THE EXTENSION OF SLAVERY TO THE STRAITS SETTLEMENT.
We have traced the development of slavery from State-protected brothel
slavery to State-tolerated domestic slavery and "adoption" of boys.
Now we turn to Singapore, to find that all these forms of slavery
exist there under the British flag, with the addition of a
coolie-traffic dangerously like slavery, also, and they are all
under the management of the Registrar General, or "Protector of the
Chinese," as he is always called at the Straits. For the general
description of conditions in the Straits Settlements, more especially
at Singapore, we give in full a paper read by an Englishman, a
resident of Singapore for many years, at the Annual Conference of
American Methodist Missionaries, held in Singapore in 1894,--a paper
which was endorsed by that body:
It has come to be almost universally acknowledged that Singapore
is indebted as much to Chinese as to British enterprise for its
present commercial prosperity, and therefore the subject of
Chinese labour which is vexing America and Australia, assumes a
very different aspect in the Straits Settlements, and the fact
that Chinese immigration has increased 50 per cent in the last ten
years is looked upon as an unmitigated blessing. The magnitude of
the Singapore labour trade will be understood when it is known
that the number of Chinese who came to this port last year, either
as genuine immigrants or for transshipment to other ports, was
122,029, which is actually more than the entire Chinese population
of the town. In connection with the immigration of this multitude
of men and women, speaking many dialects of a language which is
wholly unknown to the officials of the British Government in the
Straits, with the exception of perhaps half a dozen persons, it
cannot be wondered at that many abuses arise, and the suspicion
has gained ground and is frequently given expression to, in the
public press and elsewhere, that many of the immigrants do not
come to Singapore of their free will. Moreover, it cannot be
denied that the circumstances under which the Chinese come to
Singapore and are forwarded to their destination lend colour to
this suspicion, so that it may fairly be inquired whether the
efforts made by the Government of the Straits Settlements to
control the Chinese coolie traffic and to prevent a secret form
of slavery have been attended with any success, or are at all
adequate to the requirements of the case.
The Annual Report for the year 1892 on the Chinese Protectorate in
the Straits Settlements which is the department charged with the
control of immigration, was published on the 5th of May, 1893, and
states that of the 122,029 Chinese deck passengers who arrived in
Singapore from China during the year, 111,164 were males, 6,867
women and 3,998 children. The circumstances under which the men
and the women are brought to Singapore are in many respects the
same, but inasmuch as a large number of the women and some of
the children are imported for immoral purposes, this part of the
subject will be dealt with separately. Turning then to the above
mentioned Report, we find as regards male immigration, that out of
the 111,164 who arrived in Singapore 23,647 proceeded direct to
Penang, and 1,798 to Malacca, Bangkok and Mauritius, leaving
85,719 remaining in Singapore, of whom 76,601 are classed as
'paid passengers,' and 9,118 as "unpaid passengers received into
depots." With the former class the Chinese Protectorate has
nothing more to do, unless they come to the Protector to sign a
Government labour contract with planters or other employers
of labor, but with the 'unpaid passengers' the case is very
different. These men are brought to the Straits to the number of
about 15,000 a year, under what is spoken of in the Report as
"the much objurgated depot and broker system," and the facts as
presented below will speak for themselves as to whether the
objurgations are warranted or not. The brokers are all China men,
and are admitted to be men of the worst character. They have their
assistants or partners in the chief ports of China, who scout
the country round in search of men and are known to be not very
particular as to the means they employ in obtaining them. Nothing
is required of the recruit except a willingness to hand himself
over with his scanty outfit to the tender mercies of the broker,
who pays his passage and provides him with food and such things as
he considers needful. While the vessels, however, with their decks
crowded with emigrants, are leaving the Chinese ports, it is a
common occurrence for the cry of "man overboard" to be raised, so
common indeed that few Captains now take the trouble to stop their
ships, leaving the fugitive coolie to his fate or to be picked up
by one of the native craft which are usually close at hand. The
readiness of the Chinese emigrant thus to risk his life for the
purpose of regaining his freedom, is explained by the advocates of
the depot and broker system as arising from a desire on his part
to outwit the broker and perhaps obtain another bonus by offering
himself a second time as a candidate for the honour of a free
passage, but it seems quite as likely that nothing less than
kidnaping or forcible detention would induce men to run so great
a risk. On arrival at Singapore the broker is again on the _qui
vive_ to see that his captives do not jump into the sea, and as
each coolie ship arrives at the wharf, a small force of police
is in waiting to keep a space clear and prevent any attempt at
escape, while the officers of the Protectorate board the ship,
accompanied by a further force of marine police, for the purpose
of inspecting the coolies. When permission is given to disembark,
the unpaid passengers are made up into small parties and marched
through the town to the depots under the escort of the brokers and
several of their assistants, with much yelling and good deal of
rough handling, and an occasional halt while a straggler or a
would be runaway is brought back to the party. That the coolies
are frequently successful in their attempts to escape is shown
in the Report of the Chinese Protectorate, 160 being returned as
'absconded either when landing or at depot' in Singapore, and 101
at Penang, or about 1-3/4 per cent of the "unpaid passengers". On
arrival at the depot, the coolies are probably surprised to find
themselves securely confined in houses which look uncomfortably
like prisons, and the passer-by may see the dirty and unkempt
_sin-khehs_ or "new men," as these emigrants are called, peering
out between the thick wooden bars of the windows. The coolies
are thus forcibly detained at the depots until the brokers are
successful in finding employers who are prepared to pay the price
per head which they demand, a sum of about £10. In the meanwhile
however, it appears from the Report that nearly 4-1/2 per cent of
the inmates of the depots are discovered and redeemed by their
friends, the numbers being 414 at Singapore, and 278 at Penang,
and a further 1-3/4 per cent, or 236 at Singapore, and 55 at
Penang, are shown under the headings "released and returned to
China," having presumably been discovered to have been kidnaped.
Of the total number of "unpaid passengers" arriving at Singapore
and Penang, about 91 per cent eventually sign contracts and are
made over to their employers or their agents, the majority of
these being shipped off, under escort as before to the Native
States of the Malay Peninsula or other neighboring countries, to
labour for a fixed term of years after which the coolie is free to
return to his native land or to seek such other employment as he
may see fit.
Such are the circumstances under which thousands of our fellow
beings are annually brought to the labour market at Singapore, and
it must be admitted that, to say the least of it, the system does
not seem worthy of Western nineteenth century civilization. At the
same time the extreme difficulty of controlling the 'depot and
broker system,' or even of providing an efficient substitute for
it, must be freely admitted. The system of Government contracts
and inspection of immigrants has already done something toward
ameliorating the condition of the coolie, and guarding him against
illegal detention after his arrival at Singapore or Penang. Much
more, however, remains to be done before the coolie trade will
cease to be a reproach to the Straits Settlements, and it is
doubtful whether any satisfactory reforms will be accomplished
until the Chinese Government is moved in the matter with a view to
checking the evil at the fountain head. Failing this, it would be
worth considering whether the system of "unpaid passengers" might
not advantageously be abolished, especially as this class of
immigrant represents only 11 per cent of the total immigration,
and more than one-third of the labor contracts last year were
voluntarily signed by "paid passengers." It seems probable that if
the "unpaid passenger" system were abolished, and the market thus
thrown open to free competition, a much larger number of "paid
passengers" would offer for contracts. But, even if this plan
should appear to involve too great a risk of diminishing the flow
of Chinese coolies to Singapore, it surely would not too severely
tax the ingenuity of the Straits Government to devise a system of
State-aided immigration, closely resembling that which has for
many years been working in Canada, and more in accord with the
dictates of ordinary humanity and English ideas of the liberty of
the subject.
Among the Chinese at Singapore the women number less than
one-fifth of the population, and at Penang the proportion between
males and females is practically the same. In the immigration
returns the disparity is even more marked, for there is only
one female immigrant to every eighteen men. This extraordinary
preponderance of males in the Chinese population of these towns
has given rise to, and is made the standing excuse for, a
wholesale system of prostitution to which it would be difficult
to find a parallel. Government registration and protection have
favored the growth of this diabolical plague spot, for, strange to
say, this gigantic system of debauchery is under the direction
of the department which is euphemistically entitled "The Chinese
Protectorate," the "Protector of Chinese" at Singapore being also
the Inspector of over 200 brothels, and the Registrar of about
1,800 prostitutes. Many streets of well built three-story houses,
chiefly in one particular quarter of the town, are devoted to this
nefarious traffic, and are thronged every night with Chinamen who
loaf about and gaze into the front rooms and verandahs of the
brothels, for these front rooms open on the street and there
the women and girls are assembled in their best attire for the
inspection of the passers-by. Anything more ostentatiously and
revoltingly public could hardly have been devised, and it is
painful to reflect that the whole arrangement is the product of
Western civilization, such scenes being utterly unknown in China
except in the treaty ports, where public prostitution has also
been introduced by Europeans.
Taking Singapore as a sample of the working of this system of
regulated vice in the Straits Settlements, we will now proceed
to inquire into the means by which this army of prostitutes is
recruited. Out of the total of 1,800 prostitutes in Singapore the
Chinese women number on the average 1,600, and last year (1892) no
less than 621 women entered brothels from China and Hong Kong, in
spite of which the number of inmates fell from 1,657 in January
to 1,601 in December, so that it may fairly be inferred that more
than 650 women are required annually to fill up the vacancies
which occur. In order to explain the manner in which this large
number of girls and young women are obtained each year, it must be
stated that all the affairs connected with the inmates of houses
of ill-fame in the Straits Settlements are in the hands of
the brothel-keepers. These persons in Penang have formed a
"Brothel-keepers' Guild," which appears in the Report of the
Chinese Protectorate as one of the registered societies of that
town and boasts of 297 members. The brothel-keepers of Singapore
are probably banded together in the same way, and in proportion to
the number of brothels should be more than twice as numerous as
those in Penang. These brothel-keepers have their confederates in
China, who search for girls and young women in the same way that
the coolie-brokers search for the men, and these unfortunate young
persons are brought to Singapore in batches under escort in the
same way as the men, but are taken from the ships in closed
carriages instead of being driven through the town like sheep, as
the men are. All these young women and girls, who are brought
to Singapore for immoral purposes, with the full knowledge and
consent of the Government, are taken direct from the ships to the
office of the Protector of Chinese, to be questioned as to their
willingness to lead a life of shame; but the value of this
interrogation may be inferred from the fact that the subordinate
officer to whom this duty is generally assigned is not acquainted
with the language spoken by the women. As a further precaution
against the illegal detention of women and girls in brothels, a
Government notice is posted in each of these houses, to the effect
that the inmates are perfectly at liberty to leave whenever they
like, but this is of little use, as hardly any of them can read,
and it would be more to the purpose if the Government ordered the
removal of the bars from the doors and windows of the brothels.
The fact is that these precautions against illegal detention are
practically useless, and this is admitted even by the editor of
such a paper as the _Hong Kong Daily Press_, who some time ago
discussed the question _apropos_ of the suicide of a Hong Kong
prostitute who was desirous of being married. The man who wished
to marry her offered the pocket-mother a sum of $2,000, but she
demanded $2,300 and refused to part with the woman for less;
whereupon she hung herself. The following comments on this case
are from the _Hong Kong Daily Press_:
"It would appear on the face of it that the efforts of the
Government are absolutely impotent, the notices so much waste
paper, and the 'rights of liberty' mere empty phrases of no
meaning or significance to the Chinese mind ... A Chinawoman would
never dream of effecting her escape for the purpose of evading the
blood money. Of course such transactions are absolutely illegal,
there is no tittle of reason why the man should pay a cent for the
girl, but it is nevertheless an indubitable fact that the custom
is widely prevalent, and that Hong Kong is a market for the buying
and selling of women which the Government is powerless to touch.
Exeter Hall in possession of these facts would indeed have a theme
for pious lucubrations."
Commenting upon the same case the _Singapore Free Press_ says:
"A recent investigation into a case of suicide in Hong Kong brings
into strong prominence what is really a system of slavery of the
worst kind, and which is not unknown in Singapore."
Such testimony is valuable from papers which have consistently
supported the Contagious Diseases Ordinances and vilified the
opponents of the State regulation of vice. There can be little
doubt that a large proportion of the girls and young women who are
brought to the Straits Settlements for immoral purposes have been
sold in China to the brothel-keepers' confederates. In many cases
girls are thus sold by their parents for the payment of gambling
and other debts, and sometimes, alas, to provide money for the
purchase of opium. Surely it is a burning shame that British
Colonies should have become the market for the sale of Chinese
women into this diabolical form of slavery.
This article cannot be closed without a brief reference to another
and more subtle form of slavery which is well known to exist in
the Straits. The last Report of the Chinese Protectorate reveals
the fact that during last year (1892) in Singapore alone 426
prostitutes left brothels and went into private houses, and in
the same period 148 left private houses and entered brothels. The
wealthy Chinese in the Straits Settlements keep up very large
establishments, and the uninitiated visitor cannot fail to be
surprised at the number of young women in the quarter assigned
to the servants. They are employed on house work, and keep the
magnificent furniture and wardrobes in splendid order, and in many
cases they make cakes and sweetmeats which are sold on the streets
by their own offspring. The question naturally arises,--Are these
women and girls free agents? It is very difficult to say with
certainty whether they are free or not, but it is generally
admitted that a subtle form of domestic slavery does exist in the
Straits, and that boys as well as girls are bought and sold with
impunity.
This account in no way exaggerates conditions, as official
documents plainly show. We will confine our thoughts, however,
to the women. In a plea for the continuance of the Contagious
Diseases Ordinance at Singapore, Mr. Pickering, "Protector,"
describes two classes of prostitutes, a proportion of free women
"who come down here to gain a livelihood, and girls purchased when
very young.... These are absolutely the property of their owners,
chiefly women whom the girl calls 'mother,' and whom they regard
as such.... The mistress brings her girls down to the Straits, and
either sells them, or takes them from place to place, lodging them
in licensed brothels where she resides, nominally a servant, but
receiving the earnings of her girls, and paying a commission to
the licensed keeper. In case of sale, the so-called 'mother'
receives the price paid for her 'daughter,' and the 'daughter'
signs a promissory note for the amount, with heavy interest; the
former owner returns to China, and the victim is bound to serve
the Straits mistress; at the same time, the girl is comparatively
(!) fortunate in that, coming here under the protection we can
give through the Contagious Diseases Ordinances, she has some
chance of becoming a free woman."
Now listen, reader, to the wonderful chances of becoming a free woman
under the British flag, this "Protector" holds out to the slave girls
who are placed in his officially managed brothels:
"The girls with their promissory notes are passed from hand to
hand in sale, or as pledges for loans; and in one brothel I found
two girls, who had, on arrival in Singapore from China some six
years previous, signed a note for $300 each, of which every cent
had been received and taken back to China by the person who had
disposed of them. During the six years they had been the property
of two or three successive owners, and when I found them in Penang
they were still being detained with the original promissory note
hanging over them, though the sum had been paid over and over
again. On my insisting on accounts being produced by the
brothel-keeper, I discovered that for three years the girls had
been earning from 20 to 30 dollars each per month, all of which
went to the master, who was surprised when the girls were released
and himself threatened with the law." (!)
From this we discover that Mr. Pickering intends that we shall think
that the reason why he has a salary from the British Government,
is, among other things, to see that slave girls only need to redeem
themselves by hard earned money through unspeakable humiliation from
one, or two, or more owners, and then there is an end to the patience
of the "Protector" with the slave-trader, who will be surprised to
find himself "threatened"--not punished--with the law! But Cecil C.
Smith, formerly Protector of Chinese (Registrar General) at Hong Kong,
was knighted and made Governor at Singapore, and about a year later
than this, says, in reference to this very representation: "The
Protector of Chinese has no efficient means of dealing with the
accounts of the inmates of brothels, nor has he ever dealt with them.
The Government should hold itself entirely aloof from interfering with
such matters." We see, then, of how much account the representations
of Mr. Pickering were as to the usefulness of the "Protector" to the
women at this point, but incidentally he has revealed a shocking state
of slavery perfectly known and not in the least interfered with by the
"Protector."
Mr. Pickering continues: "At that time the majority of inmates of
brothels were in the same condition; besides this, they were subject
to great cruelty and restraint." He professes a great improvement,
since then, but we may take his word for what it is worth on such
a point. "We, indeed ... have asked for, and trust to get, more
legislation to enable us to rescue the numbers of small children who,
purchased in China, are brought down here and trained for a life of
prostitution." Nothing of the sort. He knew perfectly well, as did
every Englishman in the Colony, that the Common Law alone of Great
Britain, if there were nothing more, was quite sufficient to deliver
every one of these children, as well as every slave girl, in the
country. If more legislation were desired it was for some other
purpose than to empty the brothels of their slaves. He goes on to
state that children born in brothels "in case of free women belong
to the mother, but when prostitutes, their issue is claimed by their
owners, unless their mothers complain to the Registrar," which of
course, he knew, they would never venture to do. "We know well that
even now there is a deal of traffic in young girls going on, and
that a number of inmates of brothels are really slaves.... The only
Europeans I have heard object to the Contagious Diseases Ordinance are
those who, in their well-meant zeal, would abolish prostitution, and
punish all parties engaged as criminals." Precisely! Sir John Smale
at Hong Kong had undertaken to "punish all parties engaged" in this
nefarious slave business, and his methods were declared unwise and
unpractical, simply because his methods endangered prostitution in the
form of brothel-slavery. Says Mr. Pickering in conclusion:
"I myself profess to be a Christian, and endeavor according to my
light, and as far as my nature will allow, to conform my conduct
to the standards of my religion; while holding these principles, I
certainly feel that I should not be acting in accordance with the
wishes of my Master, were I not to advocate most strongly that healing
should be extended to the poor, the helpless, and afflicted, whether
they be harlots or any other kind of sinners, who; unless the
Government assist them by forced examinations, will suffer and often
die in misery from the want of medical assistance." Perhaps the most
charitable view to take of this creature is that suggested by himself.
He was a Christian, he claims, "as far as my nature will allow." Had
his nature only allowed him to see further, he would have perceived
a distance as wide as heaven is from hell between the conduct of the
Divine Master who "went about healing all that were oppressed," and
the man who prostitutes the healing art to the service of libertines,
in making it healthier, if possible, for them to defy the commandments
of that same Divine Master. Such doctors are the offscouring of the
medical profession.
A Chinaman one day entered Mr. Pickering's office at the Protectorate
in Singapore, accused him of selling his brother into slavery, and
tried to brain him with an axe. The blow was not fatal, but the
"Protector," if living, is still in a mad house.
The attitude of the average official mind in this part of the world,
among the British, as betrayed by innumerable expressions in their own
documents, is perhaps most precisely put by Mr. Swettenham. British
Resident at Perak. Speaking of measures adopted to make vice more
healthy, he says: "As to the Chinese, the only question in the minds
of members (of the Council) was whether such an Order would not drive
the women from the state," and then he declares the measures were
introduced cautiously and gradually ... "The steps already taken have
been with the object of protecting Chinese women from ill treatment
and oppression in a state of life ... where the labour required is
compulsory prostitution for the benefit of unscrupulous masters ...
and secondly, in the interest of public order and decency ..." "always
remembering that where the males so enormously outnumber the females,
the prostitute is a necessary evil," "I have avoided any reference to
the moral question," continues Mr. Swettenham, "Morality is dependent
on the influence of climate, religious belief, education, and the
feeling of society. All these conditions differ in different parts of
the world."