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Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers

Chapter 3 TREACHEROUS LEGISLATION.

Word Count: 3120    |    Released on: 01/12/2017

o Canton as British Consul and Superintendent of trade. After a few years he returned t

n really gloried in such self-sacrifice, and held it forth as the worthiest principle of life! Did Sir John Bowring hold aloft such a Cross as this, and, with his Master, recommend it to the world as the means of its elevation and emancipation from the blight of sin? We shall not judge him individually. His example should be a warning to the fact that even the most religious men can too often hold very different views of life according to whether they are embodied in religious sentiments or in one's

retary of State for the Colonies at the time, replied to the Governor's representations in the following language: "The Colonial Government has not, I think, attached sufficient weight to the very grave fact that in a British Colony large numbers of women should be held in practical slavery for the purposes of prost

here, as we have seen, laws against the buying and selling, detaining and kidnaping human beings were not unfamiliar. Only eleven years had elapsed since the Queen's proclamation against slavery in that colony had been publis

at Hong Kong "large numbers of wom

ry is "for the gain

emselves t

cruel that "in some

e prosecution of

o choice of their own

and "are subjected

n urgent claim upon th

rnme

rough "no choice of their own," is the most degraded to wh

epicted in it so many even engaging features and admirable persons, woven into the story of wrong. Her pen did not seem to make slavery appear always and altogether black. But there was the fate of "Uncle Tom," and the picture of "Cassie," captive of "Legree." It was not what slavery

ned the above words, admitting that slavery at Hong Kong had descended to that lowest level. Infamy instead of i

and granted in London in order to relieve this horrible condition. It s

as prohibited by the Queen's Anti-Slavery Pro

ng" to masters would be at once told that t

ownership of a former slave would

ould not only be healed at public expense, but pl

rotection of the Government," they would be treated as ward

e of law, any official who at a future time conn

ations, and an official appointed a few months before, called the "Protector of Chinese," was charged with the task of its enforcement. This official is also called the Registrar Gen

e embodied the f

stration of i

inement to cert

f registration fee

lsory, indecent examinat

her master and the exact conditions under which she was "from no choice of her own," exp

ve when any man was found infected from consor

persons keeping slaves in an _un_registered house

ng incapacitated in the prosecution of their employment, and to seeing that the hopelessly diseased were eliminated from the herd of slaves. The rest of the "protection" looked to the physical well-being of another portion of

n of Inquiry into the working of this Ordinance comments upon official statements as to the satisfactory consequences of the enactment of the measure in the checking of disease. The Commission demonstrates that in many instances their statements were absolute falsehoods, as proved by statements made by the same officials elsewhere. Since these officials are proved to have been so untruthful after the passing of the Ordinance, we can put

Y UTTERLY UNTRUE STATISTICS IN FAVOUR OF THE C.D. ACTS IN THE BRITISH COL

tions of the Annual Medical Reports which refer to the subject of the Lock Hospital have,

ray was 'completely satisfied with the incalculable benefit t

.D. Acts, without parallel in any

years' experience) h

oubted; but the good

thels suppressed,

as informed that the Ordinance had been 'on trial f

mission among other Government papers, and published,-'That venereal disease has been on the increase, in spite of all that has been do

uch reports for the Public, and such an Off

"Venereal disease here has now become of comparatively rare occurrence." Yet the Army Report for the previous year (1866, page 115) states that "the admissions to ho

condary (true) syphilis than any other naval station in the world, except one (the S.E. American); it had 101 of primary (true) against 68 in the North American, 31 in the S.E. American, and 22 in the Australian stations (all unprotected); and gonorrhoea was higher than in any other naval station in the world. This official misleading feature is to be found in other quarter

us Diseases Ordinance of 1857. He says: "In 1857, owing to the very strong representations which had been made to the Governor during the previous three years, by different naval officer

y regulation of the brothels appears from recent correspondence to have been almost entirely disregarded." To this Governor Hennessy replied: "On the general question of the Government system of licensing brothels, your Lordship seems to think that I have not sufficiently recognized that the establishment of the system was a police measure, intended to give the Hong Kong Government some hold upon the brothels, in hope of improving the condition of the inmates, and of checking the odio

protection of the Government," the operation of which was placed in the hands of the so-called Protector of Chinese, was plainly described in t

indisposition to interfere in the working of the Ordinance, from a belief that it opened a door to corruption to the members of the force under him." Later, Mr. May, the superintendent of police alluded to, said before the Commission of Inquiry: "That he would not have permitted the police to have anything to do with t

rt says, concerning inspectors of brothels: "These posts, although fairly lucrative, do not seem to be coveted by men of very high class." For instance, we find in a report dated December 11, 1873, by the captain superintendent of police, Mr. Dean, and the acting Registrar General, Mr. Tonnochy, that they were not prepared to recommend anyone for an appointment to a vacancy which had just occurred, owing to the reluctance of the police inspectors to accept "the office of Inspector of Brothels." Mr. Creagh says, that the post is not one "which any of our inspectors would take. They look down on the post." "They are a class very inferior to t

the operation of Ordinance 12, 1857, recommended by Mr. Labouchere as a sort of benevolent scheme for the def

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