Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers by Katharine Caroline Bushnell;Elizabeth Wheeler Andrew
page 68 of 238 (28%)
page 68 of 238 (28%)
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[Footnote A: Inspector Lee testified on this occasion that he
sometimes had chased women over the roofs of as many as twenty contiguous houses.] On Nov. 1st, 1877, Governor Hennessy wrote to the Colonial Office, London: "I have taken the responsibility of putting a stop to a practice which has existed in this Colony since September, 1868, when Sir Richard MacDonnell sanctioned the appropriation of Government money for the pay of informers who might induce Chinese women to prostitute themselves, and thus bring them under the penal clauses of the Contagious Diseases Ordinance. For many years past this branch of the Registrar General's office has led to grave abuses. It has been a fruitful source of extortion, but what is far worse, a department of the State, as one of the local papers now points out, which is supposed to be constituted for the protection of the Chinese, has been employing a dangerously loose system, whereby the sanctity of native households may be seriously compromised. I had no idea that the Secret Service Fund was used for this loathsome purpose until my attention was drawn to an inquest on the bodies of two Chinese women who were killed by falling from a house in which one of the informers employed by the Registrar General was pursuing his avocations.... I am taking steps to institute a searching inquiry into the whole subject. The European community are ashamed at the revelations that have been made at the inquest, and amongst the Chinese the practice that has been brought to light is, viewed with abhorrence." This was the incident which led to the appointment of the Commission |
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