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of other lower animals, is unknown as an article of diet to all
Chinese who are not accustomed to come into contact with
Europeans, and is consequently seldom, if ever, used in feeding
infants, as a substitute for the mother's milk.
16. Your petitioners also verily believe that a label on tins
of condensed skimmed milk bearing Chinese characters which mean
that the milk is not fit to be eaten by young children will
cause the Chinese to believe that it contains some injurious or
poisonous matter, and will have the effect of entirely stopping
all trade in the Colony in such an article, and will further
tend to render the Chinese suspicious of all kinds of condensed
milk.
17. Your petitioners further verily believe that if the use of
condensed skimmed milk by the poorer class of Chinese in the
Colony as an article of diet is so stopped, their children will be given in its stead food which is actually unwholesome and
injurious to their health, such as rice pap, which, according
to the statement of the Honourable Dr Ho Kai, a member of the Legislative Council, consists of rice which is first masticated by an infant's mother and is then transferred from her mouth
into that of the infant.
18.
The average daily wage of a Chinese workman in this Colony does not exceed fifty cents, out of which he has to find lodging food and clothing for his wife and family, He is therefore
+
unable to afford to purchase whole milk, or condensed whole milk, although he is occasionally able to purchase the very much
cheaper article condensed skimmed milk. This being so, your petitioners believe that the Ordinance in question will have no effect whatsoever in inducing the poorer classes of Chinese in the Colony to procure whole milk or whole condensed milk, but will have the effect of preventing them from procuring condensed