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pulsion; (4) grown up women, intending ernigrants, claiming to be married women, but suspected of being induced to emigrate by fraud or intimidation. The difficulties in the way of forming a correct judgment on the first examination are very great. To begin with, the women and girls in classes 1 and 2 almost invariably make a false statement, one which is taught them by their owners and by the keepers of disorderly houses, and which varies so as to suit the idiosyncracy of the examining officer. What the Registrar General has to go by is the bearing and appearance of the women, their accent and their familiarity with the life they state they are leading. If they appear to be very young, bearing in mind that 90 per cent. of these women do not consider themselves to be free agents, he has no option but to remove them temporarily from the influence of their owners and do his best to ascer- tain their real age and history. If they appear to belong to class 2 he must satisfy himself that they understand they are not bound by any consideration given in China or any agreement made there. Class 3 consists of very ignorant women from the interior of the province or perhaps from Kwangsi. It has been possible to rescue a number of these, but the majority have been kept in Canton or some other city by their owners until they have become reconciled to the life. The women belonging to class 4 will be mentioned later.

The inconvenience to which these women are put is very great, but, as stated above, the majority of them do not consider themselves free agents, and as it is a question not of convicting an innocent person but of rescuing an ignorant one, the result of "giving the benefit of the doubt" is to confine the women pending thorough investigation, not to release her.

Special efforts have been made during the year to prevent young girls entering on an immoral life in the Colony, and the success though not striking, is I think as great as could be expected. I hope however I may find it possible, with the co-opera- tion of the Chinese gentlemen who are interested in this work, to reduce the number of women sent to the Po Leung Kuk, and thus lessen the inconvenience to the women themselves, and lighten the burden borne by the Society.

The total number of persons admitted to the Po Leung Kuk during the year was 676, compared with 826 in 1903, a very satisfactory decrease, as there is no reason to suspect a relaxation of vigilance on the part of the Police or of this Department.

The number detained under warrant was 434, and when it is is considered that each of these women has to be patiently examined and cross-examined by members of the Po Leung Kuk Committee in order to elicit the truth, some conception can be formed of the arduous nature of the work undertaken by the business meu who form the Committee.

Twenty-five runaway maid-servants were admitted during the year. Most of the little girls complain of ill-treatment, but it is very rarely that any signs of ill- treatinent can be seen; when they are, the Police are at once communicated with. I believe that as a class, these Chinese maid-servants in Hongkong are aware of the protection that the Government will extend to them. The case is the same with the inmates of houses of ill-fame, though many of them feel bound in honour to serve their owner for the number of years-usually from one to three in Hongkong - agreed upon.

In 1883 the late Dr. STEWART, who was then Registrar General, introduced a system of securing the proper upbringing of certain girls who had come under his protection, by requiring their guardians to enter into a bond to bring them to see the Registrar General once every quarter until they were satisfactorily settled in life. In 1891 the number of these girls was 123. They were mostly little children found in disorderly houses. By the close of 1903 the number was further reduced to 13, and it is satisfactory to think that no considerable increase is to be anticipated from the source above mentioned.

All the same, 18 more girls were added to the list during 1904. But they are an older class-about 15 or 16 years of age-who have already entered on an immoral life. No prosecution of their owners is possible as proofof their real age cannot be procured. All that can be done is to bind their guardians, if any are forth- coming, not to let them enter a disorderly house, but to keep them in Hongkong and bring then before the Registrar General at regular intervals.