"I regret to inform you that ... I do not see my way to directing
the prosecutions of the two persons indicated by you; first ...
because I do not agree with you in looking upon them as the
principal criminals; and, secondly, because I think that after
the evidence of these persons has been taken both before the
committing magistrate and the Supreme Court without any warning
having been given them that their evidence might be used against
them, it would appear like a breach of faith to treat them now as
criminals." "Should the prosecution of these persons result in
their acquittal, which seems to me not improbable, I fear that the
good effect produced by the severe reprimand, which I understand
that your Honor administered publicly to all the parties concerned
in these two cases, might be to a great extent neutralized." (!)

On September 29th, 1879, the Chief Justice sentenced more criminals
for trafficking in children. A Japanese girl, Sui Ahing, eleven years
old, was brought to the Colony by a Chinaman who had bought the child
in Japan of its parents. Needing money to go on to his native place,
this Chinaman borrowed $50 of a native resident at Hong Kong, and
left the child as security for the debt. The wife of the man in whose
custody the child was left beat the child severely and she ran out of
the house. She was found wandering on the street late at night,
and the finder took her and sold her to another Chinese party, who
threatened to send her to Singapore as a prostitute. It was plain the
last purchaser intended either to send her to Singapore or keep her at
Hong Kong for vile purposes. This case illustrates well the frequency
with which children are sold and re-sold in that country. The parties
to the last transaction, the finder of the child and the purchaser of
the child from the finder, were both found guilty, one of selling,