Every word uttered on this occasion by Sir John Smale, Chief Justice,
has value, but it is impossible for us to quote it all. Referring to
the purchase of kidnaped children from the kidnapers by well-to-do
Chinese residents of Hong Kong, without effort on the part of these
purchasers to ascertain from whence the children came, he says:

"In each of these cases I requested the prosecution of these
well-to-do persons, purchasers of these human chattels, who had
bought these children, whose money had occasioned the kidnaping,
just as a receiver of stolen goods buys stolen property without
due or any inquiry to verify the patent lies of the vendors. I
have reason to believe that H.E. the Governor was desirous that my
request should, if proper, be complied with; but on reference to
former cases it appeared that a former Attorney-General had found
that the system had been almost if not altogether unchecked for
many years past, and that in particular, when His Excellency had
desired to enforce the rights of a father to recover his child, he
was not disposed to enforce that right because the father had sold
that child."

He relates the details of yet another case concerning which he says:
"I took the responsibility to direct the Acting Attorney General to
prosecute this man and his wife." But the Attorney General, it seems,
did not.

"Is it possible that such a being as man can, according to law ...
become a slave even by his own consent?" asks the Chief Justice.
"I say it is impossible in law, as Sir R. Phillimore, 1 Phill.,
International Law, vol. 1, p. 316, has said in a passage I read with
the most respectful concurrence, but too long for full quotation." "It