32873
RECO
C. O.
0495
27 FEB
No. 35.
Government House.
Hong-Kong, 26th January, 1900.
PRINTED FOR PARLIAMENT
Cas903 Apl 1906
308
Sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 281 of the 8th ultimo, requesting me to take steps to introduce 3 amendments into Ordinance No.31 of 1899, entitled An Ordinance to amend The Protection of Women and Girls' Ordinance, 1897.
2. With regard to paragraph 4 of your despatch, I think it necessary to submit the following points for your consideration. It was never my intention to authorize all European Officers of Police to inspect brothels, for clearly all Sergeants and Inspectors would not be qualified for such work. On the contrary, the Captain Superintendent of Police would have been instructed to select one man from his staff for this service. Such a course had in fact been temporarily adopted. The Officer selected was on the detective staff and it was found that his work in connection with brothels helped him in his detective duties which he still continued to discharge. Further, the Captain Superintendent of Police, in order to institute prosecutions under section 4 of this Ordinance, must necessarily detach an officer to watch brothels, a duty which
The Right Honourable
JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P.