9 171
bear a knowledge of Chinese life and methods of thought impossible for a foreigner. The Committee works under conditions of the greatest publicity, and bears the very highest reputation for integrity; it does work which is quite beyond the reach of any Government Department not so assisted.
There is a new Committee of 12 each year: but the retiring Committees do not lose all their
interest in the work. They come from all parts of
the Colony proper, and are always ready to receive and
forward complaints, to give information and to make
enquiries.
-
In addition, Chinese subscriptims support a
force of 100 "District Watchmen", under the control of
the S.C.A.; they rank as police, but are appointed
and managed through a Chinese Committee, and deal only
with crime no merely statutory or mumicinal offences.
They are perhaps for this reason more in the amfidence
of the people than are the regular police, and one of
their principal duties is the detection of cases of
kidnapping and of offences against women and girls.
The Tung Wa Hospital, the Confucian Society
and some temples maintain quite a large number of
schools
mostly free and constantly press the
Government to further their efforts in vernacular
education. The point does not bear directly on the
muitsai question, but goes to show that the Chinese will readily expand thought and effort on raising the standard around them. The muitsai question is a very
prominent one, and it is impossible that they should
have
·