[
    {
        "id": 209207,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1981",
        "page_number": 110,
        "title": "RAS-1981",
        "content_text": "96\n\nThere is no slavery carried on.\"\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\nIn commenting on the questions raised in Parliament the editor of the South China Morning Post said there could not be much harm in the traditional Chinese custom when throughout the eighty years of the Colony's history no steps had been taken to abolish it. The children in domestic service had the full protection of the law and there was no evidence that they were frequently ill-treated. What few cases are brought before the courts are sharply dealt with. He did admit that some reform might be needed, \"to guarantee the child's rights and those of its parents\", but any changes should only be introduced gradually and with the co-operation of the leading Chinese, \"whose services have never been withheld in any case having for its aim the uplifting and enlightenment of the people\".3\n\nReaction in Hong Kong -- Mass Meeting at Tai Ping Theatre – July 1921\n\nThe Chinese elite \"establishment\" in Hong Kong was disturbed by the discussion in Britain of one of their long established customs. They and the Hong Kong Government were also annoyed by a letter published in the correspondence column of all four English newspapers written by Mrs. Haselwood, the wife of a Commander in the Naval Dockyard. Her husband was officially warned that unless he stopped his wife from airing the question, he would be superseded and sent home. He refused to submit and was shortly sent home where he retired on half-pay. The Haselwoods, however, continued their campaign in Britain. When the Hong Kong Government was asked to explain Commander Haselwood's early termination of service in Hong Kong, it replied that the activities of his wife were \"causing annoyance to the Chinese community\".\n\nThe leadership of the Chinese community was sufficiently aroused by the statements being made in the English press concerning the practice that it called a mass meeting to be held at the Tai Ping Theatre in July, 1921. The meeting was convened by the two Chinese representatives on the Legislative Council, the Hon. Ho Fook, brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung and one-time compradore of Jardine, Matheson and Co., and the Hon. Mr. Lau Chu-pak, compradore of Messrs. A. S. Watson and Co. Also particularly mentioned were S. W. Tso, a solicitor, Chow Shou-son, a Hong Kong-born former official of the Chinese Government who had extensive business interests in Hong Kong, and Chau Siu-ki, shipping and insurance magnate.\n\nThe theatre was crowded with about three hundred including a",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m",
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    {
        "id": 209209,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1981",
        "page_number": 112,
        "title": "RAS-1981",
        "content_text": "98\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\ngirls asked for the same kind of food and clothing they had had in their former homes, the authorities were pestered by girls asking them to arrange marriages, and, in addition, poor parents wanted to hand over their daughters to the care of the Commissioner.\n\nThe speaker answered the question of ill-treatment as follows: Girls sold to wealthy families are usually well off, doing little work, of those sold to the middle class some have to work fairly hard and some do little work, it is more or less a question of luck. In wealthy families the girls act as companions to their master's children, wait on their mistresses, go on errands, do a little serving and attend to the wants of female visitors. In middle class families, they help in cooking, sewing, washing, cleansing and sweeping, carry light loads, marketing and such general work as the master's daughters would have to do. The percentage of cases in which the mistresses are exacting, bad-tempered or cruel-hearted is infinitesimal. These would treat their own daughters no better if daughters were as naughty, lazy and disobedient as some of the servant girls are... Parents are in constant touch with the girl, who can report bad treatment. Masters usually check mistresses' and concubines' bad treatment of girls, as they care too much for their good name. Neighbours and other servants are bound to learn of harsh treatment. Cruelty when reported is investigated by local authorities (in China) and punished.\n\nThe girls were generally bought between the ages of four to thirteen. They cannot be expected to do anything but odds and ends until they are ten or twelve. Their actual period of service is from twelve to eighteen. After eighteen they begin to assert their rights and so arrangements must be taken for their marriage.\n\nMr. Lau Chu-pak went on at some length to comment on other aspects of the system. His remarks suggest that he viewed it in a favourable light and was not in favour of its abolition, even though he expressly said, “It is of no material importance to me whether the system be abolished or not.\" What was to be considered was \"how far will its abolition affect the welfare of the poor, and whether its abolition alone will improve the conditions of the girls and their parents.\n\nThe Hon. Mr. Ho Fook began his remarks by suggesting that Mrs. Haselwood, as chief critic of the system, was not in a good position to judge the manner in which it worked. If the system was so rife with",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209210,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1981",
        "page_number": 113,
        "title": "RAS-1981",
        "content_text": "The Chinese Church, Labour and elites and the Mui Tsai question in the 1920's 99\n\nabuses, why, he asked, had the question never been raised by officials of the Government Cadet system who had studied Chinese language, manners and customs in Canton. \"Surely these men's experience and knowledge of the system is not inferior to those of Mrs. Haselwood.\"\n\nMr. Ho suggested the Chinese organize a society among themselves to deal with any problems there might be in the system, \"why cannot we Chinese take up the matter ourselves by forming a society with a strong committee of management for purpose of enlightening and educating the masses in their duty towards the servant girls, and securing proper power to prosecute the cases of cruel treatment of these girls?”\n\nSome passion was injected into the meeting when after Mr. Pun Yat-ki vividly described three cases in which cruel punishment was inflicted on servant girls, Mr. Ho Kom-tong, the brother of Ho Fook and Ho Tung, excitedly shouted that Mr. Pun and his informant should be charged with accessory to the crime for not reporting the offending master to the authorities.\n\nHis remarks brought both loud applause and vehement cries of protest. Mr. Chung Wen-sang arose to appeal to the meeting \"to stop these unpleasant disputes\".\n\nDr. Yeung Shiu-chuen was the main speaker for those who advocated abolition of the mui tsai system. He contended that persons who commiserated with the girls who came into their households were \"rare mortals\". Girls were always badly treated, and the Po Leung Kuk and Secretary for Chinese Affairs had little influence in alleviating their condition. To claim that there were no complaints was a failure to understand the pressures under which the girls lived, for \"many had been wronged by their masters but had not the courage to lodge complaints with the authorities, under the impression that if this were discovered, their lives would be made even more unpleasant.\"\n\nRather than attempt to counteract the accusation the English had brought against the system and regard them as a slur on the Chinese people, the problem should be honestly faced. It should be admitted that it would cause the degeneration of the Chinese as a race, for \"how could servant girls be expected to train their children properly since they had been denied education and proper treatment.\"\n\nDr. Yeung pleaded \"in the interest of humanity, the prestige of China and posterity, and also to keep pace with the advancement of civilization\" that the meeting take steps to secure the emancipation of servant girls and to put them on an equal footing with others.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209213,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1981",
        "page_number": 116,
        "title": "RAS-1981",
        "content_text": "102\n\nCARL T SMITH\n\nlittle girls of tender age living amongst strangers and in where to them is a strange country, no denial of succour is possible without outraging our feelings of humanity.\"\n\nInstructions from Colonial Office to Hong Kong Government\n\nIn March 1922 it was announced in the House of Commons by Mr. Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies, that the Government of Hong Kong had been instructed by the Colonial Office to consult with both the Prevention Society and the Anti Mui Tsai Society in order to draw up a scheme for abolition.\n\nAlready the Secretary for Chinese Affairs in Hong Kong had been in consultation with the Secretaries of the two societies and both groups were in the process of selecting seven of their members to consult with him.\n\nCanton had forged ahead of Hong Kong, for the same issue of the paper which carried Mr. Churchill's remarks reported an item from the Canton Times that the President of the Southern Government had issued a proclamation abolishing the mui tsai system. The Women's Union of Kwangtung were ready to establish an industrial institution to train them.\n\nNews of progress toward abolition both in Hong Kong and Canton produced an air of elation at the first annual general meeting of the Anti Mui tsai Society held on March 26, 1922, at the Chinese YMCA. Mr. J. M. (Joseph Mau-lam) Wong, an Anglican and compradore of Messrs A. S. Watson and Co., presided. On the platform were members of the Executive Committee. These included Mrs. Ma Ying-piu (1872-1957), wife of the founder of the Sincere Co., member of St. Stephen's Anglican Church and a founder of the YWCA.\n\nThe Society had invited Mr. Hui Chien, the President of the Supreme Court of Canton and a member of the Society, to address the meeting. At the last minute he was unable to attend but sent to represent him two associates from Canton. One of them read the remarks he had intended to give to the meeting. In these he observed that the Southern Government at Canton had taken steps to abolish the system, but it would find it much easier to do so if Hong Kong also moved in this direction.\n\nSince its formation the Society had vigorously promoted its cause both in Hong Kong, China and in Great Britain. It had the active assistance of Commander and Mrs. Hazelwood, who after retirement",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m",
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    },
    {
        "id": 211837,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 252,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "227\n\nA. DUMAS: \"Camille\"\n\nT: Drama\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: The drama Camille, an English adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' \"La Dame aux Camélias\" was, in the eyes of the Commercial Record (5.5.1865) \"singularly unfitted for the powers of the performers. Miss Rose EDOUIN acted with her usual ability but as the heroine is a character almost impossible to render we must not object where we cannot praise”. Miss Jenny NYE starred in the farce Which is Which? written by a member of the company, Mr. GILL, who himself was a “capital low comedy actor”.\n\n28.3.-5.4.1865\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: \"The Flowers of the Forest\" (1847)\n\nT: Musical drama (3 acts)\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: “Isabella or Woman's Life\" (1834)\n\nT: Drama (3 acts)\n\nD.W. JERROLD: \"Black-eyed Susan\" (1829)\n\nT: Musical drama (3 acts)\n\nT.J. WILLIAMS: \"Nursery Chickweed\" (1859)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\n\"Kenilworth\", possibly by A. HALLIDAY and F. LAWRANCE (1858)\n\nT: Burlesque\n\n\"Mr. and Mrs. Peter White\", anon. (1854)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\n\"Rob Roy”, Numerous pieces with this title are listed in HED. i.a. by W.H. MURRAY (1818) and C.H. HAZLEWOOD (1864).\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nR: More than the Herald, the Record went into a rather detailed description of the Lewis season. Thus about Flowers of the Forest it wrote that there was \"an energy of revenge predominating all through the play while the occasional glimpse of pathos, combined with the jovial jocularity of the gipsys, tone down the otherwise tragic situations. Miss Rose EDOUIN, Miss NAYLOR and Mr. CRESWICK acted with power and well restrained manner“, Mr. CRESWICK “possesses great dramatic force and expresses himself well. His manner is somewhat stiff, but appearances before larger and more requiring audiences will obviate this habit\", \"His voice is good but somewhat monotonous of lone\" (SCR 5.5.1865).\n\n8.4.1865 (Sat)\n\nW. BROUGH: \"Perdita\" (1856)\n\nT: Burlesque (1 act)\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: \"A Lesson for the Ladies” (1838)\n\nT: Comedy (3 acts)\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.\n\nTh: Lyceum Theatre (1)\n\nN: Rose Edouin's benefit\n\nR: NCH 22.4.1865: no review,\n\n11.4.1865 (Tue)\n\nJ.B. BUCKSTONE: \"A Dead Shot\" (1827)\n\nT: Farce (1 act)\n\nJ. KENNEDY: \"Sweethearts and Wives” (1856)\n\nT: Burlesque (3 acts)\n\nC: Lewis A.D.C.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    }
]