“My observations in Court arose out of cases of kidnaping; and, according to the practices of judges in England, in their addresses to the Grand Juries, and on sentencing prisoners, I did as I thought it my duty to do. I traced the cause of the kidnaping to the demand for domestic bond servants, as Dr. Eitel calls them, and for brothels … I said on the 7th of October I expressly indicate these two, and these two only, as the specific classes of slavery in Hong Kong as then rapidly increasing … I cannot find a sentence in it which indicates any attempt by the Court to reach criminally cases of concubines.”
“All that I contended for in what I then said beyond punishing kidnapers was to bring within the cognizance of the law those who bought from such kidnapers,–the receivers of such stolen ‘chattels,’–leaving such buyers to set up and prove a justification if they could.”
“On the 31st of March, 1880, prisoners in four cases of kidnaping,–one most harrowing,–were sentenced. I there lamented, and I am sure every right-minded man will concur with me, that it was the fact that the very poor were punished and the rich escaped. In that case it clearly appeared that one Leong Ming Aseng, apparently a respectable tradesman, at all events a man of means, had given $60 for a young girl aged 13 years, to one of the kidnapers, and he took her away beyond the reach of her distracted mother under circumstances from which he must have known that the child had been kidnaped. But although the facts were known at the Police Court, and this man remained exceeding ten days afterward in the Colony, no charge was ever made against him. After passing sentences at this time, I made some observations on the ‘_patria potestas_’ [power of the father] theory. Dr. Eitel having painted this condition in China in what I thought too favorable colors, I quoted from Doolittle’s ‘Social Life in China,’ unquestioned testimony as to what _patria potestas_ was in China before the controversy now raised, and from Mr. Parker, Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul at Canton, as to its present state in China. After these quotations, I simply asked, Can greater tyranny, more unchecked caprice, be described or even conceived as inexcusable over wife, concubine, child, or purchased or inherited slave?’–the quotations I made being up to this time undisputed … what I said was necessary to introduce the expression of my conviction … that none of the elements of the system of _patria potestas_ exist in Hong Kong, including of course adoption. It is to this conviction that I point as the moral ground for enforcing English law against kidnaping and buying and selling human beings. The gravamen of all my complaints is, that the pauper kidnapers and sellers are punished, while the rich buyers go free. No case can come on for trial in this Court except upon an information by the Attorney-General. I have called on the Attorney-General of the day to prosecute a man against whom there was evidence that the boy he was keeping as a servant had been bought by him direct from a kidnaper. The then Attorney-General exercised his discretion, and did not prosecute.” “There are no difficulties in the way of carrying out the punishment of kidnaping, and sellers and buyers of children, or of keeping children by the purchasers, or in selling and buying of women for brothels, or in dealing with cases of brutal bondage.” “I have spoken from criminal facts and circumstances deposed to in Court; the Chinese and Dr. Eitel have spoken from the favorable surroundings of respectable domestic life in China. The conflicting views thus presented are but a reproduction of conflicting testimony in reference to negro slavery in the West Indies, and more lately in the United States. Very benevolent persons, some my own friends, looking at facts from the respectable standpoint, thought that such slavery was based on human nature, and conduced to the spread of Christianity. But the contrary view prevailed. I am quite satisfied that the right view on this question will ultimately prevail. As a man I have very decided views on these subjects, but as a judge I feel it is not for me further to debate them. I expressly retired from doing so on the 27th of October, 1879, although I thought it necessary in March last to comment on what I thought to be an erroneous view of the _patria potestas_.”
Later, in response to a suggestion on the part of the Governor, for a more explicit statement as to wherein his views differ from those of the Chinese and of Dr. Eitel, the Chief Justice says, among other things:
“I do not admit the statements of Dr. Eitel. They do not apply to Hong Kong, but they may, and probably do, apply to certain respectable classes in China proper, where China family life proper exists. What I assert is that family life does not, in the proper Chinese sense, exist in Hong Kong, and that although, under certain very restricted conditions, the buying and selling, and adopting and taking as concubines, boys and girls in China proper, is permitted as exceptions to the penalties inflicted by Chinese law in China proper, these conditions do not exist in Hong Kong; and that the conditions necessary to these exceptions in their favor in the Chinese Criminal Code do not exist in Hong Kong, and that the penalties would apply, if in China, to all such transactions as I have denounced in Hong Kong, of that I have no doubt. Dr. Eitel’s vindication is of a system as recognized in an express exception to the Penal Code in China proper, which may, for aught I know, work well in China. What I have said is that the practices in Hong Kong do not come within the cases which are only the exception to the penal enactments in the Chinese Code against all such bondage in China. I have never said … that all buying and selling of children for adoption or domestic service is contrary to Chinese law. What I have said is that all such buying and selling of children as has come within my cognizance in Hong Kong is contrary to Chinese law; but I do think that buying and selling even for adoption and domestic servitude under the best circumstances, constitutes slavery; legal according to Chinese law, but illegal according to British law. Reference is made to Chinese gentlemen; I believe that not one of them has his ‘house’ in Hong Kong; the wife (small-footed) is kept at the family home in China. Each of them has his harem only in Hong Kong. There may be an exception to this rule, but I have never heard of any such exception. (I know of only one, of a Chinese gentleman, who, for certain reasons, was afraid to return to China.) … I have not known a single case of adoption by a Chinaman in Hong Kong. They may exist in China proper, and possibly in Hong Kong … They are not in China proper a sacred religious obligation, except in rare cases indeed, in which the conditions of clanship and other stringent conditions are precisely complied with; and they have as much to do with the necessities of the poor, and no more, than would be the case in England or Ireland in the time of a famine. These Chinese gentlemen say that the children are well cared for. If girls eligible for marriage or concubinage, they are sold for that, and form a profitable investment to a Chinese gentleman. If not so eligible, they are sold for any, even the worst purpose,–brothels, according to my experience in the Criminal Courts of Hong Kong. If the former, it may be that they do well; but if the latter, no slavery is worse. This as to females. And as to males, the purchaser holds them until they can redeem themselves, and, according to my experience, generally never. Again, the Chinese gentlemen allege that if the adoptive parent or master does not do his duty the actual parents have their remedy. The answer is, so far as Hong Kong is concerned, the far greater number of actual parents are far away in China, have entirely lost sight of the child, and are far too poor to seek a remedy in Hong Kong. They would have a remedy, if they were present and knew it, but they do not know that there is a remedy. They had their remedy from the first in China proper. Well, a remedy in the Mandarin Court, where the longest purse prevails, and into which a poor man seldom dares to enter a complaint.”
“Lastly, it is said that the lot of these children is far happier than if they had been left to their ordinary fate. So say these Chinese gentlemen; so said the noble and wealthy, the much respected slave trader and holder, a century ago in England. The answer to him then is the only answer for these Chinese gentlemen. It is a long one which presents itself to everyone who has studied the slavery and the slave-trade question. Besides this long argumentative answer, one question must be answered:–Is it right to do or sanction wrong that good may come?”
“A very long time has elapsed since I received your letter forwarding that dispatch [containing the request of the Secretary of State for the Chief Justice to state his views as to Dr. Eitel’s representations], in June last; but the delay has been advantageous, as it has enabled me to obtain a memorandum on the subject by Mr. Francis, barrister here, and for a year Acting Puisne Judge … I write on this subject from an experience in Hong Kong since early in 1861; Mr. Francis from a very extensive experience in both China proper and in this Colony since some years previously.” He then enters into history to show that “Mr. Francis of necessity studied … the whole law on the subject of slavery or bondage in every form here.”
Mr. Francis first reviews all the legislative measures existent at Hong Kong concerning slavery, in the clearest manner possible, leaving no doubts in the mind of any fair-minded person that laws were not wanting to put down slavery:
First: Hong Kong, being a Crown Colony, “the power of the Sovereign in respect of legislation is absolute.”
Second: The proclamation of Sir Charles Elliott, of tolerance of native customs was “pending Her Majesty’s pleasure,” and no longer.
Third: Her Majesty’s pleasure was declared at Hong Kong: (a) By the Proclamation of 1845; (b) “By Ordinance 6 of 1845, 2 of 1846, and 12 of 1873, by the combined operation of which the law of England, common and statute, as it existed on the 5th day of April, 1843, became the law of Hong Kong.”
Says Mr. Francis of Ordinance 6 of 1845, “The relations of husband and wife, parent and child, guardian and ward, master and servant, whatever they may have been when Hong Kong was Chinese, became from the date of that Ordinance what English law made them, and nothing more or less.”
“But in addition to the declarations of the Common Law,” declares Mr. Francis, the following are in full force at Hong Kong: “The Act of the 5th George IV. c. 113, the Act of the 3rd and 4th William IV. c. 73, and the Act 6th and 7th Victoria c. 98, which have in the widest terms abolished slavery throughout the British dominions.” “These Acts declare it unlawful for anyone owing allegiance to the British Crown, whether within or without the dominions of the Crown, to hold or in any way deal in slaves, or to participate in any way in such dealing, or to do any act which would contribute in any way to enable others to hold or deal in slaves. This simple declaration, if it stood alone, would make every act of slave-holding a misdemeanour, but the Acts themselves make it piracy, felony, or misdemeanour, as the case may be, to do any of the acts declared to be unlawful. These Acts further declare that persons holden in servitude as pledges or pawns for debt shall, for the purpose of the Slave Trade Acts, be deemed and construed to be slaves, or persons intended to be dealt with as slaves. Hundreds of persons are held in such servitude as pledged or pawned in Hong Kong, and not one of the parties to such transactions has ever been proceeded against under these Acts.”
“In addition to the above-mentioned Acts of George, William and Victoria, there is also the Imperial Act, entitled The Slave Trade Act, 1873, which consolidates the laws for the suppression of the Slave Trade, and which is in force in Hong Kong by its own authority. We have also the provisions of the Local Ordinance 4 of 1865, sections 50 and 51, and 2 of 1875.”
“Offenses against the provisions of these Ordinances, so far as they relate to women or children, are still very common, and are growing more numerous every day, and until the system of prostitution which prevails in this Colony, and the system of breeding up young girls from their infancy to supply the brothels of Hong Kong, Singapore, and San Francisco, _is declared to be slavery_, and is treated and punished as such in Hong Kong, no stop will ever be put to the kidnaping of women and the buying and selling of female children in Hong Kong. This buying and selling is only an effect of which the existing system of Chinese prostitution is the cause. Get rid of that, and there is an end of kidnaping.”
Again the nail had been struck on the head. _Licensed brothel slavery_, as it exists at Hong Kong, was put forward by the Chinese merchants as something to be dealt with before British officials could consistently lay violent hands on the more trivial offenses of _domestic slavery and so-called “adoption.” Brothel slavery_, says Mr. Francis, must be dealt with _as slavery_ before the practice of _kidnaping_ can be put under control. This lesson was learned long ago. What did all the laws against man-stealing and slave-trading ever accomplish so long as the slave owner was allowed to keep his slave? As soon as slave-holding was declared impossible in the United States, there was no more trouble with slave-traders. Traders go to a market where they can dispose of their goods, not to a place where their kind of goods are a drug on the market.
Says Mr. Francis bluntly: “The Chinese custom of adoption, whether of boys for continuing the family and worship of ancestors, or of girls for the ordinary purposes of domestic service, is not the foundation of all this buying and selling of women and girls; it is only the pretext and excuse.” Mr. Francis states that the buying and selling of boys is rare as compared with the buying and selling of girls. That there are few Chinese families in Hong Kong.
“The better class Chinese leave their wives in China. The transaction of purchase of these boys takes place at the home of the fathers of them in China. Seldom is it necessary to buy a son, as the usual custom when a wife has no son is to take another wife, not to buy a boy for a son,–hence such buying of boys is for servitude and for ransom, at Hong Kong.” “Girls are not bought and sold in Hong Kong for domestic servitude under Chinese custom. They are bought and sold for the purpose of prostitution, here and elsewhere, and instead of being apprenticed to the domesticities, and of being brought up to be good wives and mothers, they are bought and sold,–brought up and trained for a life of prostitution, a life of the most abject and degrading slavery…. By the last census [this was written in 1880], there were in Hong Kong 24,387 Chinese women to 81,025 men. Of these 24,387 women the late Mr. May [Superintendent of Police] was of opinion that 20,000, or five-sixths, come under the denomination of prostitutes … A Chinese doctor of large experience fixed the number of quasi-respectable women at one-fourth the whole number, or say 6,000, leaving 18,000 prostitutes. These opinions were taken and adopted by the Commission of 1877-1879 … Who and what are these prostitutes who form by far the greater bulk of the Chinese female population of Hong Kong? The Report of the Commission answers the question: ‘The great majority of them are owned by professional brothel-keepers or traders in women in Canton or Macao; they have been brought up for the profession, and trained in various accomplishments suited to their life … They frequently know neither father nor mother, except what they call a pocket-mother,–that is, the woman who bought them from others … They are owned in Macao and Canton. They are bought as infants. They come to Hong Kong at 13 or 14, and are deflowered at a special price which goes to the owners. The owner gets the whole of their earnings, and even gets presents given to the girls, who are allowed three or four dollars a month pocket-money. When some of the girls are sent away on account of age, new ones are got from Canton. If these girls are not slaves in every sense of the word, there is no such thing as slavery in existence. If this buying and selling for the purpose of training female children up for this life is not slave-dealing, then never was such a thing as slave-dealing in this world. There are 18,000 to 20,000 prostitutes in Hong Kong to 4,000 or 5,000 respectable Chinese women…. Once in five years the stock has to be renewed. It is for this purpose, and not for the legitimate or quasi-legitimate purposes of Chinese adoption and Chinese family life, that children and women are kidnaped and bought and sold … Until this slave-holding and slave-dealing are entirely suppressed, the grosser abuses arising out of it and incidental to it (kidnaping of women and children) can never be put an end to.”
It was on May 20th, 1880, that the Secretary of State asked for the first statement of Sir John Smale’s views as to kidnaping and domestic slavery. His reply is dated August 26th, and in it he refers to reasons for his delay in replying, of which the Governor is “well aware.” His supplementary letter enclosing the Memorandum of slavery by Mr. Francis, was dated Nov. 24th, 1880. On April 2nd, 1881, he wrote a third time to the Colonial Secretary, from which we gather that even up to that time his explanations had not been forwarded to Lord Kimberley, Secretary of State. Said he:
“I had hoped that these letters would have been forwarded last year, in the belief that they might have induced a less unfavorable view by Lord Kimberley of my judicial action as to these matters, and with the more important object of presenting what appears to me to be the great gravity of the evils I have denounced, as they affect the moral status of the Colony, in order that some remedy may be applied to them…. I am informed that His Excellency the Governor has been unable to obtain the opinion of the Attorney-General on the points raised.” …
It is impossible not to feel that this neglect on the part of someone at Hong Kong to forward the Chief Justice’s letters until the first of these was a year old (for they were actually sent in August, 1881), was a designed obstruction of his endeavors to set himself in the correct light, and to enlighten the Christian public of Great Britain as to the abuses existing at Hong Kong.
In this letter expressing regret at the delay of his letters, he speaks of convictions of eight more cases of kidnaping, and “almost unprecedented brutal assaults on bought children.” “Considering the special waste of life in brothel life, and the general want of new importations to keep up the bondage class of 20,000 in this Colony, the cases of kidnaping detected cannot be one-half of one per cent of the children and women kidnaped.”
“Two cases of brutal treatment of young girls by purchasers, their pocket-mothers, one little girl having had her leg broken by beating her, and the other having been shockingly and indecently burnt,–both probably weakened for life,–illustrate the cruel passions which ownership in human beings engenders here, as it ever has done elsewhere. In a case now before the magistrate, the evidence tends to show that a girl thirteen years old was bought by a brothel-keeper for $200, and forced, by beating and ill-treatment, into that course of life in a brothel licensed by law. Subject to such surveillance as these houses are by law, it seems to me such slavery is easy of suppression.”
At this time the official career of Sir John Smale at Hong Kong terminated.
CHAPTER 13.
THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY TO THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.
We have traced the development of slavery from State-protected brothel slavery to State-tolerated domestic slavery and “adoption” of boys. Now we turn to Singapore, to find that all these forms of slavery exist there under the British flag, with the addition of a coolie-traffic dangerously like slavery, also, and they are all under the management of the Registrar General, or “Protector of the Chinese,” as he is always called at the Straits. For the general description of conditions in the Straits Settlements, more especially at Singapore, we give in full a paper read by an Englishman, a resident of Singapore for many years, at the Annual Conference of American Methodist Missionaries, held in Singapore in 1894,–a paper which was endorsed by that body:
It has come to be almost universally acknowledged that Singapore is indebted as much to Chinese as to British enterprise for its present commercial prosperity, and therefore the subject of Chinese labour which is vexing America and Australia, assumes a very different aspect in the Straits Settlements, and the fact that Chinese immigration has increased 50 per cent in the last ten years is looked upon as an unmitigated blessing. The magnitude of the Singapore labour trade will be understood when it is known that the number of Chinese who came to this port last year, either as genuine immigrants or for transshipment to other ports, was 122,029, which is actually more than the entire Chinese population of the town. In connection with the immigration of this multitude of men and women, speaking many dialects of a language which is wholly unknown to the officials of the British Government in the Straits, with the exception of perhaps half a dozen persons, it cannot be wondered at that many abuses arise, and the suspicion has gained ground and is frequently given expression to, in the public press and elsewhere, that many of the immigrants do not come to Singapore of their free will. Moreover, it cannot be denied that the circumstances under which the Chinese come to Singapore and are forwarded to their destination lend colour to this suspicion, so that it may fairly be inquired whether the efforts made by the Government of the Straits Settlements to control the Chinese coolie traffic and to prevent a secret form of slavery have been attended with any success, or are at all adequate to the requirements of the case.
The Annual Report for the year 1892 on the Chinese Protectorate in the Straits Settlements which is the department charged with the control of immigration, was published on the 5th of May, 1893, and states that of the 122,029 Chinese deck passengers who arrived in Singapore from China during the year, 111,164 were males, 6,867 women and 3,998 children. The circumstances under which the men and the women are brought to Singapore are in many respects the same, but inasmuch as a large number of the women and some of the children are imported for immoral purposes, this part of the subject will be dealt with separately. Turning then to the above mentioned Report, we find as regards male immigration, that out of the 111,164 who arrived in Singapore 23,647 proceeded direct to Penang, and 1,798 to Malacca, Bangkok and Mauritius, leaving 85,719 remaining in Singapore, of whom 76,601 are classed as ‘paid passengers,’ and 9,118 as “unpaid passengers received into depots.” With the former class the Chinese Protectorate has nothing more to do, unless they come to the Protector to sign a Government labour contract with planters or other employers of labor, but with the ‘unpaid passengers’ the case is very different. These men are brought to the Straits to the number of about 15,000 a year, under what is spoken of in the Report as “the much objurgated depot and broker system,” and the facts as presented below will speak for themselves as to whether the objurgations are warranted or not. The brokers are all China men, and are admitted to be men of the worst character. They have their assistants or partners in the chief ports of China, who scout the country round in search of men and are known to be not very particular as to the means they employ in obtaining them. Nothing is required of the recruit except a willingness to hand himself over with his scanty outfit to the tender mercies of the broker, who pays his passage and provides him with food and such things as he considers needful. While the vessels, however, with their decks crowded with emigrants, are leaving the Chinese ports, it is a common occurrence for the cry of “man overboard” to be raised, so common indeed that few Captains now take the trouble to stop their ships, leaving the fugitive coolie to his fate or to be picked up by one of the native craft which are usually close at hand. The readiness of the Chinese emigrant thus to risk his life for the purpose of regaining his freedom, is explained by the advocates of the depot and broker system as arising from a desire on his part to outwit the broker and perhaps obtain another bonus by offering himself a second time as a candidate for the honour of a free passage, but it seems quite as likely that nothing less than kidnaping or forcible detention would induce men to run so great a risk. On arrival at Singapore the broker is again on the _qui vive_ to see that his captives do not jump into the sea, and as each coolie ship arrives at the wharf, a small force of police is in waiting to keep a space clear and prevent any attempt at escape, while the officers of the Protectorate board the ship, accompanied by a further force of marine police, for the purpose of inspecting the coolies. When permission is given to disembark, the unpaid passengers are made up into small parties and marched through the town to the depots under the escort of the brokers and several of their assistants, with much yelling and good deal of rough handling, and an occasional halt while a straggler or a would be runaway is brought back to the party. That the coolies are frequently successful in their attempts to escape is shown in the Report of the Chinese Protectorate, 160 being returned as ‘absconded either when landing or at depot’ in Singapore, and 101 at Penang, or about 1-3/4 per cent of the “unpaid passengers”. On arrival at the depot, the coolies are probably surprised to find themselves securely confined in houses which look uncomfortably like prisons, and the passer-by may see the dirty and unkempt _sin-khehs_ or “new men,” as these emigrants are called, peering out between the thick wooden bars of the windows. The coolies are thus forcibly detained at the depots until the brokers are successful in finding employers who are prepared to pay the price per head which they demand, a sum of about L10. In the meanwhile however, it appears from the Report that nearly 4-1/2 per cent of the inmates of the depots are discovered and redeemed by their friends, the numbers being 414 at Singapore, and 278 at Penang, and a further 1-3/4 per cent, or 236 at Singapore, and 55 at Penang, are shown under the headings “released and returned to China,” having presumably been discovered to have been kidnaped. Of the total number of “unpaid passengers” arriving at Singapore and Penang, about 91 per cent eventually sign contracts and are made over to their employers or their agents, the majority of these being shipped off, under escort as before to the Native States of the Malay Peninsula or other neighboring countries, to labour for a fixed term of years after which the coolie is free to return to his native land or to seek such other employment as he may see fit.
Such are the circumstances under which thousands of our fellow beings are annually brought to the labour market at Singapore, and it must be admitted that, to say the least of it, the system does not seem worthy of Western nineteenth century civilization. At the same time the extreme difficulty of controlling the ‘depot and broker system,’ or even of providing an efficient substitute for it, must be freely admitted. The system of Government contracts and inspection of immigrants has already done something toward ameliorating the condition of the coolie, and guarding him against illegal detention after his arrival at Singapore or Penang. Much more, however, remains to be done before the coolie trade will cease to be a reproach to the Straits Settlements, and it is doubtful whether any satisfactory reforms will be accomplished until the Chinese Government is moved in the matter with a view to checking the evil at the fountain head. Failing this, it would be worth considering whether the system of “unpaid passengers” might not advantageously be abolished, especially as this class of immigrant represents only 11 per cent of the total immigration, and more than one-third of the labor contracts last year were voluntarily signed by “paid passengers.” It seems probable that if the “unpaid passenger” system were abolished, and the market thus thrown open to free competition, a much larger number of “paid passengers” would offer for contracts. But, even if this plan should appear to involve too great a risk of diminishing the flow of Chinese coolies to Singapore, it surely would not too severely tax the ingenuity of the Straits Government to devise a system of State-aided immigration, closely resembling that which has for many years been working in Canada, and more in accord with the dictates of ordinary humanity and English ideas of the liberty of the subject.
Among the Chinese at Singapore the women number less than one-fifth of the population, and at Penang the proportion between males and females is practically the same. In the immigration returns the disparity is even more marked, for there is only one female immigrant to every eighteen men. This extraordinary preponderance of males in the Chinese population of these towns has given rise to, and is made the standing excuse for, a wholesale system of prostitution to which it would be difficult to find a parallel. Government registration and protection have favored the growth of this diabolical plague spot, for, strange to say, this gigantic system of debauchery is under the direction of the department which is euphemistically entitled “The Chinese Protectorate,” the “Protector of Chinese” at Singapore being also the Inspector of over 200 brothels, and the Registrar of about 1,800 prostitutes. Many streets of well built three-story houses, chiefly in one particular quarter of the town, are devoted to this nefarious traffic, and are thronged every night with Chinamen who loaf about and gaze into the front rooms and verandahs of the brothels, for these front rooms open on the street and there the women and girls are assembled in their best attire for the inspection of the passers-by. Anything more ostentatiously and revoltingly public could hardly have been devised, and it is painful to reflect that the whole arrangement is the product of Western civilization, such scenes being utterly unknown in China except in the treaty ports, where public prostitution has also been introduced by Europeans.
Taking Singapore as a sample of the working of this system of regulated vice in the Straits Settlements, we will now proceed to inquire into the means by which this army of prostitutes is recruited. Out of the total of 1,800 prostitutes in Singapore the Chinese women number on the average 1,600, and last year (1892) no less than 621 women entered brothels from China and Hong Kong, in spite of which the number of inmates fell from 1,657 in January to 1,601 in December, so that it may fairly be inferred that more than 650 women are required annually to fill up the vacancies which occur. In order to explain the manner in which this large number of girls and young women are obtained each year, it must be stated that all the affairs connected with the inmates of houses of ill-fame in the Straits Settlements are in the hands of the brothel-keepers. These persons in Penang have formed a “Brothel-keepers’ Guild,” which appears in the Report of the Chinese Protectorate as one of the registered societies of that town and boasts of 297 members. The brothel-keepers of Singapore are probably banded together in the same way, and in proportion to the number of brothels should be more than twice as numerous as those in Penang. These brothel-keepers have their confederates in China, who search for girls and young women in the same way that the coolie-brokers search for the men, and these unfortunate young persons are brought to Singapore in batches under escort in the same way as the men, but are taken from the ships in closed carriages instead of being driven through the town like sheep, as the men are. All these young women and girls, who are brought to Singapore for immoral purposes, with the full knowledge and consent of the Government, are taken direct from the ships to the office of the Protector of Chinese, to be questioned as to their willingness to lead a life of shame; but the value of this interrogation may be inferred from the fact that the subordinate officer to whom this duty is generally assigned is not acquainted with the language spoken by the women. As a further precaution against the illegal detention of women and girls in brothels, a Government notice is posted in each of these houses, to the effect that the inmates are perfectly at liberty to leave whenever they like, but this is of little use, as hardly any of them can read, and it would be more to the purpose if the Government ordered the removal of the bars from the doors and windows of the brothels. The fact is that these precautions against illegal detention are practically useless, and this is admitted even by the editor of such a paper as the _Hong Kong Daily Press_, who some time ago discussed the question _apropos_ of the suicide of a Hong Kong prostitute who was desirous of being married. The man who wished to marry her offered the pocket-mother a sum of $2,000, but she demanded $2,300 and refused to part with the woman for less; whereupon she hung herself. The following comments on this case are from the _Hong Kong Daily Press_:
“It would appear on the face of it that the efforts of the Government are absolutely impotent, the notices so much waste paper, and the ‘rights of liberty’ mere empty phrases of no meaning or significance to the Chinese mind … A Chinawoman would never dream of effecting her escape for the purpose of evading the blood money. Of course such transactions are absolutely illegal, there is no tittle of reason why the man should pay a cent for the girl, but it is nevertheless an indubitable fact that the custom is widely prevalent, and that Hong Kong is a market for the buying and selling of women which the Government is powerless to touch. Exeter Hall in possession of these facts would indeed have a theme for pious lucubrations.”
Commenting upon the same case the _Singapore Free Press_ says:
“A recent investigation into a case of suicide in Hong Kong brings into strong prominence what is really a system of slavery of the worst kind, and which is not unknown in Singapore.”
Such testimony is valuable from papers which have consistently supported the Contagious Diseases Ordinances and vilified the opponents of the State regulation of vice. There can be little doubt that a large proportion of the girls and young women who are brought to the Straits Settlements for immoral purposes have been sold in China to the brothel-keepers’ confederates. In many cases girls are thus sold by their parents for the payment of gambling and other debts, and sometimes, alas, to provide money for the purchase of opium. Surely it is a burning shame that British Colonies should have become the market for the sale of Chinese women into this diabolical form of slavery.
This article cannot be closed without a brief reference to another and more subtle form of slavery which is well known to exist in the Straits. The last Report of the Chinese Protectorate reveals the fact that during last year (1892) in Singapore alone 426 prostitutes left brothels and went into private houses, and in the same period 148 left private houses and entered brothels. The wealthy Chinese in the Straits Settlements keep up very large establishments, and the uninitiated visitor cannot fail to be surprised at the number of young women in the quarter assigned to the servants. They are employed on house work, and keep the magnificent furniture and wardrobes in splendid order, and in many cases they make cakes and sweetmeats which are sold on the streets by their own offspring. The question naturally arises,–Are these women and girls free agents? It is very difficult to say with certainty whether they are free or not, but it is generally admitted that a subtle form of domestic slavery does exist in the Straits, and that boys as well as girls are bought and sold with impunity.
This account in no way exaggerates conditions, as official documents plainly show. We will confine our thoughts, however, to the women. In a plea for the continuance of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance at Singapore, Mr. Pickering, “Protector,” describes two classes of prostitutes, a proportion of free women “who come down here to gain a livelihood, and girls purchased when very young…. These are absolutely the property of their owners, chiefly women whom the girl calls ‘mother,’ and whom they regard as such…. The mistress brings her girls down to the Straits, and either sells them, or takes them from place to place, lodging them in licensed brothels where she resides, nominally a servant, but receiving the earnings of her girls, and paying a commission to the licensed keeper. In case of sale, the so-called ‘mother’ receives the price paid for her ‘daughter,’ and the ‘daughter’ signs a promissory note for the amount, with heavy interest; the former owner returns to China, and the victim is bound to serve the Straits mistress; at the same time, the girl is comparatively (!) fortunate in that, coming here under the protection we can give through the Contagious Diseases Ordinances, she has some chance of becoming a free woman.”
Now listen, reader, to the wonderful chances of becoming a free woman under the British flag, this “Protector” holds out to the slave girls who are placed in his officially managed brothels:
“The girls with their promissory notes are passed from hand to hand in sale, or as pledges for loans; and in one brothel I found two girls, who had, on arrival in Singapore from China some six years previous, signed a note for $300 each, of which every cent had been received and taken back to China by the person who had disposed of them. During the six years they had been the property of two or three successive owners, and when I found them in Penang they were still being detained with the original promissory note hanging over them, though the sum had been paid over and over again. On my insisting on accounts being produced by the brothel-keeper, I discovered that for three years the girls had been earning from 20 to 30 dollars each per month, all of which went to the master, who was surprised when the girls were released and himself threatened with the law.” (!)
From this we discover that Mr. Pickering intends that we shall think that the reason why he has a salary from the British Government, is, among other things, to see that slave girls only need to redeem themselves by hard earned money through unspeakable humiliation from one, or two, or more owners, and then there is an end to the patience of the “Protector” with the slave-trader, who will be surprised to find himself “threatened”–not punished–with the law! But Cecil C. Smith, formerly Protector of Chinese (Registrar General) at Hong Kong, was knighted and made Governor at Singapore, and about a year later than this, says, in reference to this very representation: “The Protector of Chinese has no efficient means of dealing with the accounts of the inmates of brothels, nor has he ever dealt with them. The Government should hold itself entirely aloof from interfering with such matters.” We see, then, of how much account the representations of Mr. Pickering were as to the usefulness of the “Protector” to the women at this point, but incidentally he has revealed a shocking state of slavery perfectly known and not in the least interfered with by the “Protector.”
Mr. Pickering continues: “At that time the majority of inmates of brothels were in the same condition; besides this, they were subject to great cruelty and restraint.” He professes a great improvement, since then, but we may take his word for what it is worth on such a point. “We, indeed … have asked for, and trust to get, more legislation to enable us to rescue the numbers of small children who, purchased in China, are brought down here and trained for a life of prostitution.” Nothing of the sort. He knew perfectly well, as did every Englishman in the Colony, that the Common Law alone of Great Britain, if there were nothing more, was quite sufficient to deliver every one of these children, as well as every slave girl, in the country. If more legislation were desired it was for some other purpose than to empty the brothels of their slaves. He goes on to state that children born in brothels “in case of free women belong to the mother, but when prostitutes, their issue is claimed by their owners, unless their mothers complain to the Registrar,” which of course, he knew, they would never venture to do. “We know well that even now there is a deal of traffic in young girls going on, and that a number of inmates of brothels are really slaves…. The only Europeans I have heard object to the Contagious Diseases Ordinance are those who, in their well-meant zeal, would abolish prostitution, and punish all parties engaged as criminals.” Precisely! Sir John Smale at Hong Kong had undertaken to “punish all parties engaged” in this nefarious slave business, and his methods were declared unwise and unpractical, simply because his methods endangered prostitution in the form of brothel-slavery. Says Mr. Pickering in conclusion:
“I myself profess to be a Christian, and endeavor according to my light, and as far as my nature will allow, to conform my conduct to the standards of my religion; while holding these principles, I certainly feel that I should not be acting in accordance with the wishes of my Master, were I not to advocate most strongly that healing should be extended to the poor, the helpless, and afflicted, whether they be harlots or any other kind of sinners, who; unless the Government assist them by forced examinations, will suffer and often die in misery from the want of medical assistance.” Perhaps the most charitable view to take of this creature is that suggested by himself. He was a Christian, he claims, “as far as my nature will allow.” Had his nature only allowed him to see further, he would have perceived a distance as wide as heaven is from hell between the conduct of the Divine Master who “went about healing all that were oppressed,” and the man who prostitutes the healing art to the service of libertines, in making it healthier, if possible, for them to defy the commandments of that same Divine Master. Such doctors are the offscouring of the medical profession.
A Chinaman one day entered Mr. Pickering’s office at the Protectorate in Singapore, accused him of selling his brother into slavery, and tried to brain him with an axe. The blow was not fatal, but the “Protector,” if living, is still in a mad house.
The attitude of the average official mind in this part of the world, among the British, as betrayed by innumerable expressions in their own documents, is perhaps most precisely put by Mr. Swettenham. British Resident at Perak. Speaking of measures adopted to make vice more healthy, he says: “As to the Chinese, the only question in the minds of members (of the Council) was whether such an Order would not drive the women from the state,” and then he declares the measures were introduced cautiously and gradually … “The steps already taken have been with the object of protecting Chinese women from ill treatment and oppression in a state of life … where the labour required is compulsory prostitution for the benefit of unscrupulous masters … and secondly, in the interest of public order and decency …” “always remembering that where the males so enormously outnumber the females, the prostitute is a necessary evil,” “I have avoided any reference to the moral question,” continues Mr. Swettenham, “Morality is dependent on the influence of climate, religious belief, education, and the feeling of society. All these conditions differ in different parts of the world.”
CHAPTER 14.
PROTECTIVE ORDINANCES.
After eighteen years’ hard struggle, the British Abolitionists succeeded in getting Parliament to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts in force in certain military stations in England, and in force in other parts of the British Empire. It now became the duty of the Secretary of State for the Colonies to see that all the Crown Colonies, such as Hong Kong and Singapore followed suit. This was in 1886, and the Contagious Diseases Ordinances for these two places were not replaced by other legislation until 1888 at Singapore, and 1890 at Hong Kong. From what we have seen of the spirit of these officials in general it seems needless to say that the old Contagious Diseases Ordinances were repealed amid a storm of protests. One of the Municipal Commissioners of Singapore “said that the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance was the most cruel and merciless act which had ever been done.” A statement from the unofficial members of the Legislative Council at Hong Kong declared: “In England abuses might have arisen under the recent law, but here it is impossible,” and very much more of the same false nature. The new Ordinances are excellent reading, and in the hands of the right sort of officials would do incalculable good. _But laws were not needed in the Colonies to put down slavery._ Mr. Francis’ Memorandum, and Sir John Smale’s pronouncements have clearly demonstrated that fact, but the right sort of men were needed to enforce the laws already in existence, in the same disinterested manner in which Sir John Smale had wrought so effectually. The new law was, however, put in each case under the administration of the “Protector” and his staff of officials, and the result has been, and could but be unsatisfactory, to the present day.
For instance, in 1893, Mr. H.E. Wodehouse, Police Magistrate at Hong Kong, in reporting on a case of suicide of a slave girl to the Colonial Secretary at Hong Kong, to be transmitted for the information of Lord Ripon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, who had asked for the information, goes quite fully into a description of conditions at this time, three years after the passage of the Protective Ordinance. He says:
“The name of the deceased was Chan Ngan-Kin…. She was registered as a prostitute in this brothel on the 23rd of December, 1890. When registering her name she said she had no pocket-mother, that her parents were both dead, and that she became a prostitute of her own free will. The inspector said that that was the description of themselves that nearly all prostitutes give, and that it was very rarely that it was true. The further evidence went to prove that she and a young man were mutually attached to each other, and he was anxious to redeem her, and that she was desirous of being redeemed, but that the price asked, two thousand three hundred dollars, was more than he was willing to give, though he was willing to give two thousand dollars…. There is little doubt that his inability to redeem her caused her to commit suicide…. The pocket-mother was not produced [at the inquest], and there was a general disposition on the part of the Chinese witnesses to withhold information.”
Lord Ripon said in his letter of inquiry: “If the facts were as stated in the above-mentioned paper, it would seem to prove that it is not generally understood in the Colony that a brothel keeper has no legal right to demand any redemption money for the release of one of the inmates.” To this the Magistrate replies, in explanation:
“It is not quite correct to speak of the brothel-keeper as demanding redemption money. The person whose property the prostitute is is the pocket-mother, that is to say, the purchaser of the girl. Nearly every prostitute has her own pocket-mother, and she it is who has sole control over the prostitute’s movements. All the earnings go to her, and the redemption money when redemption takes place. The ‘brothel-keeper’ is a creation of the Government, and the term has, I think, led to some misappreciation of the actual state of things. It is true that, being registered by the Government, she becomes in a manner responsible for the proper conduct of the establishment, but the property in the girl does not rest in her, except in the case of the two or three girls to whom she may herself be pocket-mother, that is to say, whom she may herself have purchased. The pocket-mothers are the real proprietresses of their purchases, and a brothel-keeper would not regard herself as in any way connected with such girls, beyond the obligation devolving upon her of registering the inmates of the house of which she, as tenant or owner, was the proprietress. A Chinese brothel is in fact merely a collection under one roof of several different establishments, consisting of the pocket-mothers and their purchases, the pocket-mothers for the most part being the body-servants of their charges, and administering to their daily wants, though in reality their mistresses and their absolute owners.”
The document scarcely needs comment. It illustrates the fact that one may have most ideal laws, but laws never operate automatically, and in the absence of any desire to “let the oppressed go free,” but rather an eager desire to hold them in subjection to the base propensities of profligate men, as all the State documents representing the situation tend to show, there is small proof that the “Women and Girls’ Protective Ordinance of 1889” has had any appreciable effect in altering the slave conditions at Hong Kong. The same old notorious inspector, John Lee, who, Governor Hennessy thought, ought to have been prosecuted for manslaughter, after he hounded those native women to their death, was Chief Inspector of Brothels at Hong Kong in 1894, when we made investigations in that Colony, and personally interviewed many of these slave girls, and heard their stories.
The most recent official documents relating to the matter have been commented upon in _The Shield_ (organ of the British Committee of the International Purity Federation), in its issue dated London, June, 1906, as follows:
“One of the most important parliamentary papers of recent years on our question has just been issued in response to questions put in the House of Commons by Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M.P., on March 8th last. The title is, ‘Further Correspondence relating to Measures Adopted for Checking the Spread of Venereal Disease’ (Cd. 2903), and relates to enactments in the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong, and Gibraltar, during the period in which the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain was at the head of the Colonial office.
“The correspondence in question further reveals the existence and extent of a ‘Yellow Slave Trade’ in the East of large dimensions. The girls in question are stated to be ‘bought when young,’ and ‘believe themselves bound body and soul to the brothel-keepers.’ Nine hundred and sixty-eight Chinese women, presumably of this kind, are reported at Penang, and 62 Japanese women. There were 176 admissions of Japanese women, and 141 admissions of Chinese women in 1899 to the public hospital at Singapore, besides numbers of other cases to private hospitals maintained by the keepers of the houses of ill-fame.
“Many passages in the correspondence give evidence of a continual import traffic going on, which the head of the Regulation Department, the ‘Protector of Chinese,’ at Singapore, seems to have made some effort to counteract. He speaks of ten girls between 9 and 15 that he attempted to rescue from sale to a traveling dealer, but who were returned to their former surroundings on a writ of _habeas corpus_ by the Supreme Court; but upon information in regard to this case reaching the Colonial office in London, correspondence ensued which resulted in Mr. Chamberlain directing an alteration of the law to meet the case of the prosecution which had so lamentably failed.
“The Protector of Chinese also tells of ‘girls under ten years of age who are bought and sold in the colony,’ ‘brought from China for purposes of sale,’ ‘generally sold to inmates of brothels,’ and of women who are ‘in the habit of arriving from China with relays of babies’ for the same purpose. The Straits Settlements Government thus attempts to cut off a twig here and there of the tree of this evil traffic, whilst leaving untouched the root and trunk of the tree itself, the State protection of vice, by which it is made practicable safely to invest large capital in this most nefarious but lucrative traffic.
“Page 4 of this Correspondence shows that an ordinance was passed in 1899, imposing very heavy fines and imprisonment on any keeper of a brothel who allowed any of the inmates suffering from contagious disease to remain in the house. This has led to a system of private arrangements with medical men for the periodical sanitary inspection and treatment of the inmates.
“At page 19 the Acting Colonial Surgeon says: ‘A large number of Japanese houses had some time before made private arrangements with my partner, Dr. Mugliston and myself, for medical attendance, and the rumor regarding the intended legislation induced most of the remainder to follow their example during the month of September. The increase of Japanese inmates (of the hospital) for this month, therefore, was caused by our sending in those cases of disease then found among these fresh houses.’ Paragraph 4, the same page, says: ‘With regard to the Chinese women we already had long had a number of Chinese brothels to attend professionally; during September of 1899 a large proportion of the remainder made similar arrangements with us.’
“It is difficult to say positively what the precise nature of these transactions is, but it is only too evident that the acting Colonial surgeon, with his professional partner, was most improperly mixed up with the business arrangements of the brothel-keepers. These people, indeed, figure so that they must have constituted a very good, and perhaps the most lucrative portion of the practice of these doctors.
“To cope with the extra business brought in by these arrangements, section 2 of paragraph 4, page 19, says: ‘In September, 1899, four private lock hospitals were organized, one in each of the four main sections of brothels, by the keepers under our direction.’ Paragraph 6 says: ‘We make frequent periodic inspections of the Chinese brothels, seeing each inmate, and visit our private hospitals daily.’ Here, again, it may be asked what are the precise relations of the acting Colonial surgeon to ‘our private hospitals?’ It is satisfactory to know that inquiries are being made by our Parliamentary friends in regard to this peculiar, if not suspicious, circumstance.
“Mr. Chamberlain, with all the foregoing facts before his eyes, says on page 21: ‘I am glad to find that the Protector of Chinese and the acting Colonial surgeon have, so far, been able to give such a satisfactory report of the working of the ordinance.’
“At Hong Kong, ‘the keepers of Chinese and Japanese brothels frequented by Europeans have retained private practitioners as their medical advisers, and a small private lock-hospital has been instituted for Japanese women.’ This followed on 33 prosecutions instituted by the police in respect of 89 complaints made by soldiers and sailors of the British forces. Page 35 and elsewhere show that prosecutions have taken place of ‘sly brothels,’ competing with the ‘regular professed brothels.’
“It is to be hoped that this Blue-book will, with facts now being published in various parts of Europe and in America, draw attention to the necessity of a new movement (supplementary to the great movement now on foot for the suppression of the ‘White Slave Trade’), for the suppression of the ‘Yellow Slave Trade,’ which is becoming almost world-wide in character.”
As the supply of girls both in Singapore and Hong Kong comes very largely from Canton, let us first describe the conditions we found there. Our Journal of February 14th, 1894, reads as follows:
“We went in company with a missionary and a native, both of whom could talk both English and Chinese, and visited some ‘flower-boats’ on the river. Many of these boats are quite pretentious, with their rich wood-carving, fine furniture, and gaudy display of tinsel. There were whole streets of them,–floating houses moored together; we walked along the length of the street on one side, stepping from the bow of one boat to the next, the bows of the boats constituting front verandahs. We called at almost every place, but a description of one will do for all. First, as we entered, was a couch for opium smoking; just beyond this a reception room, very gaudy, with dozens of hanging lamps, and at one end a shrine for the gods, and offerings before it. In a room back of the reception room, and also upstairs, there were girls in large numbers. A hard-featured old woman came forward from the back room, who, our interpreter said, was as good a specimen as we could possibly have seen of an old brothel-keeper of Canton, one who had been in the business for many years of buying or otherwise obtaining babies and girls, and training them for prostitution. The girls came crowding to the door of the back room, and looked in upon us with eager curiosity. Our interpreter called our attention to the manner of dressing the hair,–like married women,–as indicating their bad life. The interpreter said they were inducted usually at about thirteen years of age. They were all dressed very showily, and heavily powdered and painted, excepting some mere babies who were plainly dressed. Troops of little girls, from four to five years of age, swarmed out of the neighboring ‘flower-boats’ and gathered around us, screaming and scrambling, falling, laughing, and following us the full length of the street, which was made up of about twenty such boats on either side. And none of these innocent little things at all realized the fate in store for them. In one place we saw two very old women in the front room. In another, a woman knelt before the idolatrous shrine engaged in her devotions. At one point there was a very large boat brilliantly fitted up for music, dancing, smoking opium, and feasting. At the far end of the street was a ‘kitchen-boat,’ from which supplies of food, ready cooked, could be bought. All the way along we saw little girls with the unmistakable signs of their destiny upon them. Our interpreter said the girls were usually made to stay upstairs during the day time, but at night the whole place was illuminated and alive; then they were brought down and to the front. Occasionally we would see one of these huge house boats full of painted girls, floating down the middle of the stream, for they move about from place to place at will.
“At Canton, February 18th, 1894, we met and conversed with a missionary lady who had just come from a station in the interior. She had travelled from her station on a Chinese boat, which had been chartered by her adopted son for his use going up, and for hers coming down the river. When she was about to embark, she required that the men should search the boat, and down below, in the very bottom, were a lot of little girls–_child slaves_–being smuggled to Canton for the trade of a vile life. She made the men take the children off the boat, but with great difficulty. They resisted, but she stood courageously, and saw her commands executed. After she had accomplished this, and started down the river, all alone, so far as any English-speaking person was concerned, the men, who were still deeply enraged at being defeated in their plans, greatly annoyed her by intruding on her constantly, and finally they threatened to kill her; but she presented as brave a front as possible, and at last took hold of one man who was especially insolent, by the shoulder, in an authoritative manner, bidding him to go out of her presence. He went away cowed, and they all said, as was reported to her by one of her attendants, ‘She is not afraid’; they then became very superstitious at the idea of a woman taking hold of them, and troubled her no more.
“The five or six Christian friends where we were staying in Canton all agreed that it was the most common occurrence for little girls to be bought and sold for immoral purposes. One of the group has often heard the wretched blind girls singing just under her window, on the river bank, and under conduct of the old brothel-keeper, their owner, thus attracting custom. The proportion of blind people in Oriental countries is much greater, owing to the prevalence of eye diseases and the poverty and ignorance of the people in coping with these, than in the West; and as blind girls do not bring much money when disposed of as wives, so they are sold in large numbers into a life of shame. Poor little slaves! Because they are deprived of the natural light of day, so they are destined never to see a ray of moral light enter their miserable existence! We saw three or four little blind girls who had been rescued, by these Christian workers, from their terrible fate; but these are only a few rare exceptions out of the thousands that are borne on into the tide of shame and anguish continually.”
Of the many girls we interviewed at Hong Kong the story of the following seems typical of her class, so we extract it from our journal:
“At the first place we called there were six inmates–four of whom were present at the interview. The keeper went out of the room as we entered, and did not return. The girls were very friendly, and one of them talked a little English. This one told us that she came from Canton, and, in broken English, said that she had ‘no father, no mother, no brother; a poor man took her when a _very_ little child and raised her to sell. By and by a woman came and offered to buy poor man’s little girl, and as he had but little food, he asks, ‘How much?’ then she buys the little girl and brings her to Hong Kong. Then woman take her to Englishman and say, ‘She first-class girl,’ and he say, ‘I make her my wife,’ but he not good; he no husband; he go away to his house–England.’ Thus she described in a few simple words the tragedy of her life with tears in her eyes; her training for vice; her sale; her hopes of marriage; her desertion; the outcome, her consignment to a Government-licensed brothel. She was but one of the tens of thousands at Hong Kong. We asked, ‘How would a girl have to do in order to live in this house?’ They said, ‘She must be registered at the Lock. Hospital, and would have to go to the Court and Mr. Lockhart (the Registrar-General) would ask her questions; whether she had a father and mother; how old she was; _where the money went to that was paid for her_; and whether she wanted to be a prostitute or not.’ We asked, ‘If a girl should say that she _did not_ want to be a prostitute what would be done?’ They answered, ‘No girl would _dare_ to say this _when she had been bought_.’ We asked the girl who talked English over again about this, and she said the same.
“All the places of infamy reserved for the use of Europeans which we visited in Hong Kong, were within three minutes’ walk of Victoria Hotel, in the very busiest part of the city. Close by our hotel were such world-famed shops as ‘Watson and Co.,’ ‘Kelly and Walsh,’ etc.; a short distance down the street were the Postoffice and the Supreme Court buildings. The respectable English residents of Hong Kong cannot go about the streets of the city without seeing these places; there are draper-shops and other places visited daily and hourly by respectable foreigners and natives, occupying the ground floor of these brothels. The fine new building of the Girls’ High School, under the management of the Government, is within five minutes’ walk; yet all these brothels are glaringly numbered, as registered by the city, in huge figures eight or ten inches high, of red on a white background, painted on the doors of the stairways leading to the second story of the buildings occupied by these shops. The school children cannot pass by without noting these officially numbered houses, and seeing the girls sitting at all hours of the day and into the night conspicuously in the balconies over the shops of drapers, grocers, tailors, silk-merchants, shoe-dealers, &c., &c., and often hearing them calling to each other from house to house, and to the men in the public streets below. Mrs. Andrew, when in the street, March 2nd, saw a group of these slave-women calling down to three policemen, who were looking up and laughing at them. These are daily sights.”
The unblushing parade of forms of vice, which have been manufactured in the Orient especially to meet the demands of renegade members of Christian civilization, can be seen in a peculiarly painful and brazen form in the city of Hong Kong.
While we were at Hong Kong, there occured a great celebration in honor of the repair and rededication of an important Buddhist temple. There was a grand procession, and many thousands of Chinese from the mainland came over to witness the celebration. The parade formed in the early morning and went at once to the residence of the Governor to do him honor, after which it marched through the principal streets of the city. It was a curious, interesting, and withal a painful sight, in some regards not unlike industrial parades in our own country. At night we saw something totally unique and difficult to describe to those who have not witnessed the same in China. Men bore aloft great dragons and fishes innumerable, of all sizes and shapes, (but very true to life), given a natural color and lighted up within, like Chinese lanterns. These were held aloft on the ends of long poles, and as the men who carried them were invisible, because of the darkness, and trod noiselessly because of bare, or merely sandaled feet, the impression was of an immense train of these creatures floating or swimming silently through the air.
The procession was made up of men of all sorts and kinds. Great fat men with enormous fans panted along, and little boys ran by their side with stools upon which they gravely seated themselves whenever the line of march was halted for a moment. Little boys progressed painfully along with the rest, walking on their hands, with their feet thrown up into the air, or spinning along on all fours like wheels, or going through various other antics. And, contrary to anything that could have happened away from the open ports of China, there were many women in the parade, and girls too. They were on horseback, in sedan chairs, borne on wheeled platforms, like our “Goddess of Liberty” representations on the Fourth of July; walking, and sometimes riding on bullocks. We counted 150 women in all. These were dressed and painted up in such a style that a single glance showed they belonged to the disreputable class, and their old “pocket-mothers,” were to be seen walking along close to them and keeping a sharp lookout over their gaudily dressed slaves. Yet more painful was the sight of the little girls, bound to heavy wires and placed in all manner of contortions. Here was a girl about sixteen, standing cross-legged on a moving platform, holding a spear in each hand, the spears crossed in front of her breast, and a little girl dangling from each spear-point. So it appeared, but in fact all were well wired into the distressing shape they occupied, and it was said that none of them could have endured the position for a moment but for plentiful doses of opium. Next passed a girl standing on the moving platform, holding a spear at arm’s length, and a three-year-old girl standing on its point. Then a little boy holding a long rod from which was suspended a tiny child. A girl passed sitting on a stool and holding a sword by its point with a child of four suspended from its handle, and next a girl holding a sword by its handle, and the child suspended from its point. One girl sat playing a flute held up high in the air, and a girl of six appeared to be suspended from it. One poor little thing was borne high up in the air, astride a turning-pole, with legs well crossed beneath the pole. And then there came along a little girl swaying about on the end of a long pole carried by men in the procession. We were on the second floor of a great verandah of the hotel, and the child swung so close to us, that we started forward toward her with a cry of pity. Great tears were rolling down her cheeks, and she seemed to look straight into our eyes, and attempted a sickly smile at our expressions of pity.
Later, after the procession of fishes, we sat in company with two Chinese ministers of the Gospel who came to call upon us, and discussed in sadness the scenes of the day. They said, if we had understood the native language and joined in the procession, as they did at times, we would have heard the old “pocket-mothers” and other owners of these girls driving bargains for their sale, temporarily or permanently, with the men of the crowds. These native Christians marvelled that Englishmen and American men who called themselves “Christians” could have joined in these festivities in honor of a heathen temple, and that the Governor should have made a speech of congratulation, with no rebuke of these scenes of inhuman torture of women and child slaves, when the procession paused at his door. These parades continued two or three days, always accompanied by the great paper dragons, whether in the daytime or at night, by the noise of deafening tom-toms, and the sickening sight of tortured slave-girls.
CHAPTER 15.
“PROTECTION” AT SINGAPORE.
“Ladies, I wish to introduce to you Mr. —- He is eager to meet you, and I am sure you will be glad to meet him. You are working along much the same lines. Mr. —- I assure you, is, in fact, interested in every good thing that is done in this City, and in every good thing that comes this way. We all count on his sympathies. I am glad to have the privilege of bringing you together.” With this our friend of many years, the good Doctor, withdrew to speak to another group, and we entered into a short conversation with the white-headed old man to whom we had been introduced. He was profuse in his expressions of sympathy for our purity work, but somehow, we could hardly have defined why, we were not interested in him, and soon turned away. The occasion that gave the opportunity for his introduction, was a missionary conference at Singapore. The man in question had explained to us that he was not of the same denomination as the church that had called together the reception of that evening, but that he seldom failed to attend all such gatherings, no matter of what denomination, because of his interest in every part of the “Father’s Kingdom”.
Although we were very weary, and the air was intensely close, Singapore being only about seventy-five miles from the Equator, we spent most of that night and of several others in company with a Christian friend and interpreter, in the worst parts of the city; and this, with visits to various regions during the day, gave us a pretty clear understanding of the situation as to the matter of enforcement or non-enforcement of the Protective Ordinance.
“On the night of February 1st, 1894, we went to Tringanu street, and ascended to the third story of a large building. The front windows of this upper floor were gaily lighted up by many colored lamps, and could be seen far down the street. There was a small opium den at the foot of the stairway, on the ground floor. On reaching the head of the stairs, and turning, we entered a large front room. There were bedrooms at the back of the house, to be let to patrons of the establishment. At the opposite end of the front room from the windows was the ever-present idolatrous shrine. On either side of the room were elegantly-carved ebony chairs, with marble or agate panels. Rich Chinese pictures decorated the walls. Toward the back of the room hung the sign, ‘283 Licensed Eating House.’ There was a large table in the centre of the room. Toward the front, on either side, in alcoves, partitioned off in part from the remainder of the room, were opium couches, with pipes and lamps ready for use. We give this description in full, as it applies, almost without variation, to all the others which we visited in the immediate neighborhood. Food was furnished on order, intoxicating drinks, and opium. At the second place, on the opposite corner of the same block, the men told us that the place was used for the same purposes. We asked where the women were, and they answered that it was too late to see them, but if we would come earlier we would find them. When asked where the women came from, they pointed down to the street below, to the open brothels, and said there were a great number of degraded women who lived close by; said the brothel-keepers sent them. They said that white men as well as Chinese came to their place. After this we walked the length of the several streets and side-streets, in the near vicinity, and proved the truth of what the men had told us as to the swarming numbers of degraded girls and women.
“The next night we went to the same neighborhood, and revisited the two places already mentioned, and others also. As we reached the top of the stairway and passed into the front room of the place where they had invited us to return, there was quite a flutter of excitement, and we instantly saw that there was a number of girls present, all very young, and several mere children. On our left a fat, middle-aged Chinese man sat, with two or three little girls, one in his lap and one on either side of him, in his arms; two more were throwing something that resembled dice on a table within the front alcove, and the rest were sitting on the opium couches. There were ten girls in all; the two youngest could not possibly have been more than eight years old; only one, out of the ten, claimed to be over sixteen; we all doubted her claim, because of her extreme immaturity of appearance. The two youngest children were immediately sent away by order of the fat man, who was evidently in authority. The men explained that these girls belonged to different women who were not their own mothers; that they came to sing and dance, and pour wine for the patrons who came to the place. They also explained that all these girls were brought from the brothels, and were either already living a bad life or were being trained up for prostitution. They were powdered heavily, had flowers and ornaments in their hair, the upper part of the forehead made bare, and the hair dressed elaborately, like married women (even the very youngest children); of course they were not married, for they were declared to be the property of the brothel-keepers, and this manner of dress must, therefore, have been an advertisement of their shame.
“A curious musical instrument was brought–somewhat like a dulcimer–on which two of the girls played in succession, singing in a high, monotonous way.
“From here we went to the first place visited the night previous, on the opposite corner of the same block. There was quite an excitement here when we came in. Two men and two girls were playing on native instruments–one of the men on a sort of fiddle, and the other on a rude guitar; the girls, one striking, in sharp staccato fashion, a wooden perforated bowl inverted on a standard or post, and the other a kind of cymbal; they were singing in the same shrill, monotonous way we had heard before. We counted eight girls here. There was a piece of unpainted tin or zinc, about eight by twelve inches, set upon the table toward one end, with a list of fifty names on it, and a Chinese man, who talked fair English, explained it thus: ‘These are the names of singing and dancing girls who come here; a man looks over the list and calls for a girl to sing or dance; then he chooses his girl.’
“We then went to a third place on the same side of the street. Here there was a wild confusion as we reached the top of the second flight of stairs and entered the front room, and several young girls were hustled out through the other door and into the little back rooms, and the list of girls’ names was hurried out of sight. The Chinese men were evidently much frightened. A bold little girl, very smartly dressed, was put forward, who answered our questions in a loud, brazen manner. One of our party asking her if she could sing, she thought the statement was made that she was not ‘sixteen’ (the age under which girls are supposed to be ‘protected’ from going into prostitution by British rule), and shouted, ‘I am _seventeen_.’ We stayed only a few minutes, but were informed that they provided opium and intoxicating liquors here.”
We told our hostess one day that we desired jinrikshas that we might be conveyed to the Protectorate to interview the Chief Inspector, having heard that he desired an interview. As we were leaving the house she detained us a moment to say, timidly: “Ladies, do pardon me, but I feel I must caution you that that man has a very violent temper, and it will not do in case you see anything, to criticise,–no matter what you think. I don’t wish to seem to intrude, but I know the man’s reputation as to temper, and I cannot bear to think of his having a chance to treat you rudely.” We thanked her heartily, and promised to be doubly careful.
We knew the place. A very imposing Government building standing apart by itself, upon which much money had been expended to give it a fine appearance. We were soon ushered into the presence of the man who held the same relation to the work at Singapore that John Lee holds, or at least held the last we knew, at Hong Kong. Will you believe us, when we tell you that to our amazement it was that same white-haired old man to whom we had been introduced at the church gathering as such an active Christian, “working along much the same lines as ourselves, and at the head and front of every good work in the Colony?” To be sure we had heard the name of this Inspector, but we had never in our remotest conception connected it with the man the Doctor had introduced to us. Concealing our surprise we sat down for a few moment’s interview. The man knew his lesson “like a book.” We could have prompted him, had he made a mistake in reciting it, from the State documents which we had with us,–the same from which we have compiled the chapters of this little book. “The work of the Protectorate is really rescue work, _and that only_.” He had lived in Singapore nearly thirty years. He said he had disapproved of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance, when it was in existence, but a good thing had grown out of it in the matter of provisions for the “protection”, of women. We asked, in reference to his remark that the Protectorate was a Rescue Society, if it did not look after men, too. He replied, “Oh yes, the coolies; all are brought here, but the men go to the other side of the building; the women come here.” We asked if all the women came before him; he said, “Before the Protector; but in his absence before me.” We pondered on the thought of this “rescue work” carried on by this particular Protector of whom we had heard that he had been almost unspeakably vile from boyhood up. He showed us a book which contained a list of all deck-passengers coming to Singapore, who had been passed under review at the Protectorate; they were listed by families. He then showed us a separate list of women and girls who came alone, without families. He had underscored with red ink the names of those in the list who had gone into brothels. He said that suspicious cases either went to the Protectorate Refuge, or those under whose charge they went to live were obliged to give bonds or securities, 500 Mexican dollars was the usual amount of the security in the cases recorded. He also showed us the form of these bonds, both blank forms and some that had been made out; these bonds required that the girls named therein should not be removed from Singapore, and that the girls should be produced from time to time at the Protectorate, upon demand of the Protector, and within twenty-four hours. The bond was good for a specified time named thereon. Then he showed us a book containing “_Warrants of Removal and Detention to the Chinese Refuge_” for girls under sixteen years of age. He also showed us little tickets (we had already seen them in a brothel) and said these contained the number and address of the girls, and if one of these tickets was sent back by a girl to the Protectorate, by any hand or in any manner, the Protectorate would immediately send for the girl and listen to her complaint. He showed us a book of cases, and read us the story of one girl in particular, Ah Moi, and congratulated himself on the Protectorate being at hand to rescue this girl. We will give this case in full further on. He repeated his assertion that he abominated the C.D. Ordinance, and said that there were now no compulsory examinations, and no Lock Hospital, and that the Government had nothing to do with examinations in any form. But we replied that we had already visited the Lock Hospital, and that there were about fifteen patients there, and asked him how they came to be there. He said anyone could go there; that it was a general hospital for women, and that all diseases would be treated there; that the patients could go away at any time they wished; the Colonial Surgeon was in charge of it. But we asked him how it happened that the degraded women knew enough to go there in such numbers; he said they might be ill, and any doctor in a private capacity would send them. He had sent them, and would like to send a good many more, when they were very ill. He told us of going over the records, for years back, and of finding that the average of time spent in the brothel by these girls was three years and a half, while, if they stayed in Canton, they would be life-long prostitutes. He made much of this point, and argued that it was better for them to come to Singapore in order to be set free by the Protectorate, but acknowledged that many of them became concubines (in “following a man,” as the Chinese express it). He spoke of domestic slavery in Singapore, but declared it was slavery of a very mild sort. We asked who came with the Chinese girls when they came to the Protectorate. He answered, “Oh, a friend–the woman or ‘mother’ who owns them.” We asked if nothing could be done against these traffickers in girls; he said they could not often get sufficient proof against them. We saw in one of the records something about “women traffickers,” and pressed him to know why these could not be caught and banished by means of paid detectives watching the incoming boats. He replied that it was very hard to get evidence; the girls’ own statements were not enough; the Protectorate needed more power. When asked what powers were further necessary, he suggested the power to punish the traffickers of girls by simply the statement of the girls who were brought to Singapore through fraud, or who were kidnaped. He then spoke of a drug which was used by the women traffickers to destroy the girls’ wits; he believed in its existence and its use. He said of these cases of fraud and kidnaping, “We can usually do nothing.” We asked if a woman was found bringing girls over and over again whether she could not be prosecuted: he answered that she might be. We then asked if the Protectorate had ever prosecuted: he replied, “Oh yes, a few times.” But he grew uneasy under these questions; said no one could know or appreciate the present situation who did not know the conditions of the things in the past, but now he thought they had the best arrangement possible for protecting the women and girls, and exclaimed, “But if this ordinance were abolished I do not know what would become of them.” He confessed at the close of our talk that he would like to speak freely to us about certain things connected with the work which could not be mentioned publicly, and said there were “perplexities–great perplexities.” Yet at the beginning of the conversation, when speaking of the criticism passed upon the Protectorate’s work, he had said, “Why do they not come here for information instead of going about criticising? our books are all open to public inspection.” But we had noticed that throughout the interview he kept the books in his own hands, and only allowed us to see what he himself turned up for our inspection.
Now as to some of this official’s statements–we deal with them, not with the object of criticising his _personal_ opinions and views and statements, but as an _official_ representation to us of a Government institution.
To begin with, he had told us two absolute falsehoods, at least. One was that there was no Lock Hospital at Singapore, whereas we had visited this Government institution and by careful inspection found it was used for _the one purpose only_, having no equipment for any other uses, and there were fifteen prostitutes there. When confronted with this knowledge, which, remembering our hostess’ caution as to his temper, we expressed as gently as possible, he then declared it was a general hospital, which it was not. He declared there were no compulsory examinations, and that the Government had nothing to do with examinations in any form. We thought it wisest not to give him the information that we held at that time, and hold to the present day,–dozens of papers of committment to the Lock Hospital for compulsory examinations both in his own handwriting and in that of the Protector. And some of these cases, as the records we have copied show, were those of perfectly innocent girls, acknowledged to be virgins, until assaulted by these abominable medical officials and robbed of the fresh bloom of maidenly chastity.
The official spoke of the work of the Protectorate as “Rescue work, and that only,” in so far as it dealt with women. But it must be borne in mind that the “Protector” of women and girls was likewise the Registrar of brothels; and that the rules and regulations under the Women and Girls’ Protection Ordinance provided, in both Singapore and Hong Kong, for every detail in the management of brothels, even to the granting of a permit to keep a brothel, and the description of the “duties” of brothel-keepers. Surely this part of the Protector’s work cannot be called “Rescue work,” as we are accustomed to use the phrase.
According to the Annual Report of the Protectorate for 1893, 1,183 women and girls entered brothels with the sanction of the Protector; and quite apart from any discussion of whether this sanction should have been given or not, it is quite apparent that this also was not “Rescue work.”
During the same year 1,034 women and girls left the brothels of Singapore, and it is apparent that we must look among these mainly for rescued cases. Of this 1,034 the following account is given:
Absconded 63
Died 21
Gone to “Private Houses” 346
Married 69
To be accounted for 451
We have an explanation in the Protector’s own words of what is meant by a girl who has “absconded.” “It is common now, when an owner notices one of her girls contracting a continued intimacy with a male visitor (and therefore to be suspected of an intention to apply to our office for release), for the owner to sell the girl away to another country. When this has been accomplished, the brothel keeper reports the prostitute has absconded, and, if we cannot prove the contrary, we are obliged to accept the story and strike the name off our books.” What would we think in America of a “Rescue work, and that only,” with all the advantages of Government backing; under constant surveillance; every girl registered; that permitted 63 girls in a year to be defeated in their desire to marry by being sold as slaves into foreign parts; that allowed 346 of the girls to “go to private houses,” as domestic slaves or concubines; that did not account at all for 451 girls; and saw only 69 married; and all this out of 1,034 cases it had absolutely within its control?
The Inspector spoke of the _personal tickets_ given into the hands of each girl, which if sent to the Protectorate at any time, would secure a hearing for her before the Protectorate. It is also declared that notice is posted up in every brothel in a conspicuous place, that no girl can be detained against her will. We visited a place on Fraser Street the night of February 2nd; quoting from our journal:
“There was a middle-aged woman in charge, with a baby beside her on the couch where she was sitting. There were six girls present, the oldest barely sixteen years old in appearance, and one between fourteen and fifteen–a thin, immature little creature. We asked about this young girl, and one of our interpreters overheard the keeper instruct her to say she had been in the house two years. Then we asked the girl her name, and the keeper told her to tell us a different name from the one she first gave us. We saw hanging on the wall, a black bag, which we were allowed to take down and examine. It contained a board eight by ten inches square, on which was pasted a paper bearing a list of the inmates. The list was headed by the keeper’s name, Moo Lee, in writing. Then was printed across the top in Chinese characters a statement that inmates could not be confined against their will. (The question was whether, in our absence, the girls would be allowed to take this bag down, open it, and read the sentence of liberty inside.) We showed this to the girls, and asked them if they could read the Chinese written thereon, and they all, even to the brothel-keeper, said they could not. We then asked them what was the _meaning_ of the words, and none of them could tell. One girl said, ‘We cannot read them, but the great man at the Protectorate can read them.’ We asked them if they had tickets, and they showed us little square pieces of paper exactly similar to one which we hold in our possession. The tickets were all so blurred that the educated Chinese gentleman who accompanied us tried in vain to make out its full meaning. It is by means of these things, put in the hands of Chinese women who are utterly unable to read a word of Chinese, that their liberty is professedly given them.”
Now as to the case of Ah Moi, of whom the Inspector spoke as illustrating the beneficent work of the Protectorate. He had little idea how much we knew of the case or he would never have brought it up. There is at Singapore a Refuge for girls, managed by the Chinese Society, the Po Leung Kuk, organized originally at Hong Kong and Singapore to put down kidnaping. The Inspector one day, January 4th, 1894, sent a girl of fifteen over to the Refuge with a note to the Matron, and on the following morning, ordered her sent to the Lock Hospital for examination. We saw the recorded result of that examination in the handwriting of the doctor at the hospital, and it was to the effect that the girl was suffering from disease due to vice. After that the Matron got a note from the Inspector saying: “Ah Moi can be written off your books, as she has been sent to hospital, and after she leaves hospital she intends going to a house of ill-fame.”
Now the rules forbade all religious instruction, or any sort of instruction in this Refuge, since the Chinese men who contributed to its support were opposed to women being taught anything. But the Matron had threatened to leave if she could not teach and train the girls. So she was allowed, out of her own slender salary, to hire a teacher on her own account, and this she did. The good Christian man whom she had hired came and told her he had learned that Ah Moi was a good girl, and was from a Mission School in Canton, and finally he brought the girl’s own mother, who testified that this was true. We have not space to go into this story in detail, but we later visited the school at Canton from which the girl had been brought, talked with the teachers who had had her under their care for years, and it was literally true,–that she was a perfectly pure girl (and how could she have been suffering from such a disease?), who had been entrapped for such a dreadful fate. She would have been put into a life of shame by the Inspector, never to have escaped her terrible servitude, probably, but for the energetic efforts of this Chinese Christian man and the Refuge Matron, who rescued her from the Protectorate and its wicked business of assigning girls to brothels. And here sat the Inspector, telling us this story, of which we knew so much, (and learned more at Canton later), as an instance of the “rescue work” of his office!
Almost the last day of our painful work at Singapore had come. We had gathered much evidence, and had good hope that something could be done with it in London. “This is my birth-day,” one of us said to the other, as we spun along in our jinrikshas toward the Refuge. “I think we ought to have some unusual good fortune in gathering information today. At least we can get some of these little children taken out of their terrible peril in the brothels. The Matron of the Refuge says she _knows_ the officials are ignorant of their presence there. They have so often talked of their extreme care at that point. Will it not be good to see something actually done and at once about that matter? She was to interview the Inspector yesterday, and will report to us today.” And so we chatted on, We had been horrified to encounter in a single night’s work some thirty little girls playing about the rooms of brothels. That at least would never be allowed. We were so glad the law was so very strict, and we had been assured strictly enforced at that point. It read: “Any person who receives a girl under the age of sixteen into a brothel, or harbors any such girl in a brothel, shall (until the contrary be proved) be deemed to have obtained possession of such girl with the intent or knowledge in clause one of sub-section one mentioned.” This clause reads: “with the intent that such girl shall be used for the purpose of prostitution,” and the penalty, “liability to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year, or to a fine not exceeding $500, or to both.” If that law failed because of what would pass as proof to the contrary, at any rate there was the further provision that the children could be removed to places of safety, at least to the Refuge. “A girl found living in or frequenting a brothel shall be deemed to be a girl who is being trained for immoral purposes.” And “The Protector, if on due inquiry he is satisfied that any girl is being … trained for such purposes, and that such girl is under the age of sixteen years, may … order such girl to be removed to a place of safety,” etc., etc. The way seemed perfectly clear under such laws, to secure the safety of the children.
At the door of the Refuge we were glad to escape from our jinrikshas into the cool shade of the house. The Matron seemed much troubled, and spoke of things that she had not understood previously, but now that she had learned many things from our investigations and from her own questioning of the girls, they had taken on a painful meaning to her.
Our hearts grew heavier and heavier as we talked together. The Matron, said: “Why, I thought when I came here it was to do a regular Christian work for these girls. That was my purpose, but the more I inquire into the matter, and study over the things I am expected to do and ask no questions, such as sending girls over to the Lock Hospital at the Chief Inspector’s request, the more I feel that I am being worked for purposes of which I cannot approve. I cannot stay here.”
At last we got to ask her about her talk with the Inspector. “What did he say when you told him what we discovered the other night–that little girls go freely to the Licensed Eating Houses, and live in the brothels?” “Is it really true that the authorities have been deceived, and did not know of this flagrant violation of the Ordinance to protect women and girls?”
The Matron’s face was sadly troubled. She gazed at us a moment quietly, and then said:
“He told me, Why, of course he knew about those children. There were scores of them.”
“But will he do nothing about the matter?” we exclaimed.
She replied: “He said: ‘What can I do? I caught a whole handful of them once and sent them to the Lock Hospital, and had them all examined. The doctor pronounced them all virgins, so I could do nothing as yet, and I let them all go back.'”
We uttered exclamations of horror.
“A handful!”–did he think no more of them than of so many minnows!
And they had gone through the horrible ordeal at the Lock Hospital!
And he must leave them in the brothels yet for awhile,–until when?–until, Oh pitiful God!–until they were all “deflowered according to bargain.” And then he might consider the advisability of doing something.
The head reeled. We felt stilled. We must get out in the fresh morning breeze. Something broke somewhere about the heart. We went out and got into our jinrikshas, and went away home as in midnight darkness, calling upon the name of our God all the way. Life on this hell-scorched earth has never held the same happy delusions for us since, but there is a city out of sight “whose Builder and Maker is God.” That we will seek.
CHAPTER 16.
SLAVERY IN THE UNITED STATES.
During the incumbency of a certain Mayor of San Francisco a surprising condition of things was brought into existence. There was a large tract of land in the heart of Chinatown owned by an American family, relatives, it is declared, of said Mayor, the passages entering which were deliberately blocked by gates, so as to stop all entrance excepting to patrons of the place. This section lay between Dupont and Stockton, Jackson and Pacific streets, and included within its enclosure Baker and New World alleys, connecting Dupont street with Sullivan Place, which divided this tract in two. Gates were erected at the entrance of the two alleys on Dupont street, and two gates blocked the entrance to Sullivan Place, at the end opening upon Pacific street. Within this region, both above and below ground, were housed numbers of Chinese slave girls, particularly in Baker alley, where, it is said, were placed the young girls of tender years, generally about fifteen years old, when first brought over the water, or when first initiated into brothel slavery, having served their apprenticeship as domestic slaves. We are informed that fully seven-tenths of the domestic slave girls found in Chinese homes in America–and every well-to-do Chinese family (except Christians) keeps at least one or two slaves–end their lives in immorality. Some of them when they become old enough are seized by their masters as concubines, others are sent to the brothels. Reports of conditions at Hong Kong which we have already quoted, speak of the special celebration of the entrance of a virgin into prostitution, and the high prices paid by patrons for this initiation, but leave it obscure as to the nationality of the men who initiate girls into the life of a brothel slave. But Chinese in San Francisco do not hesitate to make the charge that Chinamen recoil, through moral sense or superstition, from deflowering a virgin, and that this horrible privilege is purchased at a special price by the white, not the yellow patrons of Chinese houses of ill-fame. Baker alley has probably been the scene of more terrible brutality of this sort than any other part of San Francisco. Before the rubbish was cleared away, in the oasis of a broad desert of ashes in the burned city, we visited this region, and found carpenters busy at the work of reconstructing brothels. The slave pen was existent again, and we entered the gateway leading to it and gazed upon the rapidly growing structures within. Two white men of a class called “Watch-dogs,” in the days before the fire, occupied a sort of look-out and kept guard, more especially upon the entrance to Baker alley. This region, so largely of American manufacture, like other sections of San Francisco’s Chinatown, was displayed, by means of Chinatown guides for pay to tourists, who were led to believe that they were looking upon _Chinese_ views of life. The truth is, as we have shown in previous chapters, a display of vice is practically unknown in regions of China uninfluenced by Western civilization. Almost any wicked man, any tourist who would pay well, man or woman, could enter this place. The “Watch-dogs” were kept merely to prevent the entrance of mission workers to rescue slaves, and these “Watch-dogs” were, and always are, American, or, at least European men, not Chinese.
There were more “Watch-dogs” than those about Sullivan Place, before the earthquake in San Francisco,–they were to be found in many parts, always for the one purpose,–to resist interference with the enforcement of brothel slavery upon Chinese women. American men undertook this part of the business, because a certain timidity in the Chinese character when dealing with American women, and a fear of arousing race-prejudice, unfitted the Chinaman for coping with the American women,–Miss Culbertson, the pioneer, now sainted, Miss Lake, Miss Cameron and Miss Davis, who have fought their brave battles for many years, to deliver the captives from the hand of the spoilers, often at the risk of life, unaided for the most part, unappreciated and unsympathized with, by a guiltily ignorant Christian public, and too often persecuted by corrupt officials. Yet they have never stood alone, but have always had the presence of their Master, and the sympathetic co-operation of a few ardent supporters,–Christian women, lawyers, magistrates, and other officials.
One of the “Watch-dogs” struck Miss Lake on one occasion. On another, a “Watch-dog” went boldly up to two policemen to whom a fugitive slave had appealed for help, seized his prey, and without resistance from the policemen, carried her bodily back to slavery along the public street, in view of many spectators. At another time several of them rushed in upon a scene of rescue, overcame the police officer, and hurled him down stairs, dealt in the same manner with some men in the rescue party, and then turned upon the missionary and would have subjected her to the same treatment. She said firmly: “Do not lay a hand upon me! I will go out by myself,” and overawed, they allowed her to walk out untouched through their midst into fresh air and to safety. It is hardly necessary to add that the missionary did not, on this occasion, get the poor slave.
We have already said, but it bears repeating, that white men as well as Chinese, resort to these slaves. One rescued girl told of another captive, bound by night to her bed and to her unwilling task. Think of the education of the youths of San Francisco in such schools of vice as this,–what a menace they must necessarily become to the women of their own family and acquaintance! A young woman managed to get a request for help sent to a rescue worker. The missionary responded by a carefully arranged plot for the identification of the girl. It included the understanding that when the rescuer with the officer should enter the place, she was to have in her hands, and to raise to her lips a handkerchief which the missionary had managed to get conveyed to her. They entered, saw her with the handkerchief held to her face, at the little soliciting window, but the poor girl had endured so much that at the sight of friends she lost her nerve and presence of mind, fluttered her handkerchief, and cried out, “Oh, teacher!” Alas! a locked door still separated her from her rescuers, and the plot was exposed. She was dragged back, and became lost to the rescue party. Other girls who escaped from the den afterwards told of the rest of the scene. Kick upon kick fell upon her poor little body, and the enraged owner of the brothel never ceased until she was dead and mashed almost to a jelly before the eyes of the other inmates, to teach them a lesson of warning against trying to escape. Let us not mourn. It was better so than to have been left alive unrescued. The pity is that the keepers and the “Watch-dogs” hold them alive to their task as long as they do. The angels of heaven, God’s rescue party, are not far off from such victims, nor His angels of wrath and vengeance from such inhuman fiends. We wonder how many of the little slaves were lifted up into a better life than this by the merciful earthquake; and how many of their masters and outragers saw hell gape and themselves swallowed up in the horrible earthquake,–God’s deliverance or God’s judgment,–according to the character of the individual.
When the missionary enters a den, and by means of some carefully devised scheme identifies the girl who has had conveyed to the missionary her desire to be rescued, and attempts to take the girl, she often screams for help, kicks, fights, bites, scratches, spits, and sometimes swears at her liberator, but often is secretly clutching with almost a death-grip the rescuer’s hand. She will sometimes fight at being thrust through the doorway into the street, calling lustily for help, but whisper to the missionary, “Tell the officer to carry me out.” When once, in spite of the feigned struggle, she is carried outside, and her pursuers are well behind in the chase, the ruse is cast aside, and it becomes a race for dear life between the rescuer and the rescued to make the city of refuge,–the mission home,–and generally the fugitive gets there first. Once a rescue worker found her girl secreted with four others in a loft, to which she had been removed because the brothel-keeper feared an attempt at rescue. She was so carefully guarded and watched that the poor thing dared not signify to the missionary that she was the one who wished to be taken, and all five struggled with equal apparent fierceness against rescue. What was the missionary to do! She lifted her heart in the despairing cry, “Oh, God, if ever you heard a human prayer and answered it, for Christ’s sake hear me now! Tell me which one to take!” She instantly seized one of them, who fought savagely, and bit and scratched and swore. Out she went with her, and all the way to the mission the girl abused her terribly. But the instant the door closed behind them and they were safe inside the home, she fell to the floor, seized her deliverer’s feet and bathed them with her tears, crying bitterly as she said: “Oh, forgive me, forgive me! You know I did not mean it, but it was the only way to do to be safe.” God had guided aright. No mistake had been made in the choice. Do you believe God did that, reader? Try such heroic work for yourself, and you will find a miracle-working God who seldom reveals His identity to the self-indulgent. That rescued girl has turned out to be a wonder of grace and of natural gifts, and is pursuing a professional career now, after fine opportunities in training. It is worth while to save such material, even from a slave-pen; such as she enrich the community in which they live.
This slave-trade could not go on between Hong Kong and the United States but for the white men who are in it, one way or another. White lawyers defend the traffickers in court, and secure the return of slaves by writ of habeas corpus, or by means of false accusations of various sorts, such as of stealing. It is significant that, with rare exceptions, the policemen seem not to have been trusted with definite information as to the place about to be searched or raided, when told off to accompany a rescue party, lest word be sent ahead, allowing a chance to spirit away the girl for whom search is instituted. American men are said to go all the way to Hong Kong to get girls and smuggle them into the country, as better able to cope with the strict immigration laws than Chinese. Sometimes they go a long way around to get a girl into San Francisco,–by Victoria, B.C., through Mexico and El Paso (Texas), and by other routes. But the price paid for the slaves assures a good profit to the traders. Since the laws against Chinese immigration became more stringent, the market price of these slaves has risen to three thousand dollars, while the more beautiful ones bring a much higher price. Judges, lawyers, seafaring men, hirelings of the Immigration Bureau, Chinatown guides, “Watch-dogs,” officials and policemen, have all been accused of having imbrued their hands at different times in the slaughter of the virtue of Chinese women through this wretched slave business, besides the white patrons of the Chinese slave-pens. But probably none are so guilty of complicity as the property-owners, who build the places for housing the slaves, and make enormous profits in the business.
There seems to be a misapprehension as to the status of these Chinese prostitutes, to which the mind recurs again and again, in spite of careful explanations. Some imagine that only those who are rescued, or at least those who have managed to convey word to the missionaries that they desire to be rescued, are the literal slaves, and that those left behind are free. Such is not the case. We have already shown that nearly all the Chinese prostitutes at Singapore and at Hong Kong are literal slaves, the only exception being, in fact, a small percentage (estimated at 10 per cent by the Chinese merchants at Hong Kong), composed almost entirely of women who have mortgaged their own bodies, or who have been thus mortgaged by relatives, for a limited time in payment for a debt, and who, at the end of the stated time, are generally set free, though sometimes they find themselves in a trap from which there is no escape. It is through the misfortune of debt, and in countries where Chinese women are cheap, that this mortgaging of the person takes place. Such conditions do not surround Chinese women in America, so that this form of service in houses of ill-fame must be correspondingly rare, and this is according to the testimony of the missionaries. For this reason, therefore, we may rule out the temporary servitude, and assert without fear of contradiction from those who understand the situation, that practically all the Chinese prostitutes in the United States are literal slaves. Some are _willing_ slaves, some _unwilling_; and a small fraction of the unwilling slaves have managed by stroke of good fortune, and because of unusual courage, to get a request conveyed to a mission, and thus in some instances they have secured their freedom. But not all who have appealed for help have been rescued, for they cannot always be found upon search, and often, when they have been found and their cases brought up in court, they have been again consigned to the care of their former owners because courage has failed, and they have refused in open court to acknowledge that they wished to go free. One girl who desired to escape fell under suspicion, and her master decided to remove her to Watsonville, and so defeat her rescue. At the San Francisco Ferry Station she made a dash for liberty, pursued by the two men who had her in charge, and ran to a policeman, handing him a crumpled piece of paper, which proved to be a note that a missionary had placed in her hand when she landed in America. The officer could not read the note, in its old and crumpled condition, but divining its nature he hailed a cab and drove with the girl straight to the mission door, where she was welcomed.
There were at least five hundred Chinese brothel slaves in San Francisco before its destruction, and none in Oakland up to that time. Since the calamity, there have been many in Oakland. They have been estimated at as high a figure as 300, and must have numbered until quite recently at least 150. The frontispiece represents a structure erected for their housing. This building is three stories high, and occupies every foot of one-half square. It contains more than 600 rooms, and is built throughout of rough boards, one inch thick, on flimsy beams and studding. It is unlathed and unplastered, a veritable fire-trap, within four blocks of the County Court House. It could never have passed inspection had it been erected for _decent_ purposes. When the photograph was taken the building was not completed. A row of shops has been added at the left, over which is a large Chinese theatre. A respectable Chinese man of literary pursuits informed us that the theatre was “to attract custom there.” A very broad stairway, scarcely less imposing than the front entrance to the theatre, leads down into the alley, and to the brothel. The seats for women in the theatre are reached by a special door leading to this alley. The heart of this building is approached through “Washington Place,” an alley, at the entrance of which one encounters a sign, “No White Men Admitted Here, Only Chinese.” This notice, which has been put up at the entrance of Oriental brothels in Chinatown, has been ordered by the Chief of Police, it is claimed, to prohibit Americans associating with Orientals in vice, so as to prevent demoralization and race quarrels. We do not dispute the motive, but the _effect_ is, that those who would work for the rescue of slaves are kept at a distance, and no one who is likely to make a complaint against abuses and law-breaking can approach the place without permission from the police, which gives ample opportunity for getting everything objectionable out of sight. As far as prevention of the commingling of the different races is concerned, that may be hindered at certain points, but American men are on the inside track here, as to making money through these slaves. The building has been erected and is owned by Americans, and one man of European name is a partner in the immediate management of the place. On our first visit to this building we were informed on reliable information that there were 125 Japanese and over 50 Chinese girls in the place, and 100 more were expected to arrive within a few days. Besides these, there are also Chinese slaves in almost every Chinese settlement throughout the United States. In California, they are to be found largely at San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Stockton, Fresno, Bakersfield, San Jose, Watsonville, Monterey and Los Angeles. Willing or unwilling, the Chinese prostitute is none the less a slave, bought and sold at pleasure from one to another, earning wealth for others and never for herself. Recently, three girls who were taken from a den in San Francisco, declared that they had been sold for three thousand dollars apiece to the keeper, and that they were flogged when their earnings for the keeper fell below three hundred dollars each a month. If the prostitute were not willing to be a slave, that would not procure her liberty,–it would only procure her more abuse than the willing slave. On the ship coming over, the slaves are well drilled in their task on arrival, of swearing themselves into slavery, and well threatened if they dare to disobey. Then they are packed with stories as to the terrible character of Americans, particularly the rescue workers. One Chinese girl concluded she would take all the abuse of the rescue home rather than forego a chance for liberty, though she knew of no reason to disbelieve the fearful warnings she had received. On the first night of her arrival she did not undress nor go to bed when the other girls retired. Someone found her standing about, and asked her why she was not off for bed. She replied pathetically: “I am waiting for my beating.” She had been informed that it was in that fashion all the girls were put to bed each night. At a very conservative estimate, there are not less than one thousand Chinese brothel slaves in California alone, besides those in the Chinese settlements all over the United States. When children are born to Chinese prostitutes, they are seized by the brothel keepers as their own property, the girls being sold into domestic slavery to be passed on into brothel slavery at the age of about 15, and the boy babies sold for a good price–several hundred dollars–to become “adopted” sons. Very many Chinese men of the United States secure their wives by purchase from brothels, and as a consequence often have no children by them, hence the high value of a child who can be purchased for a son. The real wife and family of the Chinese man generally remain in China, the matrimonial relations of the man in America being wholly spurious. This admixture of the brothel element with all Chinese home life in the United States makes this country very undesirable as a residence for virtuous Chinese women, and largely discourages the immigration of respectable Chinese wives, whose presence with their husbands might greatly tend to the uplifting of the entire Chinese community.
There are probably as many domestic slaves as brothel slaves among the Chinese of the United States. Every well-to-do heathen Chinese family keeps a slave or two, and the rich Chinese keep a large number. Polygamy is practiced, as at Hong Kong, to a larger extent than prevails generally in China, and it is not uncommon to find a Chinese in California with from five to seven concubines. The Chinese man in the United States takes his domestic slave, if he wishes, for a concubine, or sells his concubines into brothel slavery, if displeased with them, or wishing to raise a sum of money. It is a burning disgrace to the United States that this polygamy is not stamped out. In one case related to us, a girl was taken from a rescue home by a writ of habeas corpus, and returned by the judge to her position as second wife of a Chinaman.
During President Hayes’ administration, Mr. D.H. Bailey, United States Consul-General at Shanghai, sent a message to him relating to Chinese slavery, and the menace to our country from it. He enclosed in his