for
MINITE PAPER.
Pur
omitted that part of the prayer in which they condenized the purchase of free people for the purposes of prostitu- tion, and prayed that kidnapping and selling for such poses should be severely punished. If the hon. member had quoted this passage he would have answered this part of his case, for the Chinese were most eager in their des sire to help the Government in checking the evils which they admitted to exist. He admitted most fully the existence of the practice of buying and selling children
the
purposes of adoption and friendship; but he would point out that none who were so adopted could be held in servitude against their will, that they could escape, that they could apply to the Courts, and that anyone could apply on their behalf. The fact of their having been sold, Lord Kimberley had pointed out, did not deprive them of any rights. Undoubtedly the position of children sa placar was one of peril, which required to be safeguarded; and his noble friend had suggestel for consideration whether the entering into agreements should be made a misdemeanour, whether specified conditions should be exaded whether all transactions abould be registered of
whether some combination of these provisions should be adopted, in order to prevent abuses. The action of the hon. member for Northampton would not prevent the Government doing what they could do to avert the growth of a servile class of a different race from the downnant class, conscious as they were of the dangers that were in- separable from such a condition of th ngs.
Mr. DILLWYN could not help expressing his disap pointment at the tone of the last speech, which was a half-hearted condemnation, amounting almost to a de fenice of gross abuses. Whether there was legal slavery or not, there was practically slavery in
its worst form, and the more the actual condition of things was realized, the more would the country feel that the hon. member For deserved thanks for having called attention to it. Northampton Mr. CROPPER said that the Colonial Office had laid before the House the result of their investigations into that matter, and Lord Kimberley had expresied a desire that a fI and trustworthy inquiry should be made into the facts and into what measures, if any, should be taken to remove the evils which might be brought to light. He had great confidence in Sir J. Pope Hennessy and Sir J. Smale, and be fully believed that what they would see was that in some way the system of colonial slavery, which it could not be denied existed to a certain extent at Hong- kong, would he changed. The great evil of in houses of ill-repute at Hongkong was a much larger retaining girls question, and it could only be removed when the question as to contagious diseases at Hongkong was thoroughly gone into. He was convinced that the feeling expressed in England some years ago on the subject of the slave virer had had a good effect, and that it was now a point of tour in the Navy that wherever the British flag wared
was to be discouraged.
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