Registrar General:
1st, Not only were keepers of unregistered houses to be fined or
sent to prison, but the women--"held in practical slavery for the
purposes of prostitution"--when found in unregistered houses were
also subject to fine and imprisonment.
2nd, The Registrar-General, otherwise the "Protector" of Chinese,
could break into any house suspected of being a brothel, and
arrest the keeper thereof without warrant. And he could authorize
his underlings to do the same.
3rd, The Registrar General could exercise both judicial and
executive powers in the prosecution of the duties of his office.
4th, All outdoor prostitutes could be arrested without warrant,
fined and imprisoned.
The new law possessed one virtue over the old. It frankly, and
more honestly, employed the word "licensed," where the old law
said "registered," brothels.
The re****t of the Commission says:
"Although the new Ordinance conferred such extensive and unusual
powers on the Registrar General and Superintendent of Police as to
breaking into and entering houses and arresting keepers without
warrant, no serious difficulty whatever, so far as the records
show,--and we have paid special attention to the point,--seems to
have been experienced under the previous enactments in bringing
the keepers of such houses before the court.... Nor can we in
the second place find among the foregoing records proof of the
necessity of the transfer to the Registrar General of the judicial
powers.... As a matter of fact,
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