Sessional_Paper_1893 — Page 915

[CII]

It is true that the Registrar-General and a Board and Committee will have some control, but they cannot know everything that takes place.

The Registrar-General's report of 1st February, 1892, on the Petition of the Society, gives particulars of the rules which have been approved, and shows that the Society has been recognised by the Government.

Surely nothing more is needed for the purposes for which the Society was founded. Further rules might, if necessary, be made, submitted to the Governor for approval and published for general information, but to confer legal status on a body corporate is to confer immensely greater authority and powers, and by the Chinese, and especially the lower classes, the acts of the members of the Society will be looked upon as the acts of the Government.

We all know how unwilling Chinese are to complain or come into collision with such authority for fear of unpleasant consequences, and the granting of legal status amounts to erecting in our midst a secret form of Government which may do much mischief.

The Ordinance does not even provide for the publication of the names of the members elected from time to time on the Committee or Board, nor for such election to be made in public. The register of members is not even open to the public, nor does the Ordinance provide that the annual accounts and reports are to be published, though they are to be sent to the Colonial Secretary.

Even in registered commercial companies these things are insisted upon by law, and in such a serious matter as this, affecting family life, all is to be private.

There is not even a provision that the buildings are to be open to the subscribers of the Society, nor to the public at proper times, but only to the Governor or his nominee.

It certainly reads as if secrecy were the underlying principle; and that anything affecting the public should be conducted in secret, assisted by specially told off constables and detectives, is in my opinion utterly wrong.

Mr. WHITEHEAD announced his intention of opposing the Bill, and I hope he will be supported by other members of Council, including officials, for I take it that this is not a purely Government measure in favour of which official members are bound to vote. I trust also that the community generally will disapprove of the proposed enactment.

It should not be forgotten that the Secretary of State did not consider legislation necessary when the subject came before him on a previous occasion.--I am, Sir, yours faithfully,

Hongkong, 22nd April, 1892.

Appendix 47.

N. J. EDE.

Statement of the Honourable T. H. Whitehead.

In making the remarks on the 11th April, 1892, in the Legislative Council, which I did, on the first reading of the Bill entitled "An Ordinance for the establishment and "incorporation of the Chinese Society for the protection of women and children, 'commonly known as 'The Pó Leung Kuk,' I spoke entirely on the spur of the moment, and in using the words "Secret Society" in connection with the Pó Léung Kuk I had absolutely no intention whatever of branding the Society in any sense of the word as being criminal, or as being organised or conducted in any way that could

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