ncloure.
9987/ 20.
i
Nov. IRth, 1920.
sir,
Wistaria Cottage.
Whitchurch.
56365
247
Wr Reading.
RECA RE 16 NOV 201
Be
I note in the Hansard Report for Nov.10th, that in reply to question put to you by Dr Murray, you gave an assurance to the House that children and girls were not being openly bought and sold
in Hong Kong.
Will you allow me to give you a list of persons in the Colony, with their addresses, who frem personal knowledge of the facts, and net from information supplied by persons interested in maintaining office, will support the statement of Colonel John Varð and of my husband and myself, that children and young girls are and have been, ever being openly bought and sold in the Colony,
since we first possessed the Island,
Museum.
(see the Historical records of Hong Kong in the British
"On 6th Oct, 1879, the Chief Justice of Hong Kong, Sir John Smale, again denounced the female servitude system as strongly as ever, called it downright slavery, and addressed a letter to the Governer, Sir John Hennessy, urging that the Police should be instructed to bring every person known to have a purchased servant before the Magistrate, to be dealt with mildly.
He asserted that the custom existed in the Colony "solely through the failure of the Government officers to enforce the existing laws," and his statement holds good at the present day.
I will now give you a list of persons who will witness to this
all
of whom are living in Hong Kong, and should be addressed there.
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE.