Hong Kong Slave Children

Hokitika Guardian, 20 May 1922, Page 4

Hong Kong Slave Children

I*TETV TMOI’SAXD SET l-’IiKK. LONDON, March 23

An English ollicial and bis wife • in Hong Kong one Saturday evening, from the huddle of ini'ive houses beneath their hotel. Lean! the cry of a little giil being punished -far more than punished, turtuixd. They "cut to the police station. The official on duly, in the most casual way, let slip the phrase “Probably a slave girl.” T! e.v began at once to inquire ami to tell others what they hail sen. '1 lie husband was bound by service regulations, but bis wife was not. Then it began to be thrust upon ibis naval ofiicer that he was a marked man in the service. This sort nl crusade was a thing “not done.” Either he must stop his tight tin the little V liinese girls sold into shivery or he would have to leave tin* service, lie lett. The ofiicer was Commander Hazelwood, and lie and his wife came Home to England determined to light the I cause nl the 511,(11111 little slave girls >f Hong Kong, who were this week set free. The British Government hits at last given wav to the pressure put upon it by the campaign set on foot single-handed by Mr and Mrs llazlcwond.

That campaign succeeded by sheer pertinacity. The thing was too iai away to.move the English lien* . L was so much less tioiihlesoim.* to accept official disclaimers, that Mui Tsai was no slaverv hut “adoption.” But members of Parliament began to be impressed. Questions were asked in tin* House. Women’s societies took up the cause. In short, tin. I lazlewooil laris began to ponctra.le public eoiiseiotl

It should not be imagined that lids camouflaged slavci.v lias gone on veil limit any sort of remonsl ranee. Hie first outcry against it was made -is long ago as ISSII by Sir John Small, the Chief Justiie of iloog Kong, bill nothing was done, and lor lortv years longer it has gone on unchecked. It is an established sys'eni by which little girls are sold, through agents, either for domestic menials or, np'iil.v, tor the uses of prostitution. I'sually they are between tlu* ages of four and fliir(ecu. The fut in of contract between pir ut and l.;\er includes such omitiouclauses as “To be disposed of as the payer thinks fit.” and “No inquiry *'! Per whereabouts or in the event of her da dli is permitted.” If is obviously a 1(111,1 of slavery in which cruelty and moral d ,'gradal ion are too easy-a consequence. fn many eases “Mui !’s d” i !>iLlvo-.i have been kindly treated by their owners, but no account of happy exceptions could malic tolerable a system which sells helpless human i cing - like animals and forces them to a file either of domestic slavery or of physical and moral ruin. Mr Churchill has been juvtly n’”• ■ * ' f. r Ids orimipt it tide in the matter, lor tII Ids attention was called to it in ■ i Douse, bureaucracy had nut up a sc'id defence and obstructive campaign a aiust all complaint. 1 1 is S o •ipi.se,l that one of the things i' ■■ t :-d!*p need him was the discovery pMI tjq.rp is ill tin* archives of bis

f>Git I* a Bill*. Hook. dated I«*2, which sets out ibe whole ease and actually in-1.pi,., an instruction to the Govorn--11,1- of lloiigKong from the Colonial Secretary of that date to hold an inquiry. No inquiry was every held, and tke whole thing was pigeonholed for about forty years.