Sessional_Paper_1893 — Page 876

[LXIII]

are business men and not acquainted with law, and are in addition so occupied in many matters that they have to be very careful of their time. That, if they attend at the Council Chamber and are kept waiting to be examined at length, their business will be interfered with and much time wasted before anything is accomplished. That those who are inquiring, know this quite well, and act purposely in this way, in order that the directors may be induced to express themselves in a hasty and confused manner which would fall in with the prejudices and private objects of those who wish to entrap them That this conduct seems to be actuated by a most unfair spirit. That if the directors' supposition is correct, how is it that the commission, who have been for some time in possession of a memorandum of the management of the affairs of the Society, if they feel that there is any point which still requires explanation, have not addressed a question in writing to the directors, to which they would have received a straightforward answer, instead of insisting on the presence of the directors in order to undergo a per- sonal examination. That it is for this reason that the directors have not attended in response to the second request, but they are willing to reply to any letter that is addressed to them.

That Police cases with which the Society has been connected have been looked over and searched with the impression that mistakes must have been made. That the directors reflect that the Society has been established to co-operate with the Government in securing protection (for women and children), and that the sole reason why the directors have sacrificed their time, interfered with their business, and spent money on the management, is that they wish to do good and earnestly desire to do some service on behalf of the Government, in its work of rendering the people contented: that the establishment or abolition, the existence or non-existence of the Society is a matter of no personal importance to them. That the directors have long wished to express their opinions, but out of gratitude for the kindness and sympathy of the Government have refrained up till now from disclosing their sentiments.

That on Sunday the 24th July the detectives of the Society discovered four desti- tutes. That two of these, named T'sUI KWAN-TSUNG and KONG CHEUNG, asked im- mediately to be provided with passage-money and sent home, whilst the other two, named CHUNG UN and WONG SHING alias WAN TIN, mutually accused each other of kidnapping. That the directors not knowing whose story to believe sent both the men to the Protector of Chinese on Monday for inquiry. That subsequently the Protector of Chinese sent the two men to the Police Court for trial. That the case was remanded, and the Police Magistrate sent a European Police Officer repeatedly to the Society's Office and to the Tung Wá Hospital where he made enquiries on many points. That the directors were then subpoenaed to attend at the Magistracy. Those who knew would think that they hastened there on public business, but the ignorant would think that they went there as criminals. That no one's dignity can be preserved after he is treated in this way. That not only was their conduct suspected and they themselves cross-questioned, but they were in addition severely reprimanded, and the Magistrate refused to believe their statement that there were four destitutes and said that he thought that there were only two and that the story of the directors was false and brought forward as an excuse. But that as a matter of fact the two destitutes, Kwán TSUNG and KONG CHEUNG, had been provided with passage-tickets by the Tung Wá Hospital and sent on board the S.S. Powan and had left for Canton on Sunday evening. Further that a register is kept in the Society's Office in which the names of destitutes and the circumstances and date of their admittance and the date of their discharge are entered, and that this register is open for inspection. That there is no reason for saying that these men had never existed,

That the Police Magistrate further said that the detectives of the Society could not make arrests and that they certainly ought not to send offenders before the Protector of Chinese but bring them direct to the Police Court. That if the detectives of the Society cannot make arrests there is no use in employing them; that they were transferred from