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Statement of number of emigrants to Straits Settlements 1916-1927 as compared with total number of emigrants from Hong Kong.
To Straits Settlements. Total No. of Emigrants. 1916 82,797 117,653 1917 63,292 96,298 1918 .... 8,019 43,830 1919 11,638 59,969 1920 43,935 105,258 1921 87,324 156,011 1922 50,356 98,393 1923 65,584 120,224 1924 75,682 129,859 1925 97,552 140,534 1926 157,285 216,527 1927 202,408 285,593 1928 169,741 257,162INSTITUTIONS.
Among institutions recognised and encouraged, but not to any considerable extent supported by Government may be mentioned the Po Leung Kuk, the Eyre Refuge, the City Hall, and the Chinese Public Dispensaries.
The Po Leung Kuk Society was founded in 1878 to aid in the detection and suppression of kidnapping, especially of girls and women, and to shelter such girls or women as had been kidnapped in the interior and brought to Hong Kong for sale or emigration. Its name means "institution for the protection of good women". The initiative in its formation came from the Chinese themselves, and ever since by subscription and personal service, they have continued to support it.
There is a paid Chinese staff—matron, amahs and nurses, and two clerks who are secretaries to the managing committee. This Committee meets every evening from Monday to Friday at 7 p.m., the principal meeting of the week being held at 12 noon on Sunday. It not only manages the Po Leung Kuk, but acts as an advisory committee to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, in all cases affecting women and children, and Chinese family life generally, which are often extremely difficult and tedious. It corresponds when necessary with charitable institutions and private persons in various parts of China, traces parents of lost children or ill-treated muitsai, and shelters for the night any Chinese woman or girl who chooses to go. When parents or relations cannot be traced, the Committee arranges for the girls in its care to be given in marriage (never as concubines) or in adoption, always under bond and always with the consent of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs; and in every case that officer ascertains the girl's willingness before giving consent to either adoption or marriage.