Sessional_Paper_1893 — Page 856

[XLIII]

This Committee, acting on behalf of the Society, co-operates with this department in detecting cases of kidnapping and kindred practices, and in bringing to justice the offenders in such cases; it provides a temporary home for men, women, and girls who have been inveigled into the Colony under false pretences for the purposes of emigration; for women and girls brought into the Colony for improper purposes, but who are found to be unwilling to enter on or who wish to abandon a life of shame; for children who are being brought up in vicious surroundings by persons who have no legal claim to them; for destitute women and girls found by the Police or sent back from places outside Hongkong, such as the Straits and San Francisco.

But the work of the Society does not only consist in aiding in the detection and bringing to justice of kidnappers and in the prevention of the traffic in human beings and in affording food, clothing, and shelter for rescued women and children and desti- tutes. It also co-operates with this department by correspondence and other means in making inquiries with a view to discovering the relations of those entrusted to the care of the Society, and finding out other particulars regarding them. For this portion of their duties the Committee are specially qualified, for they are either personally acquainted with the locality in China where inquiry has to be made or have reliable friends to whom they can entrust the work of investigation, or can refer the matter to one of the many charitable institutions which exist in China, and which have always been ready to help in such inquiries. Indeed, it is difficult to see how this work of investigation could be carried on, except through the instrumentality of a body of Chinese gentlemen such as the Pó Léung Kuk. If inquiry leads to the discovery of the relatives of those rescued, due precautions are always taken by this Office, if necessary after consultation with the Committee of the Pó Léung Kuk, to secure that the interests of the woman or girl handed over, are properly safeguarded.

It is not, however, always possible to repatriate all the women and girls who are rescued and who find a temporary home in the Pó Léung Kuk, either owing to their having no relatives or friends or to other reasons. Consequently other arrangements have to be made, if practicable, for having them respectably and comfortably settled in life. These are as a rule of two kinds, though in some cases, young girls are sent direct to the Victoria Home and boys to the West Point Reformatory, where they are well cared for and educated. The women are married and the young girls are adopted. And here again the usefulness of the Society is manifest, for without its aid, this department would find it almost impossible to carry out this portion of its work and the Government might find itself permanently burdened with the expense of maintaining a large number of rescued women and girls. No one is allowed to marry or adopt a girl from the Pó Léung Kuk until he can find satisfactory security approved by the Registrar General and enter into a bond before him in which the rights and welfare of the girl are carefully protected.

In order to give some idea of the number of persons who have been assisted by the Pó Léung Kuk, in the manner which I have described, I have had the following return drawn up, giving the statistics for the last 4 years of the number of males and females received by the Society and showing how they have been dealt with.