SLAVERY IN HONGKONG

Inangahua Times, 7 December 1929, Page 4

SLAVERY IN HONGKONG

A PROTEST A protest against the delay on the part of the British Government in declaring its intentions the mui tsai system of slavery in Hong kong was made 'recently in the “ Spectator ” by Mr John H. Harris, representing the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society- “So far as is known to-day not a single slave has been set free in Hongkong through Legislative or administrative activity: and there are 10,000 cf these slaves in the colony, while across the frontier in China there are, it 1. estimated, over 2.000,000 little slaves held in bondage under precisely the same system," he wrote. He recalls that ten years ago a preacher in the Hongkong Cathedral urged his congregation to investigate the degradation and- suffering involved in the system. The concern that was aroused, especially by the courageous efforts of Mrs Hazelwood, the wife r f a British Naval Officer, spread to Great Britain, "and was of such volume that it awakened vigoroi s a:tivity in the British Parliament, and Mr Winston Churchill ultimateh gave a promise that the system should be abolished within one year. “ That promise was given by Mr Churchjll seven years ago, and everybody believed that it would be carried out,” says Mr Harris. “Now comes the information that nothing has been changed, and that the very ordinance that Mr Winston Churchill despatched to Hongkong has only been applied in certain parts; moreover, it is Asserted ihat while there were only 90(10 mui tsai slaves in Hongkong when Mr Churchill made his statein Parliament, there ars now more than 10,000, and the prices paid for these mui tsai slaves are higher than ever before." Within three weeks after the publication of this article, a statement was issued, of which a summary was telegraphed, that Lord Passfield had directed the Governor of Hongkong to enforce the ordinance especially the provisions for registration and inspection which had previously been suspended owing to Chinese opposition, and to add a prohibition against the importation of mui taai into the colony.