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53
repeat perhaps that its father is dead, and that the person offering it for sale is the mother. Grief at parting with the child is easily assumed to keep up appearances. A bill of sale is made out, the money is paid, and the kidnapper goes away with the proceeds. The old women who are invariably called in to help in the transaction get a dollar or two, and the purchaser, who may have bought the child according to Chinese custom in all good faith, finds himself in the hands of the Chinese Mandarins or, if in Hongkong, at the Police Court. There is this difference, however, in the action taken before the different authorities. In China the child's parents cannot get back the child until the purchaser has been refunded what he has paid (I assume that the formal documents have passed); whereas in the English Court the purchaser is very lucky if he can prove that he believed he got the child from its legal custodians.
A case occurred in the beginning of this year, Wong a Hoi's case, in reference to a kidnapped or decoyed girl who was taken to Canton from here and sold for $65. A man who recommended the seller was also security as go-between. This Government applied to the British Consul to get the girl back. I gave a letter addressed to the Consul to a witness and the mother of the girl. "An official from the Nam Hoi Magistrate's Yamen went to the people who had the girl. The guarantor had to pay up the money and the girl was sent down here through the Consul. The Chinese authorities, I was informed, through the Po Leung Kuk, made the guarantor pay up before taking away the child.
The fact therefore that the Chinese systems of adoption and service thus recognise money payments would seem to render Hongkong a desirable market, seeing moreover that the punishment here for kidnapping compared with that of China is of the mildest nature; and hence that crime would appear, at least to some extent, to be fostered and encouraged by such systems being permitted here. There are checks and considerations, however, which counteract the evil, as will presently appear.
IV.
Suggestions for the better prevention of abuses arising from the Chinese systems of Child Adoption and Domestic Service; checks already existing.
The abuses arising from the Chinese system of child adoption and purchased service are therefore:--
1o. Fraud in causing females to be reared and pawned or sold as prostitutes when the parents parted voluntarily with their children for adoption or service.
2o. Kidnapping of male and female children because they can be sold for considerable sums of money.
I have tried to find out what is the number of children, male and female, in the Colony who are adopted sons and daughters and also the number of purchased servants, but although I have applied to many well-informed Chinese to give an approximate number I cannot get them even to form a conjecture, and the Registrar General has been unable to get any approximation either. In the absence of a census it would be impossible to form a notion of their number and the Chinese say that even a census would not be reliable, for the respectable Chinese do not like to speak of their adopted children. They prefer that the adopted children should think that they are natural-born, and obviously the disreputable people would strive to keep from the knowledge of the authorities the nature of the relation existing between themselves and female children who are being reared for an improper life. Therefore any estimates of the number which have been put forward by the various writers on this subject must be regarded as purely conjectural.
Although I have pointed out that Hongkong might be reckoned a suitable place for the operations of the kidnapping fraternity, nevertheless the checks now in force have made it an undesirable resort for them. The Government has been fully alive to the abuses connected with the system. The Imperial Act 24 and 25 Vict. C. 100 is in force here. In 1873, an Ordinance was passed for protection of women and children, and in 1875 it was found necessary to amend it—see Appendix.
In addition to these stringent laws the following existing safeguards are to be noted:--
1o Increased knowledge on the part of the people of late years. The permanent residents know that they have no claim on a child which has been stolen and which they have purchased either for adoption or service under the belief that it was sold by its parents, and they also know the difficulty in escaping from the penalties provided by the law against harbouring or receiving or buying or selling knowing the child to have been kidnapped. They also know that by English law the fact of money having been paid to a parent of itself gives no claim to the possession of the child even as against the parent who had received the money.
2o Rewards are given by the Government for the detection of kidnappers, and by the "Chinese Society for the protection of women and children."
3o The system of photographing for purposes of identification in order to prevent personation of registered prostitutes and women and children who pass the Emigration office, and the promulgation of the fact that such a system exists.
4o Every registered prostitute gets a paper in Chinese telling her of her freedom and every room in every brothel has a notice affixed like the one annexed. (See Appendix).
The frequency with which steamers leave the Colony for Singapore and Penang led to much kidnapping of both young girls and women and children. Children were easily passed as those of Chinese returning to Singapore. Girls too and women were said to be personated before the Emigration Officer. Others who had been decoyed were said to be put on board the steamer when the vessel was about to start. Other frauds of substitution were frequently reported.
Having found the system of photographs very successful in preventing personation in the registered brothels the Government, on my recommendation last year adopted the same system with reference to women and children about to emigrate. The system with intending emigrants is as follows: A woman or child takes each two photographs to the Emigration Officer. He enquires as to their freedom. If they are passed one photograph is stamped, the name inscribed on it, and it is numbered. It is given to the emigrant. Duplicates are filed at the office and are preserved for three months. Any one who loses a child, wife, or sister can go to the Emigration Office and inspect the Albums. If the missing one is on board a telegram is generally sent to the Singapore Government asking that inquiries should be made.
By an arrangement with this Government the Straits Government requires every woman and child to produce the stamped photograph, and the officer there would immediately detect the person presenting a wrong one.
The Po Leung Kuk write on the 13th September, 1882, (see Registrar General's letter of the 19th submitting a translation):-"We are of opinion that since its adoption(i. e., photographing brothel inmates) the number of young people who are inveigled into the Colony or brought for the purposes of prostitution has gradually decreased." The Society highly approved of the extension to emigrants of the photographing system and made some suggestions which are adopted.
I also append returns of the number of cases of kidnapping, including illegal detention of women and children, and sales of women for prostitution and emigration for the last 10 years. From these returns it appear that fewer persons have been convicted in 1882 than in any year since 1874 although the population has increased 25 per cent. since then, and compared with 1880 the number of persons convicted of those crimes is as 29 is to 68; a very marked change. The number of persons convicted up to June 30th this year is only 4, and one extradition case to Singapore, and no case has been grave enough to send to the Supreme Court. This result must be considered satisfactory.
66
In paragraph 18 page 123 of the Blue-book cited above Lord Kimberley partially discusses three different suggested remedies. His first suggestion is to make it a misdemeanour to purport to pass a child for money in the Colony. The objections to that change in the Criminal law His Lordship himself pointed out. I think they are almost fatal and that our present Criminal law goes as far as a general regard for liberty will permit. His Lordship's third scheme, namely, registration of adopted children, had been thought of and already suggested; but there are in my opinion insuperable objections to that plan. The best informed...
!
7
53
repeat perhaps that its father is dead, and that the person offering it for sale is the mother. Grief at parting with the child is easily assumed to keep up appearances. A bill of sale is made out, the money is paid, and the kidnapper goes away with the proceeds. The old women who are invariably called in to help in the transac- tion get a dollar or two, and the purchaser, who may have bought the child according to Chinese custom in all good faith, finds himself in the hands of the Chinese Mandarins or, if in Hongkong, at the Police Court. There is this difference, however, in the action taken before the different authorities. In China the child's parents cannot get back the child until the purchaser has been refunded what he has paid (I assume that the formal documents have passed); whereas in the English Court the purchaser is very lucky if he can prove that he believed he got the child from its legal custodians. A case occurred in the beginning of this year, Wong a Hoi's case, in reference to a kidnapped or decoyed girl who was taken to Canton from here and sold for $65. A man who recommended the seller was also security as go-between. This Government applied to the British Consul to get the girl back. I gave a letter addressed to the Consul to a witness and the mother of the girl. "An official from the Nam Hoi Magistrate's Yamen went to the people who had the girl. The guarantor had to pay up the money and the girl was sent down here through the Consul. The Chinese authorities, I was informed, through the Po Lenng Kuk, made the guarantor pay up before taking away the child. The fact therefore that the Chinese systems of adoption and service thus recognise money payments would seem to render Hongkong a desirable market, seeing moreover that the punishment here for kidnapping compared with that of China is of the inildest nature; and hence that crime would appear, at least to some extent, to be fostered and encouraged by such systems being permitted here. There are checks and considerations, however, which counteract the evil, as will presently appear.
IV.
Suggestions for the better prevention of abuses arising from the Chinese systems of Child Adoption and Domestic Service; checks already existing.
The abuses arising from the Chinese system of child adoption and purchased service are therefore:--
1o. Fraud in causing females to be reared and pawned or sold as pros- titutes when the parents parted voluntarily with their children for adoption or service.
2o. Kidnapping of male and female children because they can be sold for
considerable sums of money.
I have tried to find out what is the number of children, male and female, in the Colony who are adopted sons and daughters and also the number of pur- chased servants, but although I have applied to many well-informed Chinese to give an approximate number I cannot get them even to form a conjecture, and the Registrar General has been unable to get any approximation either. In the absence of a census it would be impossible to form a notion of their number and the Chi- nese say that even a census would not be reliable, for the respectable Chinese do not like to speak of their adopted children. They prefer that the adopted children should think that they are natural-born, and obviously the disreputable people would strive to keep from the knowledge of the authorities the nature of the rela- tion existing between themselves and female children who are being reared for an improper life. Therefore any estimates of the number which have been put for- ward by the various writers on this subject must be regarded as purely conjectural. Although I have pointed out that Hongkong might be reckoned a suitable place for the operations of the kidnapping fraternity, nevertheless the checks now in force have made it an undesirable resort for them. The Government has been fully alive to the abuses connected with the system. The Imperial Act 24 and 25 Vict. C. 100 is in force here. In 1873, an Ordinance was passed for protection of women and children, and in 1875 it was found necessary to amend it-see Appendix. In addition to these stringent laws the following existing safeguards
are to be noted:-
1" Increased knowledge on the part of the people of late years. The permanent residents know that they have no claim on a child which has been stolen and which they have purchased either for adoption or service under the belief that it was sold by its parents, and they also know the difficulty in escaping from the penalties provided by the law against harbouring or receiving or buying or selling knowing the child to have been kidnapped. They also know that by English law the fact of money having been paid to a parent of itself gives no claim to the possession of the child even as against the parent who had received the money.
2° Rewards are given by the Government for the detection of kidnappers, and by the "Chinese Society for the protection of women and children."
3o The system of photographing for purposes of identification in order to prevent personation of registered prostitutes and women and children who pass the Emigration office, and the promulgation of the fact that such a system exists.
4° Every registered prostitutes gets a paper in Chinese telling her of her freedom and every room in every brothel has a notice affixed like the one annexed. (See Appendix).
The frequency with which steamers leave the Colony for Singapore and Penang led to much kidnapping of both young girls and women and children. Children were easily passed as those of Chinese returning to Singapore. Girls too and women were said to be personated before the Emigration Officer. Others who had been decoyed were said to be put on board the steamer when the vessel was about to start. Other frauds of substitution were frequently reported. Having found the system of photographs very successful in preventing personation in the registered brothels the Government, on my recommendation last year adopted the same system with reference to women and children about to emigrate. The system with intending emigrants is as follows: A woman or child takes each two photo- graphs to the Emigration Officer. He enquires as to their freedom. If they are passed one photograph is stamped, the name inscribed on it, and it is numbered." It is given to the emigrant. Duplicates are filed at the office and are preserved for three months. Any one who loses a child, wife, or sister can go to the Emigration Office and inspect the Albums. If the missing one is on board a telegram is gene- rally sent to the Singapore Government asking that inquiries should be made. By an arrangement with this Government the Straits Government requires every woman and child to produce the stamped photograph, and the officer there would immediately detect the person presenting a wrong one. The Po Leung Kuk write on the 13th September, 1882, (see Registrar General's letter of the 19th submitting a translation):-"We are of opinion that since its adoption(i. e., photo- graphing brothel inmates) the number of young people who are inveigled into the Colony or brought for the purposes of prostitution has gradually decreased." The Society highly approved of the extension to emigrants of the photographing system and made some suggestions which are adopted. I also append returns of the number of cases of kidnapping, including illegal detention of women and children, and sales of women for prostitution and emigration for the last 10 years. From these returns it appear that fewer persons have been convicted in 1882 than in any year since 1874 although the population has increased 25 per cent. since then, and compared with 1880 the number of persons convicted of those crimes is as 29 is to 68; a very marked change. The number of persons convicted up to June 30th this year is only 4, and one extradition case to Singapore, and no case This result must be consi- has been grave enough to send to the Supreme Court. dered satisfactory.
66
In paragraph 18 page 123 of the Blue-book cited above Lord Kimberley partially discusses three different suggested remedies. His first suggestion is to make it a misdemeanour to purport to pass a child for money in the Colony. The objections to that change in the Criminal law His Lordship himself pointed out. I think they are almost fatal and that our present Criminal law goes as far as a general regard for liberty will permit. His Lordship's third scheme, namely, registration of adopted children, had been thought of and already suggested; but there are in my opinion insuperable objections to that plan. The best informed
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