CO129-471 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 96

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has been definitely announced as illegal in China itself, and

that the British Colonial Offics are fully aware of this fact;

but in spite of this no steps are taken to abolish the practise

in Hong Kong.

"Revolting cases of brutal ill-treatment were brought before

the Hong Kong magistracy on July 15 and August 3 of last year, when

two girls were taken to the hospital covered with burns and bruises

from head to foot as a result of the treatment they had received

from their purchasers,

"On January 24 and on January 26 of this year, and also on

February 7, three small girl children were taken to hospital in

the same condition. One of them while siok (as her mistress

admitted) had been beaten and kicked, and bore the marks of a

rattan cane. To quote the exact words, 'She was literally covered

with bruises caused by some blunt, rough instrument,'

"The following case shows that the buying and selling is by

no means confined to adoption and domestic service, as the

Colonial Office would have us believe:

*On December 8, 1920, a Chinese woman was charged with

obtaining by false pretences the sum of $30. The evidence showed

that she arranged for the sale of her sister as a concubine."

"As is usual in these cases, incredible as it may seem, no

exception was taken to the buying and selling, but only to the

question of false pretences, the woman having represented her sister

as being unmarried.

"A cane dame before the courts recently in which tiny children, aged eleven and thirteen, were found to be carrying weights of sixty pounds up the steep hill of the Peak, Hong Kong.

"Arising from this case questions in the House of Commons elicited the fact that there are no regulations in Hong Kong controlling the amount of work which a child may be called upon to do, nor any limit of hours for which a child may be called upon to work; and, further, that a resolution carried unanimously at a meeting of the Sanitary Board in Hong Kong in May, 1919, calling