4378.
PUBLIC RECORD, OFFICE
། ། ་།
CO.
Reference :-
885
12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
MY LORD,
No. 275.
(Hong Kong)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Bramston's
Temple, 11th March 1882. letter of the 15th ultimo, stating that it was the practice among the Chinese for a parent to give a son or daughter into the possession and control of another person, and to receive a sum of money in exchange, the parent having no right to reclaim the child except upon repayment of the money. The children were sometimes brought up as adopted children, sometimes were employed in domestic service, and, if girls, were sometimes specially educated with a view to their becoming prostitutes. The terms, purchase and sale of the child, were applied to these transactions, which were frequently evidenced by documents in the form at page 99 of the accompanying print, in which it would be observed it was stated that the child was willing to be sold; and the question had arisen whether, upon the occurrence of such a transaction in Hong Kong, which was British soil, governed by the common law of England, the child became the slave, or passed in any, and if so in what, degree, under the control, of the so-called purchaser.
That the question had also arisen as to the effect of a transaction in all respects similar, except that instead of the form of sale the form was employed of an indenture of apprenticeship, with the child as a party to it.
That the question was complicated by the fact that children of both sexes were also kidnapped or bought in the Empire of China, and brought into the Colony, where they became the subject of these transactions of sale, the so-called seller not being the parent of the child. The statute law of the Colony contained stringent and sufficient provisions for repressing kidnapping and the forcible detention of persons, whether children or adults, and the abduction or detention of women or girls for the purposes of prostitution.
That the late Chief Justice of Hong Kong, Sir John Smale, had made declarations from the bench indicating his opinion that the children who were the objects of Buch transactions did thereby become slaves, a view which your Lordship was not disposed to accept as at present advised. That Mr. Bramston was accordingly to transmit to us the draft of a Despatch which your Lordship proposed to address to the Governor of the Colony, with a copy of the print referred to in the draft; and he was to request that we would be good enough to report whether, in our opinion, the statement of the law on the subject, as contained in the draft, was correct, and if not, that we would favour your Lordship by indicating the points in which it was inaccurate, and by making any general observations which occurred to us.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That, in our opinion, the statement of the law on the subject as contained in the draft is correct.
We would suggest the expediency of making the slight alteration which we have inserted in pencil in paragraph 16 of the draft.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley.
&c.
&c.
&c.
We have, &c.,
(Signed)
HENRY JAMES. FARRER HERSCHELL.
▲ 18916.-955. 25.--12/84.