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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

T

Reference :-

PICO. 882

6

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Registration of brothels and prostitutes is the only way in which we can assist these unfortunate women and girls. The arguments about this have been set out by successive Protectors of Chinese and duly forwarded to the Secretary of State.

W. EVANS,

Protector of Chinese, S.S.

MEMORANDUM by Colonel PENNEFATHER, Inspector General of Police, S.S. Number of brothels in Singapore, with approximate number of prostitutes :—

European

Japanese

Chinese ...

Indians ...

Siamesu...

Malay

Total

Public Brothels.

Private

Brothels.

མཐཉྩེཌ|ཐ༐

Total.

No. of

Prostitutes.

Reg8*2

ด

31

26

228

80

308

1,751

19

4

41

429

2,106

298

།*༐

131

Private brothels are private houses where two or three women live and carry on prostitution on their own account. Public brothels are those in the well-known brothel streets, houses which are never used for any other purpose, in which there is generally a brothel-keeper.

J.

MEMORANDUM by Dr. M. F. SIMON, Principal Civil Medical Officer, S.S.

I was in charge of the Lock Hospital for about three years, from 1877 to 1880, during which time the Contagious Diseases Ordinance was in force here.

During this time I examined many thousands of women, and do not recollect a single occasion on which any objection was made to examination by any woman of any nationality.

The diseases mostly met with then were gonorrhoea and primary chancre; second- ary syphilis was hardly ever met with.

Ön several occasions women have taken the opportunity of being brought for ex- amination to state to me that they wished to leave their brothels. Such women were invariably detained and handed over to the Protector of Chinese.

DEAR SIR,

K.

62, Kampong Martin, Singapore,

May 11, 1898.

I HAVE received your letter of the 9th May asking me to appear before a Com- mittee on the C.D. Acts. I am too glad to appear, but my statement will annoy you for it is very long. I, therefore, take the liberty to state my opinion on this matter, and if you require further information, either about this Act or other cause, I shall be glad to furnish it or attend at your office personally. I like to help the poor girls who are acting as prostitutes, because I know that they are either kidnapped or bought in China and brought to Singapore. When they appear before the Protector of Chinese they call the kidnappers or purchasers their parents, and after passing the Protector's examination they are sold to a brothel-keeper, for whose benefit they have to prosti- tute for six years. During these six years the brothel-keeper gives them only one suit of clothes a year, and if they want more they have to get them at their own expense. They have also to pay for the furniture in their rooms and for their tea, oil, tobacco, matches, &c. If the brothel-keeper hears that they are trying to run away they are drugged,

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taken to another country and sold, and they will then have to serve another six years, although they may have worked out five years with their original brothel-keepers. Girls who succeed in running away with their men are generally sold again (by them) in the end, hence no prostitute can live a happy life unless she stays out her time with the first brothel-keeper. Some of the prostitutes in Singapore have husbands in China. Their being here is due either to their own misconduct or to their being kidnapped. Prosti- Sometimes tutes who borrow money in China have to pay double the amount here. young women who work as ayahs in China are kidnapped. The kidnapper tells them that they can earn $10 or $15 a month here, which is very good pay in China, and offers On arrival to lend them $50 or $100, which they have to pay double the amount here.

Some here if they have no money to pay, they are forced to be sold as prostitutes. ayahs who work in brothels here, and who have saved $200 or $300, would borrow $100 or $200 more, and go off to China to buy girls and bring them down here as prostitutes. On the way from China the girls are taught what to say and where they are going, but It cost the in spite of this they sometimes make a slip and get detained in the "home." buyer money to get them out, and this goes harder with them as they have to remain longer with her to make good the money spent. There are many companies in Singapore and China which bring women, girls, and babies down here for sale every six weeks, and these are sold like goods. In cases where a lot of girls, women, and babies are brought, the women are made to say that one girl and one baby are hers, and after the examination all is sold. The officer who goes on board from the Protectorate knows all about this, but the members of the kidnapping companies understand how to settle the matter with him. Female kidnappers dress themselves in a different costume every time they appear at the Protectorate, and photographs cannot tell. Prostitutes who have disease are forced to receive men, and if they are very ill the time of their illness is carefully marked, together with the money spent in doctor's fees and medicines; and when their time is up they have to stay longer to make good the money spent. Five or six years ago Dr. Mugliston charged such prostitutes, whether ill or not, 50 cents per month. This was not for medical attendance or medicine. If any girl paying this monthly charge became ill and were dying she was admitted into the Doctor's private hospital, but a girl who was not paying would be taken to the (public) hospital and a post-mortem examination held when she died. To start this rule he held (post-mortem) examinations on many brothel-keepers, and the other keepers and inmates of brothels were frightened and obliged to pay. Some prostitutes cry when they speak of this, and they say that they have to stay one year more with the brothel-keeper on account of this charge. Many girls are forced to prostitute at the age of 13 or 14, especially those who sing in eating houses (music halls). They become bad if enough money is paid them. If the C.D. Acts were resumed it would be a great help to the poor prosti- tutes, but women must be employed to tell them not to be afraid, as it is for their benefit.

Yours truly,

JANE MCBREEN.

22273.

SIR,

FEDERATED MALAY STATES. No. 25.

HIGH COMMISSIONER SIR J. A. SWETTENHAM to MR. CHAMBERLAIN. (Received October 4, 1898.)

(Confidential.)

Government House, Singapore, September 8, 1898.

I HAVE the honour to forward a representation from the Resident-General on the desirability of taking steps to ameliorate, by legal regulations, if possible, the wretched condition of the Chinese public prostitutes in the Malay States.

As this paper has reached me marked "Confidential," it becomes my duty to forward it confidentially.

kindred subject

2. My public despatch, No. 227, of the 5th August last,* on a must have recently reached you.

3. I invite attention to the paper by Mr. G. T. Hare, the Chinese Secretary, for several reasons. The author is an exceptionally gifted Chinese scholar, who has ac- quired a very intimate knowledge of Chinese thought and feeling, partly in China, in this Colony, and in the Federated Malay States.

• No. 24.