because it will be observed that the Ordinance now under consideration contains
• under
a suspending clause (Sec. 3/
6. Little advantage will apparently be gained by going through the Sections of the Ordinance seriatim; it will be sufficient, I think, for my present purpose to give an abstract of its enactments which I think may be fairly stated as follows:
It contemplates the extinction of all Brothels in Hong Kong, excepting such as are registered in the office of the Registrar General and are within certain specified limits, and visits with severe penalties persons who shall be convicted of violating this provision.
8. It invests the Registrar General with power to declare any House a Brothel and to give notice of his having so done to the Landlord or Crown, and, in the case of the Landlord or known Lessee being desirous of disputing his decision, gives power to the Landlord or Crown Lessee to appeal to two Magistrates.
It brings within its purview and control all registered Brothels and provides for their being inspected from time to time by certain officers, including the Registrar General and Colonial Surgeon, the latter of whom is required to visit each registered Brothel and examine each of the Inmates at least once in every ten days, and in the event of any prostitute being declared by the Colonial Surgeon to be affected with Venereal Disease, it provides that she shall be removed under order of the Registrar General, there to be kept until cured at the expense of the keeper of the Brothel from whence such woman shall have been removed.
10. It makes it highly penal for a prostitute to infect any person with a Venereal Disease, and lastly introduces certain provisions with respect to Lewd women, to which, however, it is unnecessary further here to refer as they are re-enacted with certain slight modifications in the present Ordinance.
11. I proceed, in the second place, to consider the insufficiency of the Ordinance of 1857 to grapple with the great social evil which it was intended to suppress. So to its general principle, perhaps, no substantial objection can be offered, and to say that it has effected no benefit would be a departure from the truth.
12. When, however, the magnitude of the evil to be encountered is taken into consideration, the in too many cases recklessness of the parties sought to be benefited, and the difficulty of distinguishing Brothels property