Sir John Pope Hennessey, K.C.M.G., governor and commander-in-chief of Hong Kong on the Contagious Diseases Ordinance in that colony.

  • John Pope Hennessy
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sir John Pope Hennessey, K.C.M.G., governor and commander-in-chief of Hong Kong on the Contagious Diseases Ordinance in that colony. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the Inspector says that the Colonial Surgeon’s certificate is to this effect— ‘ ‘ I examined these two women : the elder woman is evidently a married woman—she is not diseased. The young woman is a virgin and is not diseased.” It is satisfactory to know that the present Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Earl of Kimberley, has not hesitated to stigmatize such things as “revolting abuses.” To a leading Chinese merchant of Canton, to whom I was talking about the progress of my Colony, I said, “ Your people now are making a large fortune here. Why not send down your second son to enter into the house of a Chinese merchant, and learn the business there ? ” “ I could not,” “he said, “for this reason:—Hong Kong is a sink of iniquity.” I replied, “ this is a Christian Colony ; we have been here now for 40 years, we are supposed to be doing the best we can to spread Civilization and Christianity.” “ I repeat ” he said “it is a sink of iniquity, in my mind. As Chinamen we think of domestic purity and family life—we reverence such things—but how do I see the poor Chinese treated in this Colony: ”—and then he told me stories similar to the abuses I have alluded to. I wrote a despatch in August, 1881, in which I told Lord Kimberley that “ The Chinese girls who are registered by the Government for the use of Europeans and Americans detest the life they are compelled to lead.” Let me explain what you may not be aware of : A Govern¬ ment license is issued in these odious words, “ Chinese women for the use of Europeans only.” I went oil to say in my despatch, “These Chinese women have a dread and abhorrence of foreigners, and especially of the foreign sailors and soldiers. Such Chinese girls are the real slaves in Hong Kong.” Now to that statement I adhere. I give it to you on the full authority of the Governor of the Colony. I have been five years looking at the operation of this law in Hong Kong,and that is the result to which I have arrived—that under the flag of England there is slavery there, but it is slavery created, and protected by these Ordinances. I have also stated to Her Majesty’s Government my opinion that a State supervision of vice in the sense in which it prevails in Hong Kong is likely to fail and to cause greater evils than those the Govern¬ ment desire to mitigate. May I say one word upon an argument which, as the Governor of British China, has forced itself on my mind. The words of the merchant of Canton who called Hong Kong a “ sink of iniquity,” have a wide application, because the British Colony of Hong Kong is geographically a part of a great Empire, an Empire where you have missionaries of various churches. I have been asked to explain the curious and distressing fact that Christianity is declining in China. I think it is declining mainly on account of the treaties we have forced upon the Chinese ; but I will frankly tell you it is declining also because they see these girls registered in such houses “for Europeans” and made practically slaves under our flag. And it is not merely as it affects the Chinese mission, but it has a political effect which the members of Parliament present will understand. That Colony was established to