In C. T. O. S. 2088.
11
The Editor of the China Mail has more than once made these statements, the Pacific Mail Steamers being the vessels alluded to as carrying kidnapped women.
Before embarkation, emigrants going to San Francisco pass individually through my office to have their passage tickets signed and to be questioned as to their willingness to leave China. They are addressed in the Cantonese dialect, and if they are natives of Tonquin or more properly Annam, whence rumour has it the women are taken, their ignorance of the questions and consequent inability to reply to them would at once create suspicion and consequent enquiry. In addition to the difference of tongue, Annamites are very different in features to the natives of Kwang-tung. They also have a custom of staining their teeth black which I believe cannot be easily removed.
The reports alluded to by Sir R. Alcock have called my attention to the appearance of the women leaving by these ships and I have made it my especial duty to ascertain if the reports were true. For addition to...