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them. We can only do our best and we try to prevent ourselves from being deceived. (To the witness). Have you any extra checks to suggest which would secure the liberty of these girls more than at present?
A.-No. Whatever check you may provide, if the people themselves desire to deceive they generally carry out their object.
Q.-Then is it your opinion that what is done now cannot be improved upon?
A.-No, it cannot.
Q.-You think there has been an improvement in this respect during the last 10
years?
A.--Yes.
Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD.-That is that at the beginning it was not such an easy matter to deal with these cases as it is now?
The CHAIRMAN.-The checks have still to exist.
Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD.-They have been increased from time to time? Witness.-Yes. I am not suggesting anything, but, as a matter of fact, people can deceive the Registrar General, and the Pó Léung Kuk too, if they choose.
Honourable C. P. CHATER.--You would prefer the Ordinance to be passed so as to enable the Committee to decide, even if the Registrar General is against them?
A-Yes.
Honourable T. H. WHITEHEAD.--Suppose the Government will not grant you that concession, what do you propose to do then? If the Government will not permit the cases to be decided by the majority of the members of the Pó Léung Kuk, what do you propose to do?
A.-Let the Government manage the thing themselves.
Q.-In that event would the Police be capable of undertaking the work with the assistance of the Chinese ?
A.-What Chinese? What Committee could you get?
Q. Are there no Chinese here who would be in a position to assist the Police in the work?
A.-No.
Q.--The Registrar General would be helpless?
A. Yes, without the assistance of the Pó Léung Kuk.
Q.-If you do not get the power to deal with these cases into your own hands you propose to abandon the good work which has been carried on ?*
A
Yes, unless the Government take the work on their own shoulders.
Honourable F. H. MAY.-I do not understand you to mean that the proceeding you refer to would turn on that point alone. I consider you to mean that it will happen if the Pó Léung Kuk does not receive assistance in money and get the Ordinance ?
A.--I mean both together. If you don't give the Committee a voice in their affairs, what is the good of having a Society? At the same time if the Government is not going to vote the money, how can the Society be kept up?
Hon. T. H. WHITEHEAD.--But this is a benevolent work and the Society is carrying on this work for the benefit of their own countrywomen, and as the Government are incapable of doing it without the aid of the Pó Léung Kuk, surely the Society will still assist. If the Government refuses to grant the Society the power to over-rule the Registrar General by the majority of votes, what will the Society do?
A. The Society will throw up the whole thing.
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