THE CHINESE IN SYDNEY.

Patea Mail, 11 June 1881, Page 4

THE CHINESE IN SYDNEY.

A Sydney writer says—The anti-Chinese agitation is being continued ; but the Chinese have a champion in Mr Fane de Salis, who declaims against the injustice of seeking special legislation against a particular race. There is no donbt that Mr de Salis’s action is creditable to him, for daring to brave the excited tide of popular feeling, now funning very high against the Mongolians ; but when he tries to show that we ought to be much obliged to them for their presence and custom, he goes a little too far. Good ns some of his reasoning is, the fact does remain that the portions of the Chinese nation located in Sydney are of dirty and disgusting habits ; nothing can better be said of their morals than that “ they have none ” to criticise. Their immorality is very frequently directed against young European girls of from ten to fifteen years of age. These children are decoyed, at first, by presents of lollies or toys into the inner haunts of these vagabonds, and, after smoking opium cigarettes, are without either the will or the power to escape from the cunning of their captors. As the matter stands at present, the Chinese are a standing danger in our midst. Leprosy is reported amongst them, and small-pox may at any moment be in the city. The s.s. Brisbane has been quarantined in Sydney for small-pox amongst the Chinese passengers. Recent inspection has shown the habits of these diciples of Confucius to be so abominable that not a single newspaper has ventured to give full particulars. Europeans (females), yonng—very young mostly—have been found huddled up with these satyrs, stupefied with tobacco and opium, and under such revolting circumstances as to be unmentionable in detail. Whatever may be the view of outsiders —and some may lay the anti-Chinese agitation at the doors of sundry class interests, and not entirely without truth, too —something must be done.