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Chinese only and those which received Foreigners and all others. Hence arose the terms "Native Brothels" and "Foreign Brothels". The distinction was so well observed that it became practicable to exempt from medical Examination the "Native Brothels" while the registered women of the "Foreign Brothels" were medically examined. Scarcely an instance was found of one of these native Brothels admitting a Foreigner, or of a woman belonging to the Native Brothels going to a Foreign Brothel as people argued must be the case when many ships with large crews came to the Harbour.
When the Ordinance 10 of 1867 was brought forward all the medical men urged that all common prostitutes should be brought under medical supervision and locked up if found diseased - This is the principle of the Contagious Diseases Acts. The Ordinance was drafted accordingly. The Chinese raised great objections, and although it is now law that all the women in Registered Brothels may be medically examined it was well understood that the old practice would continue, subjecting only to medical examination the inmates of those houses which were the resort of Foreigners - and it was made a condition of Registration that no Foreigner was to be admitted into a Native Brothel unless with the sanction of the Colonial Secretary, Superintendent of Police, and the Inspectors employed in carrying out the Ordinance.
In the despatch of Lord Kimberley already referred to, it is ordered that the inmates of the native Brothels shall not be legally exempt from medical examination, and those instructions have been attended to.
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