APPENDIX  E

432
names,  fourteen  in  all,  to  that  document.  They  deprecated
anything  being  done  to  check  their  trade,  or  even  to  regulate
it,  -  as  their  Chinese  patrons  “  would  express  their  feelings  #
such  an  uncontrolled  fashion  as  to  cause  great  inconvenience
to  the  foreign  residents  of  the  settlement  ”  if  any  measures
were  attempted.  ,
The  number  of  inmates  of  the  houses  referred  to,  as  estimate
by  the  property-owners  themselves,  is  “  not  less  than  four  oí
five  thousand.”  And  as  many  of  these  girls  break  down  lD
health,  the  numbers  are  recruited  by  the  agency  of  kidnapp erS
and  slave-dealers  in  many  centres,  notably  along  the  Yangtzefrom
  Hankow  westward.  Daughters  of  prominent  native
Christians  have  been  among  those  kidnapped  for  this  trade»
and  the  Chinese  have  repeatedly  affirmed  that  hardly  one  foreign
steamer  leaves  Hankow  for  Shanghai  without  some  “  slaves
from  Szechwan.  The  women  who  escort  them  pose  as  “  ladi'■
with  personal  slaves,”  and  are  protected  by  the  league  of  Shangn 3 '
property-owners,  backed  by  the  merchant  guilds  (which  latte
were  so  much  in  evidence  before  last  December  riot)—so  tn
Chinese  of  Central  China  have  affirmed  for  over  a  decade  now-Then,
  as  there  has  been  no  tracing  the  missing  daughter
after  they  have  been  transferred  from  native  boats  to  the  foreign
steamers,  rumours  have  been  dangerously  current  in  past  y ear ®
that  foreigners  are  connected  with  the  trade,  and  paid  to  protec
the  “  ladies  ”  from  Mixed  Court  investigations.  Indeed,  seve^
years  ago  I  was  myself  mobbed,  at  a  spot  one  hundred  miles  a .P
the  Han  river,  as  being  a  “  foreign  kidnapper,”  which  made  i.
all  the  more  interesting  to  be  among  those  mobbed  in  Shangu a
last  December  in  the  anti-rescue  riot.  Only  the  local  Chin eS
feeling  seems  to  have  been  reported  in  England,  but  so  mu 11 ;
Chinese  families  along  the  Yangtze  Valley  have  lost  their  bright^
girls  that  very  much  of  the  respectable  public  opinion  out  0
Shanghai  has  been  with  the  municipal  police  rather  than  o
the  side  of  “  the  patriots  of  Shanghai.”  And,  happily»  a
Excellency,  Chow  Fu,  Viceroy  of  these  Liang  Kiang  provine  &gt;
saw  the  true  national  bearings  of  the  case  at  the  time,  as  opp° se e
to  local  vested  interests.  He  was  forced  to  “  save  the  Chin^
face”  by  taking  the  "  patriotic  ”  side,  but  proceeded  to
up  a  memorial  to  the  Throne  for  the  total  abolition  of  ë 11
slavery  throughout  China.  This  was  twice  reported  to  h a
been  approved,  but,  as  no  Imperial  edict  has  been  forthcoming^
he  has  now  (September  24)  memorialised  the  Throne  once  aga^j
with  intent  to  get  the  measure  put  through.  This  will  an®
millions  of  young  girls  physically  and  tens  of  thousands  moral  ^
And  when  his  memorial  becomes  definite  law,  we  may  eV  -j
see  the  local  property-owners  appealing  to  the  Municipal  Couu