-C 3
& cases the 11 women missing returned and were restored to relatives; and in the remaining cases, of the 10 women missing 1 who was sent back proved to be the wrong woman, and 9 refused to return. 25 women sent back from the Straits Settlements on suspicion, or returning of their own accord, were given assistance in proceeding to their homes. 67 women who had gone to the Straits Settlements to practise prostitution were sent back as being too young.
10. Prosecutions under the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance undertaken by this office numbered 5 with 4 convictions as compared with 6 cases and 4 convictions in 1916.
(ii)-MALE EMIGRATION (ASSISTED). (Table V.)
11. Assisted emigration this year showed a marked decline compared with last year. The total number of assisted emigrants presented for examination was 20,658, of whom 15,265 were passed and allowed to proceed, compared with 25,357 and 17,665 in 1916. The number of those who on examination expressed themselves as unwilling to emigrate was 626 or 3.03%, a great increase on last year's figure of 0.8%. This is to some extent at least due to the indiscriminate recruiting of loafers from the Canton gambling houses; many made a regular practice of travelling to Hongkong as would-be emigrants, refusing to go abroad when presented for examination, and getting sent back free of expense to themselves. This practice has now been stopped; the boarding houses, who lost heavily by it, have become more careful in choosing their recruits. The total number of assisted emigrants rejected in Hongkong as unfit for labour was 446, 300 of whom were sent back to their homes through the Tung Wa Hospital at the expense of the boarding houses which recruited them, and the rest went back to the boarding houses for treatment in Hongkong.
The list in Table V of destinations of assisted emigrants shows that the decline has been more marked in emigration to Banka and Billiton than in emigration to Singapore: emigrants to the former places have fallen off by 2,740 while the Singapore figures show a decline of only 523. Emigration to Banka continued throughout the year; emigration to Billiton went on from January to May.
12. Two small batches of assisted emigrants proceeding to Batavia and Balikpapan to undertake special contracts for loading steamers with coal and oil were passed during the year.
13. Assisted emigration to British North Borneo shows a very marked revival. It began in June and continued to the end of the year. So far only 2 applications for the repatriation of any of these assisted emigrants have been made, both towards the end of the year, so that repatriation during the year under review was impossible.
14. The supervision of free emigration to Fiji, mentioned in