8. At the beginning of the year the former Victoria Home was closed, and the pupils transferred either to the new C.M.S. school 'Heep Yunn', or else to the 'Rural Home and Orphanage near Taipo. During the year two girls were sent to the Heep Yunn school, four to the Rural Home, and fifteen to the Salvation Army Home.
9. From the 2nd to the 13th February a Conference of the Central Authorities in Eastern Countries was held under the auspices of the League of Nations at Bandoeng, Java, on Traffic in Women and Children in the East, at which the Secretary for Chinese Affairs represented the Government of Hong Kong. In March the Majority and Minority Reports of the Mui-tsai Commission were received. As one result of the Conference and the Reports, applications were invited for a new post of Lady Assistant to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs; it was intended that she should take over administrative charge of all the work concerning the protection of women and girls in this office. In December it was also announced in the leading local English and Chinese newspapers that applications would be received for three extra Lady Inspectors: these had not been finally chosen by the end of the year.
10. Under the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance (4 of 1897) there were three prosecutions, and five persons were convicted. There were also seventeen prosecutions, and twenty-nine persons convicted on charges of trafficking in minors (Ordinance 2 of 1865, Offences against the Person).
11. For the first time a lady, Mrs. Tam, has served on the Po Leung Kuk Committee this year. For a fuller account of the Po Leung Kuk work see Annexe A.
EMIGRATION.
(Ordinance 30 of 1915).
(Tables IV and V).
12. The number of Assisted Emigrants was 7,564, as compared with 6,242 in 1936.
13. The number of women and children emigrants was 83,539 as compared with 44,443 in 1936.
CHINESE BOARDING HOUSES.
(Ordinance 23 of 1917).
(Table VI).
14. Class V Ku Li Kun was deleted by Government Notification No. 52 of 1936 and Class VI Ku Kung Ngoi U was deleted by Government Notification No. 621 of 1937.