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17.
Q. Do the men ever come to you directly without your being told by your own men about them? Do they ever come to you and say: "We want to be chair bearers,' or do you always meet them through the men who are already with you ?
A.—The men never come direct to me, they are always recommended by the bear- ers already in my employ.
Q. When they come to Hongkong, where do they go to live?
A.-There is a Haiphong man who keeps a lodging-house in Hongkong.
Q.--Do they go to that lodging-house?
A.—There are many, not only one.
Q.-And do they go to these houses?
A. They go to the house which is nearest to them.
Q.-And do they wait there till they get employment ?
A. When they have been there for two or three days, the men in my employ in- form me that so-and-so wants leave to go home and so-and-so has just come in from the country and is staying in the lodging-house, would I mind taking him?
Q.-Have you any difficulty in getting men for forty chairs in summer and thirty in winter?
A.--It is
very difficult to get men sometimes.
Q-Have you had difficulty this summer in engaging men ?
A. It was very hard.
Q.--Have you ever been short of men for your forty chairs?
A.--Yes, sometimes I am six or seven chairs short.
Q.--And you have not been able to keep up the full supply all summer of forty chairs ?
A.--When they have worked one month or two months they come to me and say I have been summoned by my mother, or some other relative who is ill, and I want to go home now.
Q.--Don't they go home when they themselves are ill?
A.-There is very little illness with them.
Q. Do the majority of them go home because their mother is ill?
A.-Sent for by their wives too.
Q.-What wages do your district men get in their own district? Before they come to Hongkong what money can they make a month?
A. I don't know. I left my country when I was 21 years of age. I don't know much about it now.
Q. How old are you now?
A. Forty-six.
Q.-Do your countrymen become private chair coolies?
A.-It is very hard to be a private chair coolie until they have got their feet well trained.
Q-But do they ever become private chair coolies?
A. Yes, there are several who are private chair coolies.
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