C 3
India, and the other to Bangkok, were also sent back and similarly dealt with.
10. The year's work with women and children generally presented less difficulty than was experienced in 1913. The re-opening of the Canton brothels to a great extent stemmed the tide of undesirable women which poured into the Colony in 1913, but the disturbed condition of South China still facilitated trafficking in women and girls for prostitution. The prosecutions under the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance undertaken by this Office numbered only 4 with 2 convictions, as compared with 13 cases and 11 convictions in 1913.
(ii.) MALE EMIGRATION, (ASSISTED). (Table V.)
11. As stated beforehand in last year's report, all "assisted" emigration from Hongkong to other British possessions ceased as from June 30th, 1914. Assisted emigration to the Dutch Indies continued to some extent in July and August, during which months 548 coolies were passed for Muntok and Billiton, but with the outbreak of war this emigration also ceased. Hence the figures given here and in the Tables are for little more than half the year.
12. The total number of assisted emigrants presented for examination was 12,272, of whom 8,278 were passed and allowed to proceed. (In 1913 the figures were 22,984 and 17,004.) The number of those who on examination expressed themselves unwilling to emigrate was 189, or 1.52% as compared with 3.28% and 2.58% in 1912 and 1913. The total number rejected in Hongkong or on arrival in Singapore as unfit for labour was 391 (295 at this end and 96 by the Protector of Chinese, Singapore), all of whom were sent back to their homes through the Tung Wa Hospital at the expense of the Boarding Houses which recruited them.
13. Assisted emigration to British North Borneo was practically non-existent, only one batch of 45 coolies being passed for labour there during the year, although it is probable that a certain number of labourers may have gone down under the "kangany" system.
14. The arrangements made with the Straits Settlements Government for the repatriation of decrepit coolies at the expense of their employers enabled 233 such decrepits to return to their homes via Hongkong during the year.
15. Under similar arrangements with British North Borneo, 345 decrepits and destitutes, of whom about 100 had been thrown out of work by the war, returned from Sandakan and Jesselton and were sent on to their homes through the Tung Wa Hospital. This form of repatriation was put on a more satisfactory footing early in the year by the appointment of Messrs. Gibb, Livingston & Co. as the agents in Hongkong for the British North Borneo Government.