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 lic