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the colony had one or more girls virtually in a position of
slavery.
"The custom is called adoption, but money payments are usually made, and in the majority of cases the girls became house-
hold drudges and worse, As the result of our action I relinquished
my appointment and step by step have forced the Colonial Office
to admit the material fact in this grave indictment of British
honor.
"A reply recently given by the Colonial Office to questions
regarding the buying and selling of children in Hong Kong was as
follows:
. "Buying and selling of human beings does not take place openly
in Hong Kong. A custom does exist there, as elsewhere in China,
by which, in return for a money payment, girls are transferred by
their parents or natural guardians to the care of another house-
hold usually for the purpose of domestic service, though the transaction is described by the Chinese as a form of adoption.
"Sheltering under this custom, the most revolting abuses in
the traffic of girls and children are openly carried out. Go- betweens or brokers are employed for the sale and purchase of
these unfortunate girls, and the fact that large numbers are sold into the local house of ill-repute, and are shipped overseas for the same purpose, is perfectly well known to the whole shipping
community.
The Hong Kong Weakly Press of March 12, 1921, writes as
follows:
"We have heard one of the leading Chinese residents of Hong Kong express the opinion that fully 90 per cent of the children bought in the Colony are bought really as a commercial speculation.
"They are purchased at a very, tender age for a few dollars, trained to domestic service for a few years, and sold in marriage perhaps for many times the original purchase price.'
BRUTAL ILL-TREATMENT.
"An astounding feature of the case is that the above practise