RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 153 unanimously recommended the re-enactment of the contagious diseases legislation in its entirety including the registration of all brothels, the licensing of their inmates and the compulsory medical examination of all prostitutes whether working in brothels or independently. The Governor quickly accepted the conclusions of the report; a bill was drafted to implement them without delay; and both were sent home for the approval of the Secretary of State. The draft bill immediately evoked a storm of protest. To calm the critics both inside and outside the House of Commons the Secretary of State appointed a new Advisory Committee on Social Hygiene and asked it to consider the bill and the report on which it was based. The committee included the redoubtable Mrs. Neville-Rolfe and Lady Astor. It spent little time in considering the arguments put forward in the Straits Settlements for the state control of prostitution, which it considered to be completely discredited. Its final report asserted that, quite apart from the moral arguments, periodical examinations of prostitutes was medically ineffective in checking the spread of venereal disease; no examination could guarantee that a woman was free of disease, and even if she was she could become infected immediately afterwards or be the carrier of the contagion from one client to the next; such examinations merely gave men a false sense of security and encouraged promiscuity. The committee recommended various measures to improve social conditions, better housing, education and more recreational facilities; more doctors and free diagnosis and treatment. Its main conclusion was that all known brothels should progressively be closed down commencing with those frequented by Europeans, and that all sly brothels should be closed as soon as they were detected. The committee's conclusions were unanimous and the Secretary of State, Leo Amery, had no alternative but to over-rule the Governor and direct that the recommendations of the committee should be carried out. This was done and the closure of brothels in the Straits Settlements commenced in 1927. The Social Hygiene Committee had only been asked to consider what was to be done at Singapore, but its conclusions obviously applied equally to Hong Kong and other colonies. But no similar ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 44 37 Krone, p. 132. 18 Bruce Shepherd, The Hong Kong Guide (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1982; 1st published, Shanghai, 1893) pp. 117-118; R.C. Hurley, Tourists' Map of 8 Short Trips on the Mainland of China (Neighbourhood of Hong Kong) including Principal Places frequented by Sportsmen (Hong Kong: R.C. Hurley, 1896) enclosed in Blake to Chamberlain, April 28, 1899, #107: CO129/290, p. 7. 39 Shepherd, p. 117. 40 The Convention is appended in Wesley-Smith, Unequal Treaty, pp. 191-192. The negotiation of the Convention is dealt with in detail in the book. * Colonial Office draft telegram to Sir H.A. Blake, enclosed in Colonial Office to Foreign Office, April 27, 1899, despatch #130: CO882/5/66, p. 136. 42 Blake to Chamberlain, May 4, 1899, telegram: CO882/5/66, p. 140; Consul Mansfield to Bax-Ironside, April 20, 1899, enclosed in F.O. to C.O., July 13, 1899: ibid., p. 304. 43 Wesley-Smith, Unequal Treaty, p. 73. 44 The Order-in-Council, dated 27th December, 1899, is appended in ibid., pp. 196-7. 45 T'an Wen-chin kung tsou-kao, XUSA (Memorials of Tan Chung-lin) 2 volumes, (Taipei: Ch'eng-wen Co., based on 1911 edition) vol. 2, 248-26a. 46 Translation of a telegram from the Tsungli Yamen, dated Peking May 20, 1899, enclosed in F.O. to C.O., May 22, 1899: CO882/5/66, p. 160. 47 Lo Feng-luh [sic] to the Marquess of Salisbury, October 17, 1899, enclosed in F.O. to C.O., October 28, 1899: CO882/5/66, p. 364; Lo Feng-luh to the Marquess of Salisbury, November 14, 1899, enclosed in F.O. to C.O., November 25, 1899: ibid., p. 369. Peel to Cunliffe-Lister, January 9, 1934, confidential: CO129/546. 49 Stubbs to Amery, June 26, 1925, despatch #275: CO129/488. 50 Sheng San-i l'ang tsuan-hsi t’e-k'an 1890-1965 ——A (Special bulletin to commemorate the diamond jubilee of the Holy Trinity Church, 1890-1965) (Hong Kong: the Church [1965]) p. 34. 51 Ibid., p. 33. 52 Ibid., p. 34. $3 $4 Hong Kong Government Gazette, 1901, p. 1401, Peel to Cunliffe-Lister, January 9, 1934, confidential; Chiang-shan ku-jen, "feng-t'u", parts 106-107. 55 Stubbs to Amery, June 26, 1925, despatch #275; Chiang-shan ku-jen, “Pen-ti feng-kuang" (Local sights) part 163. These are articles appearing in the Hua-ch'iao jih-pao in 1931 and an album of them is in the University of Hong Kong Library, Jarrett, vol. 3, p. 609. 56 Stubbs to Amery, June 26, 1925, despatch #275. 57 Peel to Cunliffe-Lister, January 9, 1934, confidential: C. Van Leo, “A Little bit of China in the Heart of Hong Kong", Hong Kong Telegraph, January 18, 1937. R.C. Hurley, Handbook to the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and Depen- 58 ¦ ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 20 tax incentives and other government assistance? Apart from its superb harbour Hong Kong had no natural advantages. Almost all the raw materials for industry had to be imported. The population (840,000 at the 1931 census) was wretchedly poor and could not provide the purchasing power to support large-scale industry. But Hong Kong was well-placed to export cheap manufactured goods to the vast market of China and the neighbouring countries of Asia where until the 1930s tariffs on imports were low. The world depression led China and other Asian countries to erect high tariff barriers which threatened to cripple Hong Kong's burgeoning industry. The colony was saved by the decisions taken at the Ottawa conference to adopt the policy of imperial preference. This handicapped its main competitor, Japan, by imposing high tariffs and later quotas designed to exclude Japanese manufactures from markets in the British empire. This created a vast imperial free trade area embracing Britain, its colonial territories and New Zealand. Traders and businessmen in the African or Caribbean colonies could have seized the opportunity to exploit it, but it was only the energetic and adaptable Chinese entrepreneurs of Hong Kong who did so. The decisions taken at Ottawa which were designed to help industry in the dominions gave an unintended boost to Chinese factory owners in the back streets of Kowloon. University of Hong Kong NOTES 1. M. Havinden and D. Meredith, Colonialism and Development: Britain and its tropical colonies, 1850-1960 (London, 1993), 1. D.K. Fieldhouse, Colonialism 1870-1945: An Introduction (London, 1981), 51–108. David Meredith, "The British Government and Colonial Economic Policy 1919-1939', Economic History Review, 28 (1975), 484-99. Louis Nthenda, 'From Trade to Manufacture: Britain's Dilemma in the Face of Colonial Industrialization 1931-1938', Journal of Social Sciences, 1 (1972, University of Malawi), 95-112. 2. Leo Amery in 1926, quoted by Meredith, 495. 3. Meredith, 494. The only supporting evidence for this theory in the Colonial Office files is a letter from the governor of Uganda, 22 Dec. 1934, who warned that any large-scale industrial development which caused rural depopulation would result in a serious increase in sleeping sickness. CO323/1298/10, Public Record Office, London (PRO). 4. See for example J. Riedel, The Industrialization of Hong Kong (Tubingen, 1974), 5-6; F. Welsh, A History of Hong Kong (London, 1993), 451; D. Lethbridge, The Business Environment in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, 1980), 1–2. A contrary view is given by Frank Leeming, "The Earlier Industrialization of Hong Kong', Modern Asian Studies, 9 (1956), 337-42, who cites evidence from Hong Kong and Macao Business Classified Directory (1940, in Chinese). 5. Minute by G.L.M. Clauson, 7 Nov. 1933, CO323/1232/8. Memoranda and Draft Report of Interdepartmental Committee 1937, CO852/164/6 and T160/763/F14811/1 and 2, PRO. 6. According to D.J. Morgan, The Origins of British Aid Policy 1924-1945 (New Jersey, 1979), 9, the proportion of general revenue in the colonies derived from customs duties in 1933 was: ================================================================================