Page
EGED SLAVERY IN
HONGKONG. RTANT QUESTION STILL
UNDECIDED.
RITY VERDICT OF "NOT
· GUILTY."
THE HONGKONG DAILY PRESS,
klave who was unable to earn a livelihood
was to be supported by the Colony until he was put in a way to support himself; in the case of females particular, the propriety of this was obvious. But the Ordinance was subsequently disallowed by Her Majesty. it was considered that the Taperind Statutes for the abolition of slavery extended by their own proper force and wathority to Hongkong.
The Chief Justice said the argument
By Mr. Alabaster-As her mistress," having bought the girl from her mother, can you sell her if you wish -In my opinion I would not sell her. I would keep her and marry her when she gets old enough.
MISTRESS COULD SELL THE CHILD,
If you wish to sell her, you can set
The Crown Solicitor here suggested that expert evidence could be produced regarding Chinese customs if such were needed.
in which a Chinese is charged mapping-twe little girls, aged was taking it for granted that the child-her-I could do so if I wished, but 3 years, was continued before ren were slaves. The Ordinance referred would not do so. I keep her because
Justice at the Hongking to the person having lawful care of the wish to use her as a servant......... Sessions yesterday. Mr. O, H. child. The evidence in this case was that (Crown Solicitor) prosecuted the brother who apparently had lawful Alabaster (instructed are of the child had sold the girl to this C. G eo d'Almada) represented the woman, in Hongkong. According to the customs prevailing here the children were bought as family servants and engaged as The question was whether the such woman did not acquire lawful custody from the brother who was the lawful guardian in China,
the chief points raised by 164 was OVAT a question of Alabaster argued that it the Crown tr produce that these two children were dy of persons who bad lawful of them, and he urged that as abundantly proved that the fre being kept in the Colony slavery, the prosecntion must fail.
and selling of boys and a servants is, of course, a hinese custom, and refer e by the Chief Justice to a issued by Captain Elliot
No SLAVERY UNDER THE BRITISH MAG
Mr. Alabaster--I do not care whether thero is an Act in China permitting the brother to sell these girls. The sale way have been perfectly legal in China, but
FRIDAY, ~AUGUST 24TH, ̈ ̃1917.
By: the Chief Justice-Prisoner was
arrested just outside the gate of the whart.
THAT MAN STEALS GIRIS." Sgt. Dorling gave evidence of the arrest. His attention was called to the matter by a lukong. On the other side of the road to the wharf he saw that crowd, had collected. He went over 10
or what was the matter and the Inst
**** Thag: man steal girls."
"The two girlą. witness, pointing to prisoner, said
wers close at hand.” He sent the prisoner to the Centrul Police Station, and the carrying a small parcel containing cakes girls went too. The elder of the girls was He did not bear the prisoner speak to the girls.
An interpreter rend the statement which the prisoner had made at the Central Police Station, the gist of which was that the girls had followed him against This will.
ruIJONER PLEADS THAT THE GIRLS FOLLOWEN
Mr. Alabaster I am defending this case on the laws of the Colony. I don' want expert evidence on such laws. My friend is an expert.
The Chief Justice-If it comes to question of the customs of the Chinese and it is desirable to produce expert évidence the Court can always bear it..
la
The younger of the two girls alleged have been kidnapped was thed In relating placed in the witness-box. her experiences when with the prisoner she caused some amusement by stating that she had been for the first time in her life on tram, but she was not very delighted with it. She said she was 10
HIN
was arrested
For the defence the prisoner gaVA Evidence on his own behalf. He said be was a partner in the Yun Wo Sinelung Works, No 1, Argyle street. The papers found upon him when he incided a plan of a smelting furnace and a draft prospectus of a proposed coal mining syndicate. On July 20th he went to Chusowny Bay. He wanted to
ence the child came to this Colony she years of age and lived on the ground look for a site upon which to build a
had the right to freedom and she cannot ho kept here in a state of slavery. If she is so kept it is not lawful,
The Chief Justice-The child has mother. Her mistress feeds her, clothes
itish took possession of the her and states that she will allow her to shop.
social eastons.
What 15
WHAT 18 SLAVERY T
C.
Mr. Alabaster-We know that the
all their religious rights, ceremonies and Chinese get money by selling girls for marriage. At the present moment the child is a stave: whether, some day theper replied :" slavery? asked the Chis mistress intends to give her her freedom Justice, and Mr. Alabaster replied:-"does not affect the matter. evntend that a person who is bought by
The Chief Justice said he could not a master and may be sold by a master, express any opinion at this stage of the who revives no wages, except clothes and case, but he drew Mr. Alabaster's atten- fed in exchange for work, is a stave. tion to the fact that the Supreme Court They in the meaning of slavery through ually took into consideration questions 4211 nr law, and slavery is not allowed] of Chinese custom. They had expressly held that Chinese customs were preserved 10 XAL this Colony."
under proclamation. His lordship re- ferred to the Proclamation by Captain Elliott mentioned above and stated that in cases of bigamy they always took the question of customs into considerathum. English law held so far as it did not con- flict with the expressed power given under these Proclamations. If Mr. Alabaster was right, it was a matter full *f the most serions consequences. It was A question that needed to be argued before the Full Court, and he was prepared to hear Mr. Alabaster at the Full Court Saturday morning. They could go to the jury on the facts.
went to the
INTIMATIONS
LANE,
CRAWFORD & Co.
(Established. 1850),
TELEPONE 1741).
SHIPCHANDLERY DEPT.
BIRKMYRE'S
PATENT
TARPAULIN
LANE, CRAWFORD & CO.
DRINK
19
floor in a house in Ship Street. She bad Wing works. He fiest
Yip Company and saw Chang Chi not been living very long with her pre Yang and spoke to him about a site sent mistress. She could not say how Contrading his investigations for a suit Imany months. She remembered the 20thable locality he was near the Asiatic of July, when she went out to buy cakes Company's premises when he overtook with an elder girl about noon. She did not the two little girls in court. He passed buy anything, for she could not find the them, but they called after him. They She therefore started to return were crying very bitterly and said, Have pity on us, our elder brother has kip it was stated that they when she cases to a marriageable home, but lost her way. She was walking
all the time with her companion and brought us here and we have lust sight of use going they met the prisoner. He did not ask him He told them it was se would be given free exorcise of
her any question, but be said something further as there were no shops and ad- He took them to the elder girl. What it was she could vised them to go back.
A not hear. The elder girl said, Can you to near the stables to get a tram. show me my way home?" and prison- number of children were playing there
ayo will take you to and be advised them to remain with those LARGE STOCK NOW ON HAND, your mistress," The prisoner, however, children and perhaps their brother would did not do this. He put her and her come to look for them. He told them he companion on board a steam launch.was busy and that they must not follow They were taken on shore to a plass she is He went to the Wing Yip Co. to left a message for Chang and then re- did not know. Then she was brought report the result of his search for a site, back neross the harbour in the evening turned and entered a tram. He got into and landed on this sile. She and her the first class compartment and the girls companion cried, hit the prisoner told followed him. He told them again not them not to cry and promised to buy to follow him, but they asked him to be them sweets, which he did. The prisoner kind and help them to find their brothe, was with them all the time except when and as he thought they needed looking he went to buy the sweets. Subsequently after he went into the third class section they met a Police Constable, who arrested with them. He got off at the Central He advised the prisonar. At the Police Station she Market and they got off too. wonde her statement and was then taken them to wait there and afterwards be went to the Yaumati Ferry, When back to her mistress' house.
taking a rat on the Ferry he noticed; INSTRUCTEN WHAT TO BAY BY NER MISTRESS.
that the girls hud followed him again. Cross-examined by Mr. Alabaster She They told him that their brother had had no mother here. Her mother was in taken them across the harbour once and the country. Her father sold her, not. asked him to take them again in the hope her mother. She was fond of her father, of meeting their brother.
They wont across the harbour with him, and return- of course, but as he was poor and had no money with which to buy food hê e with him. He paid their fares ou was obliged to sell her. She did not wish tram and ferry. They refused to leave to be with her parents now because she him. He left them at the corner of Wing was given plenty of food in the place Kat Street, and went into a shop. where she now Wis. She was fond of discussed smelting business with her companion and would follow her nister of the shop for about wherever she wont and would be willing of an hour, but when he came out of the to do anything she wished her to do shop he saw the girls standing on the She did not know he companion had a
opposite side of the street about four houses away. He told them again brother. On the day they went out to they
To follow him
and buy cakes, they each hat ten vents givenj said They were
nuisance, to them. She went with the other girl They had wasted so much of his time that a very long way, to where there was the he had lost the train which he had intend. sex an one sick of the read and grassed to catch to Canton, and he told them upin the other.
The prisoner took them on a tram and subsequently on a bunch ness the harbour and back again and The then purchased them som, sweets. prisoner wished them to go to a wharf where there were some big ships
Mr. Alabaster Prisoner left you, did he not He did not leave us, and might say that the sweets be bought were not for us to eat in the street int were for us to take on the big sienter.
www.conclurted.
The argument over this legal point a when the case for the prosecution Mr. Alabaster contended love the hind no case in law to answer. The towfulness of custody was essential to this particular charge.
The Chef Justice- If it is yestion of lan and tot of fact, there is no need
for the jury.
The jury were thereupon discharged arail the legal point had been settled
Mr. Aindaster. continuing said the change was brought under Section 15 of dle Offences against the Person Ordinner, N... 1565, which stated that "every jerson who unlawfully. by fraud, end or takes away or entiers away any child and the age of 14 years with intent to deprive any parent, guardian or her preson having lawful ears of charge of such child. or possession of such child. shall be guilty. The lawfulness of the custody was an sential ingredient in the effem and it was properly placed in the indictment- The children were bring in the Colony in a state of slavery, 1, MUIN romaterial whether they anured ander a system which permitted Having been brought slavery 41 1. intele Colony they were entitled to. dur freedom. But they were neverthe Jess kept here as slaves by their mistress,! who paid them no wages and claimed theğ right to sell them again if the desired She kept them absolutely as slaves, for? which purpose she said she bought them.) The Chief Justice She did not say she bought them to sell,
<
|
Mr. Alabaster She bought them to us
thm as servants.
A CHINESE CUSTOM.
NO CASE IN LAW.
Mr. Alabaster submitted that there was no case in law, no evidence in law, to ge to the jury,
The Chief Justier shall hold that there is evidence. There is evidence of Fact
Mr. Alabaster said the question whether
the law of the Colony permitted slavery was a very big question indred, and be intimated his - willingness to
i before the Full Court and, if reson PV, to carry it further.
argue
איוון ? 15
The thief Justice Yes It tion of a serious character, because it means, if you succeed, that the Legisla ture will take immediate steps to amend
the law
Mr. Alabaster-Slavery is not allowed under the existing law and the Colony
will never be allowed to amid the law on such a paint,
The Chief Justice We will take the wrdict of the jury in the facts: you may scord. If you do not get a verdict on the facts you an argue the law before the Full Court.
Mr. Alabaster Has your mistress told; you what evidence to give? She has taught me; ph, yes,
it
The Chief Justice suggested that child of 10 yvers of age might not fully understand such a question,
Mr. Alabaster Has your mistress told you what to say! My mistress told me lo say this and to say that.
·
150
L
21
rže the
quarter
that he would now have to go by steamer, Our of the girls asked Dint, they might follow him to Canton in order to get to the wharf from which the bonts started Shortly which went t their country, awards he was arrested. He was a family man. yenes of age, and he had no idea of stealing there girls. He had learner; smelting in Annawr,
A DESIRE TO BE KIND.
Úross-examined by the Crown Solicitor -Be knew it would have been the usual: thing to report to the police that these vidiuron were renowing me about, but he was too busy.
His
The Chief Justice went over the pri soner s stalement a second time and com
into severely upon some of the extra- By the Chief Justice. The man was with ordinary admission he had mad
lordship asked the prisoner whether he then all the time except when he was wished the jury to believe that these girls tay in buy sweets. They could see him followed him about against his will when when he was boring the sweets. It who paid their fares on the tram and on not far away, and he did not go right inside the shop.
THE BUNGAND'S EVIDENCE,
The husband of the girl's mistress, who
Skal visit be was a suremay contiacus,
ing a ship bui, aiso gave evalence On July 20th, he said, wach, ge, reached home and his wife told him the servant Mr. Alabaster--1 want to know my girl was missing he started out to look The Chief Justice-That is a Chinese position and the position which the tor her. He went first to the Kongmoon custon, Then his lordship propound-trowa takes up. If the prisoner is found steamer wharf. This was about 8p.m. He went to the wharf because he was pt the question "What is slavery to guilty on the facts and I sacceed in the afraid that the servant might be taken which Mr. Alabaster's reply is given point of law, I hold that the prisoner will away from the Colony by steamer. He could not find the girl and returned If the home. Later he went to the Hongkong be entitled to his discharge. Crown does not prove in law the essential and Macao steamer wharf. He went on ingredient of the offence, I am entitled board many steamers, but his search was unsuccessful. Later, when near the wharf, to demand from the jury a verdict of not he saw prisoner bringing the two girls along. Prisoner bad the older girl by the guilty.
hand, and the younger one was following, He asked a Poltoe Constable to arrest the
above.
Wak
not
Continuing Mr. Alabaster said slavery allowed 10 exist in this Colony. The very first Ordinance that was passed when the British rook.posses sion of this Colony and established local Legislature was to make it clear
26
¡that slavery in this Colony would not be tolerated. Mr. Norton Kysche, in his History of the Laws and Courts of Hong- kong, stated:-
The Chief Justice considered that if
Alabaster the point in law which Mr.
raised was upheld, any conviction against the prisoner would be quashed. At the same time, he intimated that it must not be supposed that he acquiesced in any On the 28th February, the local way in the argument put forward by the Ordinance No. 1 of 184, relating to counsel for the defence. slavery, was passed. That slavery in its
This ended the legal argument and the worst forms existed in the Colony was į
man
Cross-examined by Mr. Ainbaater-He knew the Wing, Ou Co.'s store, and the wharf to which he had referred was opposite the store. He did not know, however, that the girls had been waiting alone for a quarter of an hour by the store.
By the Chief Justice-He could see the Wing On Store from where he was stand ing. He saw the prisoner coming from
the ferry. His lordship also asked the
pusoner whether he would have take the girls to Canton,, and- when the prisoner replied in the affirmative, stating that he would have brought them back if the brother had not been found, his lordship stated that prisoner deserved to be brought to a court of justice whether he was innocent of this particular charge or not. Prisoner attributed his acts to a desire to be kind.
Mr. Alabaster, addressing the jury, said the charge against the prisoner was that he unlawfully and feloniously did by fraud lead these children away with the intention of depriving the two mistresses of their possession. The fraud which the Crown alleged had to be proved beyond all shadow of reasonable doubt. For any evidence of that alleged fraud they had to look to the stories of the two little girls, both of whom were obviously coached and one of whom admitted that she was couched upon what to say. Therefore, he asked the jury to reject their evidence.
an undeniable fact, and it tufd much in Court adjourned for the tiffin interval: the east. He did not speak to the priminutes. Upon their return the foreman Favour of the authorities that the very first The evidence in the case taken yester-soner. He straightway asked a Police
nactment passed by them related to such
an important subject und hud reference day was as follows:
wore to the Chinese than to any other
Even upon the children's own story it was perfectly clear that the prisoner had left them alone for a considerable period at the corner of Wing On Street.
The Chief Justics summed up and the jury retired to consider their verdict. They were absent for about twenty, Stated that they were not agreed. There Constable to arrest him. He took the majority of five to two in favour girls away. The girls did not say any of a verdic of "Not Guilty."
The prisoner was consequently dis As the jury returned Galton, the facts of the case, the point of law which Me Alabaster raised will not, of course, Bow come under con sideration.
The mistress of the younger girl was thing to him at first, but they answered policeman who had arrested the prisolier could hear what they said.
the Chief the questions he put to them, and the charged a verdict of Not
nationality. This single Ordinace one, recalled and, in Oswer to it was hoped, would ultimately lead to desirable changes in the habits and ons Justice, she stated that she clothed the toms of the Chinese, Not the least com
adable part of the Ordinnuce was that Birl and would permit her to get married which declared that
the
emancipated when she reached a marriageable age,
was
Mr. Alabaster--The prisoner arrested not on the wharf but on the other side of the road-No.
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