Sessional_Paper_1893 — Page 910

[XCVII]

be a prostitute and gave $500 as her price. A man was introduced to her by a go-between and offered $380. CHAN SZ acted for her in negotiating the price. If any money was to be got, it was to be handed to CHAN SZ.

TIN.

LI WONG-HI was then questioned. She said that her husband was called LIU TSAI- She was his second wife. The woman who had come in company with her was her husband's first wife. LIU CHUN-FA was CHAN Sz's daughter. LI FUNG came to Hongkong with her mother and rented the 2nd room of witness's house to live in. They earned their livelihood as seamstresses. LI FUNG's mother had then gone back to Canton. CHAN SZ was then examined. She also said that her husband was LIU TSAF-TIN. The girl LIU CHUN-FA who was in company with her was her daughter. LI WONG-HI was her husband's concubine. At first LI FUNG came to her house with a small-footed woman and rented the second room. The small-footed woman did not live there, but came and went, When the constable came to her house to make a search, LI FUNG asked her very earnestly to acknowledge her (LI FUNG) as her sister and not to say that they were merely inmates of the same house. But she would not agree to tell a falsehood.

When LIU TSAI-TIN, the husband of CHAN SZ and LI WONG-HI, came to our office, he called LI FUNG, WONG I' Ku. He said that she knew his wife and that was the reason why she came to live with her. He knew nothing of her former life. On reviewing the evidence of these persons, we find that it varies so much that we cannot decide what there is behind it. But there is no doubt that CHAN Sz is the first wife, LI WONG-H, the second and LIU CHUN-FA the daughter of LIU TSAI-TIN, and it would be well to wait until LIU TSAI-TIN has found good security and then send them to your department to be hauded back. With regard to LI FUNG we leave it to your honour to decide whether she should be detained in the Pó Léung Kuk pending investigation. With reference to this we await your instructions.

Your obedient Servants,

(Signed)

To the Honourable J. H. STEWART LOCKHART,

WAI LONG SHAN. SHAM CHEUK TONG.

Registrar General, $c., &c., &c.

(Answer of same date received from the Honourable the Registrar General. )

Letter No. 57.

I am in receipt of your letters Nos. 76 and 77 and beg to inform you in reply that the woman LI WONG-HI has already been permitted to go and that CHAN SZ, LIU CHUN-FA and CHAN SU have been given back on the production of security. I have sent back LI FUNG to your office to be detained temporarily.

Letter No. 152.

SIR,

Pó LEUNG Kuk, 20th April.

With reference to our letter No. 77 in re the detention of LI FUNG in our Pó Léung Kuk pending investigation, we beg respectfully to inform you again that LI FUNG has been again very minutely questioned about her affairs. She said that several years ago, her mother sold her to be a prostitute in a brothel at Swatow. Of all the visitors whom she received, there was seldom one whom she really liked. At the end of last year, LIỤ TSAI-TIN came to Swatow and happened to visit the brothel. As butterflies to flowers, so they became attached to one another and on account of their having intercourse together for several nights, she became pregnant. After that she gradually became weak and felt sick and in the 12th moon of last year, she came to Hongkong by steamer and immediately found LIU TSAI-TIN who gladly took her home and exerted himself to obtain medical assistance for her. When she had almost recovered, she was arrested by a constable. Now all day she thinks only of LIU TSAI-TIN and would gladly go through