SLAVERY IN HONGKONG

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 5 December 1929, Page 8

SLAVERY IN HONGKONG

A PROTEST A protest against the delay on the part of tlie British Government in declaring its intentions regarding the mui tsai system of slaverv in Hongkong 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 lias been set free in Hongkong through legislative or administrative activity; and there are 10.000 of these slaves ill the colony, while across the frontier in China there are, it is 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 Haslewood. the wife of a British naval officer, spread to Great Britain, and was of such volume that it awakened vigorous activity in the British Parliament. and Mr Winston Churchill ultimately gave a promise that the system should* be abolished within one year. "That promise was given by Mr Churchill 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 that while (here were only 9000 mui tsai slaves in Hongkong when Mr Churchill made his statement in Parliament, there are nmv more than 10.000, and the prices paid for these mui tsai slaves are higher (ban 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 (o add a prohibition against the importation of mui tsai into the colonv.