and states:
"Young girls, virgins of 13 or 14 years of age, are brought from
Canton or elsewhere and deflowered according to bargain, and, as
a regular business, for large sums of money, which go to their
owners.... The regular earnings of the girls go to the same
quarters, and the unfortunate creatures obviously form subjects
of speculation to regular traders in this kind of business, who
reside beyond our jurisdiction. In most of the regular houses, the
inmates are more or less in debt to the keepers, and though such
debts are not legally enforceable, a custom stronger than law
forbids the woman to leave the brothel until her debts are
liquidated, and it is only in rare cases that she does so." "As to
the brothel-keepers, there is nothing known against them, and they
are sup****ted by capitalists. Mr. Lister speaks of them as 'a
horrible race of cruel women, cruel to the last degree, who use an
ingenious form of torture, which they call prevention of sleep,'
which he describes in detail.... It seems that although the
Brothel Ordinances did not call into being this 'horrible,'
'cruel,' and 'haughty' race of women, they have armed them with
obvious powers, which they would not otherwise have possessed,
and there is consequently reason to apprehend that Government
supervision accentuates in some respects rather than relieves the
hard****ps of the servitude of the inmates."
The records furnish many instances to prove that the Registrar
General's Department was not operated with the least idea of relieving
the slave from her bondage. These are culled from the court records.
We will condense some of them.
1. Three sisters were brought by their foster-mother from Macao
to Hong Kong, on the promise of a feast; they were taken to the
house of an old brothel-keeper, to whom the foster-mother sold the
|
