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Q. Are these indoor servants?
A. Yes, indoor servants.
Q.--Over how many years were these complaints made to you?
A. -The first time I had anything to do with it was after I was made Detective Inspector late in 1897 or early in 1898.
Q. Do you know if there is any Guild or Association controlling private chair and ricksha coolies ?
A. As regards the Hok-los I am inclined to think there is, from the influence brought to bear on them by the Triad Society.
Q.-That may be so, but is there any organisation, guild or association?
A.-I have made inquiries and I can't find that there is any guild.
Q.-You know there are guilds in respect of other trades and callings?
A. Yes, Sir.
Q. -But you have never been able to find if there is any guild in connection with the private chair and ricksha coolies?
A.-Coolie koons exist, but these are private boarding houses.
Q.-Does the head of the licensed boarding house have any control over the coolies? Does he have any control over the money which the coolies in his boarding house will receive, or does he dictate to them which Europeans they are to serve, or which they are not to serve? Do you know of anything of that kind?
A. They would use their influence in the case of one of their countrymen being discharged. They would interdict other coolies from taking up employment there again.
Q-Do you say that from knowledge?
A.—Almost from knowledge because there was a case in which I tried to get coolies from the same koon as I had got others who had been discharged, and I did not succeed; so I always thought it was the headman.
Q.-At present the class of men is not so good as it used to be. Can you give us the cause why there is greater difficulty in securing men at all, and why there is greater difficulty in securing reliable men?
A.-The difficulty in getting men, and that, I would submit, Sir, accounts partly for not getting good men, is the fact that here in Hongkong, things of late years have come to be so different to what they used to be in regard to the cost of living and such like and the Legislature have restricted the accommodation as to houses. Whereas they used to have cocklofts for 25 cents a month, now Government won't allow them, and it costs a coolie over a dollar for sleeping accommodation, housing has gone up so much.
Q.-You mean that the cost of food and lodging has gone up so much that they want greater wages than before, and that there is not house accommodation even if you could get a larger supply of coolies? Can you think of any other causes for the existing difficulty?
A.-I believe the emigration would have something to do with it, Sir, there being a greater field abroad for labour. If a man can do better down south he doesn't want to come to Hongkong. Manila would be a better field for labour.
Q.-You believe the acquisition of Manila has had a great effect? A. Yes, certainly.
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