Heathen Slaves and Christian Rulers | Page 9

and selling, detaining and kidnaping human beings were not unfamiliar. Only eleven years had elapsed since the Queen's proclamation against slavery in that colony had been published to its inhabitants, and yet, during that time, slavery had so advanced at Hong Kong, against both Chinese and British law, as to receive this recognition and acknowledgment on the part of the Secretary of State at London:
1st, That it is a "grave fact that" at Hong Kong "large numbers of women" are "held in practical slavery."
2nd, That this slavery is "for the gain of those to whom they suppose themselves to belong."
3rd, That it is so cruel that "in some cases" they "perish miserably ... in the prosecution of their employment."
4th, That it is "by no choice of their own" that they prosecute their employment, and "are subjected to such treatment."
5th, That they have "an urgent claim upon the active protection of Government."
6th, That the service to which these slaves are doomed, through "no choice of their own," is the most degraded to which a slave could possibly be reduced, i.e., "prostitution."
When Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin," she sounded the note of doom for slavery in the United States. After that, slavery became intolerable. Many have remarked on the fact that the book should have so stirred the conscience of the Christian world, when there are depicted in it so many even engaging features and admirable persons, woven into the story of wrong. Her pen did not seem to make slavery appear always and altogether black. But there was the fate of "Uncle Tom," and the picture of "Cassie," captive of "Legree." It was not what slavery always was, but _what it might be_--the terrible possibilities, that aroused the conscience of Christendom, and made the perpetuation of African slavery an impossibility to Americans. The master might choose to use his power over the slave for the indulgence of his own basest propensities.
Almost at the same time of these stirring events connected with slavery in the United States, Mr. Labouchere penned the above words, admitting that slavery at Hong Kong had descended to that lowest level. Infamy instead of industry was the lot of these, engaged in the "prosecution of their employment," through "no choice of their own."
Can we anticipate what legal measures would be asked for at Hong Kong, and granted in London in order to relieve this horrible condition. It seems at once obvious that the following would be some of them at least:
1st, A clear announcement that this slavery was prohibited by the Queen's Anti-Slavery Proclamation of 1845, and would not be permitted.
2nd, Women who "supposed themselves to belong" to masters would be at once told that they were free agents and belonged to no one.
3rd, The master who dared claim the ownership of a former slave would be prosecuted and suitably punished.
4th, Any slave perishing miserably from disease would not only be healed at public expense, but placed where there was no further risk of contagion.
5th, Since such slaves had "an urgent claim on the active protection of the Government," they would be treated as wards of the State until safe from like treatment a second time.
6th, Since this slavery had sprung up in defiance of law, any official who at a future time connived at such crime would be liable to impeachment.
The Ordinance sent home for sanction, and approved of by Mr. Labouchere as needed for the "protection" of slave women, was proclaimed as Ordinance 12, 1857, after some slight modifications, and an official appointed a few months before, called the "Protector of Chinese," was charged with the task of its enforcement. This official is also called the Registrar General at Hong Kong, but the former name was given him at the first, and the official at Singapore charged with the same duties is always, to this day, called the "Protector of Chinese."
The new Ordinance embodied the following features:
1st, The registration of immoral houses.
2nd, Their confinement to certain localities.
3rd, The payment of registration fees to the Government.
4th, A periodical, compulsory, indecent examination of every woman slave.
5th, The imprisonment of the slave in the Lock Hospital until cured, and then a return to her master and the exact conditions under which she was "from no choice of her own," exposed to contagion, with the expectation that she would be shortly returned again infected.
6th, The punishment by imprisonment of the slave when any man was found infected from consorting with her, through "no choice of her own."
7th, The punishment by fine and imprisonment of all persons keeping slaves in an _un_registered house (which was not a source of profit to the Government).
This was the only sort of "active protection" that the Government of Hong Kong at that time provided to the slave. The matter of "protection" which