a Chinaman when the increased activity and ability of the dollars or good employment are at stake. detective branch of the Force, it also They would, moreover, soon learn to value suggests the reflection that the registration these certificates, as would also the of servants is more than ever necessary. employer, knowing they could not-owing In all the three cases mentioned above, these to the attachment of photograph as proof of robberies were perpetrated by the servants. identity-be loaned as is now the case with In another case, which occurred about the so many Chinese credentials. Known bad same time as the robbery from the residence characters would be at once weeded out of of the Principal Medical Officer, namely the the ranks of domestic servants, and inferior very comprehensive clearance of all the servants would experience a difficulty in valuables belonging to Mrs. W. O. JACK by obtaining situations, while those with good her house-boy from their house in Kowloon credentials would be able to secure the high while his master and mistress were away at wages that experience and gool conduct Macao, the act was also a breach of trust by would entitle them to expect. The benefits a domestic servant, and he seems to have of registration would prove by no means got off scot-free. In each case, no doubt, one-sided. The servants would profit the employer had reposed considerable trust equally with the masters; perhaps, on the in the employee, and this confidence had whole, they would be the greater gainers, been greatly abused It would be interest- for not only would their ranks be purged ing to have a return of all the robberies of the rascals who have forced their way in committed by Chinese servants from their and brought them into discredit, but they employers during the past five years, and would most certainly be able to command the number of convictions obtained against higher wages for long and good service. the perpetrators. It would also be The registration would also enable the instructive to compile a list of the losses, Police to trace offenders, and put some and the number of instances in which there check on the now very common offence of had been a recovery of any of the stolen burglary. It would also lead to the gradual propert What would be still more useful formation of a superior class of domestic would be return were that possible servant, who would be more self-respecting, showing in how many instances the employ-more reliable, and more inclined to give ers had either neglected to demand char. willing and good service for the pay earned.
(Daily Press, 17th September.}
[September 21, 1908. ROBBERY WITH VIOLENCE IN HONGKONG.
(Daily Press, 18th September.) We little thought, when writing yesterday of burglaries in this Colony, that the most audacious case of robbery by daylight that has ever occurred in Hongkong would have to be recorded in our next issue. In another column to-day may be read the account of a most astonishingly barefaced act of robbery at 18, Belilios Terrace, on Wednesday after- noon. In connection with this case, wo desire to call particular attention to the last paragraph but one in our report, which states that some time ago Miss Bateman, the victim of this latest outrage, was robbed by a house-boy of $80. The thief escaped on that occasion, although Miss BATEMAN was able to inform the Police what he was like and where he lived on the mainland. On the present occasion neither the victim nor her amah recognised any of the gang. It is obvious, however, that the perpetrators of the outrage had prepared the whole course of proceedings beforehand, and were well acquainted with their ground of operations. It would seem hardly credible that a gang of six men (for there seem to have been at least so many concerned) should be able, in broad daylight and in so frequented a neigh. bourhood as Belilios Terrace, to carry through successfully a crime of this nature. But such is the case. The Police may be trusted to use their best endeavours to bring the guilty to justice; but it is evident that the Colony at the present moment is swarm- ing with dishonest rogues, no small number of them in the guise of "boys" and other servants, and that both the system by which we obtain our servants at present and the control of the authorities over the ingress of bad characters are utterly inadequate.
HONGKONG LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL.
A meeting of the Hongkong Legislative Council was held on the 17th inst. in the Council Chamber.
PRESENT :-
HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR, Sir HENRY A. BLAKE, G.C.M.G.
Colonel L. F. BROWN, R.E. (Commanding the Troops).
Hon. F. H. MAY, C.M.G. (Colonial Secretary), Hon, Sir HENRY SPENCER BERKELEY, KT. Attorney-General),
Hon. A. M. THOMSON (Colonial Treasurer). Hon. Commander R. M. RUMSEY, R.N. (Harbour Master).
Hon.W.CHATHAM(Director of Public Works). Hon. J. M. ATKINSON (Principal. Civil Medical Officer).
Hon. Sir C. P. CHATER, C.M.G. Hon. Dr. Ho Kai, C.M G. Hon. C. W. DICKSON. Hoa. WEI YUK.
HoD, GEESHOM STEWART. Hon. H. E. POLLUCK, K.C. Mr. R. F. JOHNSTON (Acting Clerk of Councils),
NEW MEMBER,
Mr. H. E. Pollock, K.C., took the oath as a new member of the Council and assumed his the Garrison, also took the oath and assumed seat. Colonel Brown, R.E., Officer Commanding
his seat.
COMMITTEE VACANCIES.
His EXCELLENOY mid there were vacancies on the Law Committee and the Public Works Committee. He nominated Mr. Pollock for the former, and Mr. Stewart for the latter vacancy,
FINANCIAL.
The COLONIAL SECRETARY laid on the table
Financial Minutes (Nos. 36 to 49), and moved that they be referred to the Finance Committee. 1 The COLONIAL Treasurer seconded, and
the motion was agreed to.