Sessional_Paper_1901 — Page 961

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4. The last time I thought of engaging private chair coolies was some months ago. I offered eight and a half dollars. Two sets of men came to see about the place, but they made so many conditions and required so many particulars about the work that I gave up the idea of engaging them.

I have the honour to be,

Sir,

Your obedient servant,

THE SECRETARY

to the Chair and Jinricksha Coolies Commission.

APPENDIX K.

A. W. BREWIN

SIR,

His Honour Mr. Justice Sercombe Smith to His Excellency the Governor.

31st August, 1901.

I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency's Letter No. 172/G. of the 29th instant, inviting me to serve as Chairman of a Commission to in- quire into the question of the registration of private chair and jinricksha coolies in this Colony.

2. Whilst I gladly comply with Your Excellency's request, I beg to suggest that the scope of the inquiry should be extended to include all classes of Chinese servants and labourers in European employ.

3. The reasons for this suggestion are :—

(a.) That the in-door servant question is as acute as the out-door servant

question.

(b.) That, with but little additional labour, the Commission could include

the in-door servant question within its inquiries.

(c.) That any legislation resulting from the inquiry and Report of the Com- mission and affecting only out-door servants may be resented by the out-door servants as being invidious.

4. If I recollect aright, the question of the registration of Chinese domestic ser- vants was recently referred to the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce, the Committee of which reported adversely to the proposal.

5. With all respect for the reply of the Chamber of Commerce and the decision of the Governuent thereon, I would point out that the opinion of the Committee of that Chamber upon the question of how to control native servants, is hardly authoritative, and that, in all probability, the Members of that Committee were mostly exempt from the inconveniences which ordinary householders experience in respect of all classes of Chinese servants.

6. Under the Compradore system, heads of the firms of which the aforesaid Com mittee is mainly composed, have an easy method of engaging and controlling native servants, which is not available to the average householder.

7. The Committee of the Chamber, moreover, forms a very small portion of the Community and its opinion on a matter involving no technical skill and outside the purposes of the Chamber, should, I submit, be no bar to an extension of the inquiry so as to embrace the question of the registration of all classes of Chinese servants-a ques- tion which affects and interests a large majority of the European Community, and especially the poorer classes of that Community.