310 Sunday Labour on English Vessels in Crown Colonies. [Oor., the Stanley Exhibition which you have arranged for Sundays, May 18th and 25th, and to beg that the matter may be reconsidered.
The Missionary Societies who have so largely contributed to the Exhibition, as well as certain individual members of your Committee, cannot but feel acutely the fact that they should have any part in, or responsibility for, such a serious and inexcusable misuse of the hours of the Lord's day as your arrangements indicate.
It does not diminish from the responsibility of your Committee that in this arrangement you are "following the example of other galleries."
It does not diminish from the evil of any course of action that in pursuing it we follow a multitude.
God's Holy Day of Rest is not intended for such secular uses as those to which you propose to devote it.--I am, dear Sir, your faithful servant.
Your Secretary, after consultation, was able to assure the Managers that the Church Missionary Society and other exhibitors would withdraw their goods if the Sunday opening was carried out. The information reached your Committee too late to intervene effectually as to the first Sunday, May 18, but, before Whit-Sunday, the following circular-letter settled the matter:-
Victoria Gallery, 207 & 209 Regent Street, W.
May 21st, 1890.
Sir, In deference to the wishes of the Missionary and Lord's-day Observance Societies, it has been decided to cancel the Private View for next Sunday, the 25th inst.
Will you kindly notify this to any friends to whom you may have sent cards?--I am, Sir, your faithful servant,
EDWARD LE, Hon. Sec.
Applications for Literature have been received from 258 persons, residing in all parts of the country; and, in response, many thousands of tracts, pamphlets, and books have been scattered abroad, dealing with numerous aspects and developments of the Lord's-day question. This extensive circulation of the Society's publications has been almost entirely gratis.
To meet the constantly multiplying assaults on the Lord's-day and the perverse ingenuity of anti-Sabbatic arguments, it has been recently necessary to produce many new tracts and leaflets. Some of them are mentioned on the cover of this Occasional Paper. Complete lists can be had on application to the office.
To increase the acquaintance of the people with Lord's-day questions, and to influence them in the right direction, grants of books have from time to time been made to various free libraries. The Committee have recently purchased considerable numbers of copies of standard works which, in addition to the volumes in their own catalogue, they propose using in this way.
SUNDAY LABOUR ON ENGLISH VESSELS IN THE CROWN COLONIES OF HONG KONG AND SINGAPORE. The Committee have endeavoured, and sometimes with marked success, to stop Sunday work in harbours at home and abroad, and they have given much thought and care to the question as affecting Hong Kong and Singapore. In association with Commander Dawson of the Missions to
1890.] Sunday Labour on English Vessels in Crown Colonies. 311
Seamen, the Seamen's Chaplain at Hong Kong, and others, they have brought the question before Government, Parliament, and shipowners.
The Committee have recently received the following important document on the question from Hong Kong, and are trying to further the wishes of the Bishop of Victoria and others who sign the letter.
Hong Kong, July 30th, 1890.
The Secretary, Lord's-day Observance Society.
Dear Sir, We should feel it a great kindness if you would bring before your Committee the following facts with respect to the Sunday labour in the British Crown Colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore.
They are probably already known to you, and we are most gratefully aware that the subject has received your earnest attention. But we feel, at the same time, that a communication direct from us may lead you to give still more consideration to the matter; and we fervently hope that your powerful co-operation, together with our own constant agitation, may eventually result in the mitigation of the evil against which we both so emphatically protest.
1. Sunday labour on board ship in discharging and loading cargo is the invariable rule in the ports of Hong Kong and Singapore. This is partly due to the fact that these are "free ports"; and hence there being no custom house officials to claim their day of rest, as, e.g., in the treaty ports of China, and almost every other port in the world--Sunday labour is carried on because there is no one in a position to resist it.
Necessarily, a great hardship is imposed upon the officers and men on board ship, as well as upon an increasing number of clerks ashore, who are gradually being deprived altogether of their day of rest.
2. In the year 1888, a petition embodying the above facts was signed by 579 captains, officers, and engineers in the port of Hong Kong, and by 64 residents ashore, including Lloyd's surveyor, the marine surveyors, the wharfingers, head dock men and the majority of the clerks in the shipping offices.
This petition was addressed and presented to H.E. the Governor, Sir William des Voeux. But H.E., in consequence of the unsympathetic attitude of the local Chamber of Commerce, replied that, though personally willing to assist the petitioners, and not wishing to close his mind to any suggestion for accomplishing the desired object, he at the same time declined to do anything at present.
3. The question has since been referred home, and Admiral Field, M.P., brought the subject before the House of Commons in May last.
Lord Knutsford has very kindly taken the matter up, and signified his intention of conferring with the Governors of Hong Kong and Singapore respectively on the matter.
As yet, however, to the best of our knowledge, nothing has been done. We beg to submit to you the importance of keeping the matter before the public generally, with a view to legislation being enacted to place a binding restriction on Sunday labour in our Crown Colonies.
What can be done in Bombay and in the Australian ports, not to mention our neighbouring Chinese treaty ports (in which latter a great deal of unnecessary labour is prevented by only a small restriction in the shape of a money permit), can be done, we are convinced, in these Crown Colonies.
According to our judgment, an ordinance absolutely prohibiting Sunday work on board ships of every nationality--so far as coaling and cargo is concerned--except in cases of absolute necessity, is the only effective measure to be adopted. Cases of absolute necessity could be provided for similarly to the manner adopted in, e.g., Bombay. When such necessity exists, work could be permitted on payment of a certain sum, calculated according to the ship's registered tonnage at the rate of a day's demurrage,
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