THE SINGAPORE FREE PRESS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 16, 1929.
HONG KONG SLAVE MARKET.
EXTENSIVE TRAFFIC IN
CHILDREN.
Alarming Facts Revealed. *
The dispersal of a gang of traffickers in children and the arrest of over twenty alleg- ed members is the crowning achievement of many weeks of patient work on the part of the Hong Kong Police authorities of the | Colony states "the South China Morning Post.
Behind an official intimation made recent- ly that those arrested will be deported from the Colony, an amazing story is told of an organization which had been set up for the sole purpose of engaging in the buy- ing and selling of children, extending even to the establishment in the Colony of a system of brokerage by which the traffic there is facilitated.
The buying and selling of children of parents in indigenous circumstances is nothing surprising in itself-it is a custom as old as China. But what has made it serious enough to warrant special police attention of late is that from merely isolat- ed cases, the buying and selling of children has grown into the proportions of a local traffic.
The Hong Kong police have unearthed two facts of a very sensational character con- cerning the traffic. One is that a gang with wide ramifications has recently established its headquarters there, and the other is that upon the creation of a local market for the "goods," a brokers' system has been also set up there by means of which children are procured and sold, or rather auctioned, to the highest bidder.
The practice usually adopted is for agents of the gang to go up into the country where they scour the villages for likely children. Old women are generally chosen for the task-they excite less suspicion when seen with the children. An empty floor or house is then selected in Hong Kong where the children are kept until they are sold, when the profits and brokerage are realised.
POLICE HANDICAPped.
Except where, upon actual proof of kid- napping, the traffickers can be dealt with under a local Ordinance, there is no law at present in existence to which the offenders can be made amenable. So long as a Chinese parent, through poverty or for some other reason, is prepared to sell his children, and the fact is recorded on pro- per documents, the police are powerless to ¡intervene in the matter. Where such docu- mentary proof is lacking, and suspicious circumstances prompt inquiry. the police have not hesitated to take the limited action within their power. It was in this way that they were able to secure a number of clues, culminating in a number of raids being carried out within the last few days and the arrest at different places of no fewer than twenty individuals of both sexes who are believed to be the principal members of the wide organization already referred to. At the same time, four or five children were recovered, who are lodged for the time be- ing at a local benevolent institution until further enquiries have been made upcountry. It is not anticipated that Court proceed- ings can possibly be taken against those arrested, owing to the difficulty of obtain- ing evidence on the only offence that would make them amenable to local justice--the crime of kidnapping; and in that event, the ¡deportation of the number from the Colony
is contemplated.
Interesting facts disclosed by cases lately dealt with are that prices may range be- tween $70 or $80 for a baby child and $500 for children of more mature age. Generally speaking, a boy commands the better price, as he is much fancied by those who are childless. And then his lot is a happier one than that of a girl, over whom hangi
nefariou
many
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