- SLAVERY IN HONG KONG.
[To EDITOR Or 'THZ " SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—May I draw attention to the extraordinary -nature of a reply made by Mr. Winston 'Churchill in -the House of Commonseto Lord Henry Bentinck upon the question of Hong Kong slavery?—surely a-procedure seldom -adopted by a Cabinet Minister. Lord Henry Bentinck asked whether -the Governor and Chief Justice of Hong Kong in 1880-82 stigmatized the Mui Tsai system as slavery. Mr. 'Churchill replied that Sir John Smale, the Justice, -had, in fact, held -the opinion that the Mui Tsai system constituted a form of slavery, but that "the Governor, however, considered that such a term could hardly be applied in fairness to mid teal' in Hong Kong. . . ." I append the sentence from 'Sir John Pope Hemxessy's despatch, from which you will see that Mr. Winston Churchill only quoted the first half of -a complete sentence, which seems to me to convey an entirely different impression from that intended by Sir John Pope Hennessy. I have put in italics the half of the sentence omitted-by Mr. Churchill :—
"Though I feel that the term slavery can hardly be applied
in -fairness to Chinese adoption or to domestic service, where the individuals concerned go about our streets with a know- ledge that they are free; yet the fact that they have been actually bought seems to me to condemn this system. I am clearly of opinion that any practice involving a traffic in human beings should be put down by law."
I -cannot think the complete sentence was submitted to 'Mr. Churchill, because I have always understood that Ministers of the Crown answering questions in the House of Commons are supposed to hold the view that anything approaching ter- minological inexactitudes should never be incorporated in
replies to Members.—I sin, Sir, &c., JOHN H. HARRIS.
The Glen, Crawley, Sussex.
Previous page
