231
the demand for living accommodation created by the increasing
: pressure of population than the immediate occupation by res- .peccable families and business people of these floors
A
• SO
lately occupied as brothels for respectable Chinese: have a strong aversion to reside in premises or even in a street
possibly formerly occupied by brothels: if they can avoid it, and it is a fact that speculators in property expected a sharp fall in rents and a consequent depreciation in the value of pro- perty in the localities which were' purged of brothels owing 00 this disinclination of the Chinese.
But the demand. for house room is NO
great that their anticipations were not realised and as a
· matter of fact I learn that rents have if anything appreci- ated in the localities referred to.
5. Under section 3 of the Ordinance 35
i prosecutions have been instituted by the Police in respect
of 89 complaints made by soldiers and sailors of Her Majes- ty's Forces,and convictionswere obtained in 24 cases fines
to the amount of $1,860 being inflicted.
One effect of these prosecutions has been that the keepers of Chinese and Japanese brochels frequenced by Europeans have retained private practitioners as their medical advisers, and a small private Lock Hospital has been instituted for Japanese Women.
Another effect has been that whereas in
June 1899 chere were 94 soldiers of the Garrison suffering
1 from venereal in Hospital, in January of this year there
ware 67 while at the present time there are only 35 such
cases.