SLAVE GIRLS IN HONG-KONG
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I have read with interest the article entitled "A Cry from Hong-Kong," but I venture to plead that arrangements should be made for the protection of slave girls before they are set free.
Seven years ago when owners of slaves in Hong-Kong believed that they would be taken from them, the unfortunate children were hurried across into Chinese territory in crowds, and sold by weight. Brothel owners, hearing that girls were being sold for next to nothing, rushed to the place, and the fate of the girls was infinitely worse than it would have been, had they been left in slavery.
Your readers may not be aware that there are in China no slave women. Slave girls when they reach the ages of eighteen or nineteen are married to men of their own class or, if they prefer become secondary wives in wealthy families. The mistresses provide trousseaux, and in future consider them as poor relations, and invite them to their houses at intervals.
Far be it from me to advocate slavery, but let refuges be opened, or let mistresses be told to send the girls to school for part of each day and to pay them wages. To inspect them at school would not be difficult. A cowed and underfed child can soon be picked out from the well treated children, who will be plump and probably very cheeky. As in most cases the parents of the girls are completely lost sight of, hurried legislation without preparation will cast children starving on the street, or mean for them a short life spent at the mercy of vile men and ending in disease and
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