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some 120 men maintained by voluntary subscription and controlled by the District Watch Committee. This Force operates under the Secretary for Chinese Affairs who has the assistance of a detective inspector provided by the Police Department. It is under the same discipline and has the same powers as the regular police force with regard to arrest etc.
The Committee of the Po Leung Kuk meets regularly on six days of the week. At these meetings in addition to matters directly concerning the affairs of the Kuk and its inmates the Committee considers and advises upon any case which may be referred to it by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. It also conducts its own investigations and is in close touch with charitable organisations of a a similar nature in China. The number of cases so referred by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs is very large, amounting to several hundred in the course of a year, many of which are naturally connected with some aspect of the traffic in women. The work done by this Committee is of very great assistance to the authorities.
Of the other associations mentioned, the Society for the Protection of Children is as yet insufficiently organised for its influence to become felt.
The Anti-Muitsai Society is limited in its scope but has done good work in bringing occasional cases of cruelty to the notice of the authorities.
The Salvation Army Home has only recently been established and contains only a few inmates. Within these limits however it has proved very successful.
The Victoria Home and the two convents have an easier task in so far as they admit as a rule only children under the age of 14. They are not directly concern- ed in the work of combating the traffic in girls but are more properly described as orphanages. All three are Refuges to which girls may be sent by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs under the provisions of Ordinance 4 of 1897.
8. What are your Government's plans for combating this international evil in the future and what measure of success is anticipated?
Ans. No action is immediately contemplated other than the enforcement of the precautions already in force. The success of any measures taken depends very much upon the state of affairs in China where the restoration of order should, if it can be brought about, have a beneficial effect. But the problem is a difficult one and its solution depends as much on the education of popular opinion as action taken by the authorities. (See the reply to Question 3 in Part II B.)
upon direct
II-DETAILED QUESTIONS.
A. Administrative or Legal Questions.
1. Please supply any information which has been obtained as to the sex, age, ostensible occupation and social status of the traffickers, the funds at their disposal, and the methods employed by them in procuring women, in despatching them to the country of destination and evading the penalties to which they are liable if detected, such as false passports, false visas, false marriages and false offers of employment, etc.
Ans.
It is possible to distinguish broadly between persons who procure girls in order to live on the proceeds of their prostitution, and traffickers who procure girls and hand them over to brothel keepers in return for a lump sum. The former are generally middle-aged or elderly women who may be prostitutes or ex prostitutes, brothel servants or brothel managers. Their practice is to purchase children who are introduced into brothels at an early age. It is usual for them to claim these children as daughters. The latter are also as a rule middle-aged or elderly women who describe themselves as maid servants or perhaps more commonly as "travelling
A
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