under our immediate notice . (par.34). But it is not stated in this Report
any previous Report of the Protector. So far how many (if any) women have been rescued owing
to complaints made by them at the visits of Inspection paid periodically to the Brothels,
I have been able to discover. how the fact of the women (or the houses) being
Registered has led to the rescue of the women. Any of the women referred to in the extract quoted above (from par. 34 of Report) could send in their tickets by a friend, or by letter, to the Protector, they could equally well send a message by the same means to the Protector, so that Registration
has not helped these cases in the slightest degree. Mineralization apparently the essential & important feature in their case was that their position, as free agents, was explained to them on their arrival in the Colony, and they had the opportunity to communicate with the Protector.
It is very satisfactory that they subsequently had the sense to do so.
At Hongkong, the position is not quite the same, because there is no Law providing for the Examination of all Chinese Immigrants on first arrival in the Colony.
I understand from W. Lockhart (the Registrar General who has been lately at home & with whom I had several conversations on this subject) that such a Law would not be practicable in Hongkong, owing to the number of passengers to and fro between Hongkong and Canton (and other neighbouring parts of China, e.g., Macao).
But this difficulty is partly met (as I gathered from reading the Po Leung Kuk Report, and as Mr. Lockhart confirms in his Memorandum circulated in reply to a note devoted to him by the Detectives of the Po Leung Kuk). We might suggest that this plan might be adopted, viz., watching the Steamers arriving from Canton, and stopping suspicious-looking persons, detaining & bringing them to the Registrar.
Detectives could be employed for this purpose, to secure this object, and to prevent women or girls who they suspect are being brought into the Colony for immoral purposes against their will.
Mr. Lockhart admitted in conversation that very few women after being forced into a Brothel are induced to become rescued through the agency of the Inspectors, and that they are not materially assisted by the fact that they & the Brothels are subject to Registration & Inspection; but he argued that many are prevented from entering the Brothels, owing to the Registration system, because under that system...
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