22
Enclosure.
Minute by the Registrar General on Mr. Justice Russell's Report on Child Adoption and Domestic Service among Hongkong Chinese.
Having made independent enquiries into the subject of this Report, and having, in the course of its preparation, discussed its contents with Mr. RUSSELL, I am in a position to say that His Honour's statement of the facts connected with Adoption and Service is correct, and that the method he proposes of dealing in future with this difficult question is the one least free from objection that I think it possible to devise.
When I laid the proposal before the representatives of the Chinese Community, they accepted it at once, as the best possible method of dealing with suspicious persons who have young girls in their houses either as adopted daughters or as domestic servants; and they further intimated their perfect willingness to assist the Registrar General in his investigation of such cases.
I need hardly say that, personally, I shall be glad to do my best to give effect to the scheme, in the event of its receiving, as I trust it may, the sanction of the Secretary of State.
(Signed)
Hongkong, 14th August, 1883.
FREDERICK STEWART,
Registrar General.
(C.S.O.)
No. 83.
See (2.)
Enclosure.
SIR,
23
(5)
Registrar General to Colonial Secretary.
REGISTRAR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 13th September, 1883.
With reference to Mr. Justice RUSSELL'S Report of the 18th July last, on Child Adoption and Domestic Service among Hongkong Chinese, (page 8), and to my letter, No. 73, of the 31st ultimo, (C.S.O. No. 2152) regarding the 14 young girls found in No. 233, Hollywood Road. I have the honour to enclose, for the consideration of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, a draft Ordinance conferring on the Registrar General the powers with which I think he should be invested in order to carry out effectually the scheme suggested by Mr. RUSSELL.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
The Honourable
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
Your most obedient Servant,
FREDERICK STEWART,
Registrar General.
6i
(4)
(C.S.O.)
Registrar General to Colonial Secretary.
No. 73.
REGISTRAR GENERAL'S OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 31st August, 1883.
SIR,
I have the honour to inform you that it was reported to me, last week, that WONG A-HO, keeper of Registered Brothel No. 80, had a number of young girls in her private house, No. 233, Hollywood Road, right opposite the brothel. I accordingly sent one of the Inspectors under the "Contagious Diseases Ordinances" to the house to ask that the children might be brought to see me. He returned with 17, of whom 14 were girls and 3 were boys.
2. Following the course recommended by Mr. Justice RUSSELL in his recent report on Child Adoption and Domestic Service, I requested Mr. LEUNG A-ON and Mr. CHAN KWAN-1, of the Society for the Protection of Women and Children, to sit with me in investigating the case. They were good enough to attend at once, and the result was that we were unanimously of opinion that 11 of the girls, ranging in age from 16 to 7, whom WONG A-HO claimed, had come into her possession by purchase. The other three girls were claimed by servants in the brothel as their own children, and we had no proof that this was not the case.
3. At the close of the investigation I ordered WONG A-HO to find security in $500 for each of the eleven girls that she claimed; and the claimants of the other three security in $200 each. I also directed that the photographs of all the 14 should be brought to me in the course of this week, and I am able to report that that has now been done. I have also directed that the girls shall be brought to this office once a quarter, in order that I may see how they are being treated, and have an opportunity of repeating to them that in this Colony no one can under any circumstances arising out of Adoption or Service deprive them of their personal liberty.
4. I have acted in this matter in my capacity as Protector of Chinese, and probably the urgency of the case sufficiently justifies the course I have taken. I think, however, that it would be well to have legislative authority for such proceedings, and I am at present sketching out a draft of an Ordinance to invest the Registrar General with all necessary powers, and to give persons who may consider themselves aggrieved the right of appeal from his decisions.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
The Honourable W. H. MARSH, C.M.G.,
FREDERICK STEWART, Registrar General,
$0.
Colonial Secretary, &c.,
&c.
See (2.)
Enclosure in Registrar General's Letter No. 83 of 1883. (In C.S.O. 3.)
An Ordinance enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice of the Legislative Council thereof, for the prevention of abuses connected with Child Adoption and Domestic Service.
WHEREAS it is expedient to make further provision for the prevention of adopted female children and female servants from being brought up in the Colony for the purpose of prostitution: Be it enacted by the Governor of Hongkong, with the advice of the Legislative Council thereof, as follows:-
1. It shall be lawful for the Registrar General, as Protector of Chinese, to summon before him any person whom he reasonably suspects of having in his custody any adopted daughter, or female servant, between the age of six and sixteen inclusive, with the view of disposing of her as a prostitute; and it shall also be lawful for the Registrar General, in his discretion and after due enquiry, to call on any such person who has the custody of any such female child to give reasonable security that such child shall not be sold, pawned, or otherwise disposed of for any immoral purpose, and that the absence of such child from the Colony shall be duly accounted for.
2. For the better carrying out of the preceding section, it shall be lawful for the Registrar General to require the production before him of any female child under adoption or domestic service; and also to summon any person who can give information as to the treatment of such child by her adopted parents or master, under a penalty not exceeding two hundred dollars.
3. It shall be lawful for the Registrar General, in the interests of any female child, to make a written application to a Judge in Chambers for a writ of Habeas Corpus, with the view of taking away such female child from any person who has no legal claim to her custody, and whose retention of her is prejudicial to the child's interest and liberty.
4. It shall be lawful for any person considering himself aggrieved or affected by any action of the Registrar General under this Ordinance to appeal in a summary way to a Judge in Chambers against any decision which the Registrar General may give under this Ordinance; and the Judge may confirm the decision of the Registrar General, or may order in writing the same to be annulled.
5. This Ordinance shall come into operation on a day to be hereafter proclaimed by the Governor.