L
CONFIDENTIAL.
43493
KES
R! SEP 20
GOVERNMENT HOUSE.
HONGKONG. 10th July, 1920.
415
H
76469
Encoure 1.
Conclosure 2.
My Lord,
I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Lordship's confidential despatch of the 16th April, 1920, enclosing correspondence with Lieutenant-Commander Haslewood and an extract from Hansard on the subject of alleged child slavery in Hongkong.
2.
Definite refutation of charges made in general terms and unsupported by any evidence is necessarily diffi-j cult, but I enclose a copy of a minute by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs which seems to me to cover the whole ground adequately. If Lieutenant-Commander Haslewood or Lieutenant- Colonel Ward will produce any evidence of specific cases in support of their allegations I shall be pleased to have a full enquiry made.
3.
I enclose also newspaper reports of the inter views with the Hon. Mr. Lau Chu Pak, the senior Chinese member of the Legislative Council, and the Rev. Dr. T. 7. Pearce, L.L.D., of the London Mission, to which Mr. Hallifax refers. I venture to submit that these authoritative expres sions of opinion by enlightened members both of the Chinese and of the European communities far outweigh the indefinite allegations of temporary residents who have no special sources of information open to them. The mention of the word *Slavery" appears in many cases to induce a peculiar mentality which is well illustrated by the case of Mrs. Haslewood to
RIGHT HONOURABLE
VISCOUNT MILMER, G.C.B..
&c...
50..
which
Page 420Page 421