CO129-471 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 94

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Extract from THE NEW YORK AMERICAN of

May 29th. 1921.

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BRITISH ALLOW CHILD SLAVERY IN HONG KONG.

Lieutenant-Commander Haselwood Resigns

His Post There and Denounces London

Colonial Office,

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+IRL

CHILDREN ARE

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SOLD.

Large Number Trafficked In, Some for Export

Victims Are Often Brutally Ill-Treated.

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LONDON, May 28, - Lieutenant-Commander R.L. Haslewood,

retired naval officer, has written an emphatic article for the

Daily News exposing child slavery in the British colony of Hong

Kong, which has excited much comment, as the Colonial Office has

admitted the fact, under his pressure,

Lieutenant-Commander Hazlewood says:

For nearly a hundred years this island, with its 200,000

Chinese inhabitants, has been under our rule,

There are now some 6,000 Buropeans, and the island is

controlled by the Governor and a Legislative Council. When I

was acting as Superintendent of the Admiralty Chart Depot there

in 1919, my wife and I were horrified by the screams of a child

which came during the evening from a Chinese house.

"As a result of our efforts to make inquiries we came to

the conclusion that this must be one of those cases of slavery

which we had heard darkly hinted at. When I reported the case to

the police I was told that it was 'probably a slave girl".

RESIGNED HIS PLACE.

"My wife immediately began investigations, and these

revealed to us the fact, which had indeed already been discussed

in a sermon by the British chaplain, that each Chinese house in

the..

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