C 3
112 or 96 per cent. of the passengers were detained for enquiries as against 62 or 51 per cent. in 1908. Of these, 20 cases were still under consideration at the end of the year. Of the remaining 92, 25 (27 per cent.) were ultimately allowed to leave without any order being made.
Attention was drawn to alleged malpractices in connection with female emigration to Siam. At the time no proof could be found of an organized traffic in women being carried on, but later in the year sufficient evidence was obtained to warrant action being taken against some of those concerned in it.
(ii.)—Male Emigration. (Table V.)
The number of assisted emigrants examined was 18,511, as against 16,735 in 1908. Careful records have been kept in order to ascertain the time spent in examination. It appears that the average rate of examination may be taken at 22 emigrants the hour, and that under the present system each individual receives seven times the attention which he did when all classes of male emigrants were examined indiscriminately. This is apart from the supervision exercised over them on their arrival in the Colony and during their residence in the boarding-house. A very watchful eye is kept on anything in the nature of organized emigration of Chinese labourers from Hongkong and from the neighbouring ports, not only by this office, but by the various Chinese local societies. Estimates have been made at various times of the wealth brought back to China by labourers who have emigrated to the Malay Peninsula or the Dutch Indies. I find it stated in one of the Chinese Customs reports that one shipload of 467 labourers returning to Hoihow has brought back savings to the amount of $29,035, or nearly $65 a head, which may be accepted as the equivalent of the wages of a farm labourer for ten months.
The number of emigrants examined shews a slight increase which is formed of an increase of 5,000 in the emigrants going to the Straits Settlements set against a decrease of about 3,500 in those going to the Dutch Indies. The other figures which call for comment in Table V are the considerable reduction in the number of emigrants who declined to proceed on their voyage, a slight increase in those rejected as unfit, and a corresponding decrease in those sent back from Singapore, who are now almost all men who have fallen ill on the voyage. There appears to be a larger emigration of men from the Swatow and Hoihow districts than last year.
In September 100 Chinese labourers passed through Hongkong on their way to Labuan to work in the coal mines; they appeared to be assisted emigrants but had not been told that they would be asked to sign a contract to work on their arrival. I communicated with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs at Singapore who made arrangements to safeguard their interests.
Fifteen applications were made by relatives for assistance in recovering emigrants. In eight, the emigrants returned to China, and a ninth is expected shortly. In one of the cases, money was