h the head of the Regulation
Department, the 'Protector of Chinese,' at Singapore, seems to
have made some effort to counteract. He speaks of ten girls
between 9 and 15 that he attempted to rescue from sale to
a traveling dealer, but who were returned to their former
surroundings on a writ of _habeas corpus_ by the Supreme Court;
but upon information in regard to this case reaching the Colonial
office in London, correspondence ensued which resulted in Mr.
Chamberlain directing an alteration of the law to meet the case of
the prosecution which had so lamentably failed.

"The Protector of Chinese also tells of 'girls under ten years of
age who are bought and sold in the colony,' 'brought from China
for purposes of sale,' 'generally sold to inmates of brothels,'
and of women who are 'in the habit of arriving from China with
relays of babies' for the same purpose. The Straits Settlements
Government thus attempts to cut off a twig here and there of the
tree of this evil traffic, whilst leaving untouched the root and
trunk of the tree itself, the State protection of vice, by which
it is made practicable safely to invest large capital in this most
nefarious but lucrative traffic.

"Page 4 of this Correspondence shows that an ordinance was passed
in 1899, imposing very heavy fines and imprisonment on any keeper
of a brothel who allowed any of the inmates suffering from
contagious disease to remain in the house. This has led to a
system of private arrangements with medical men for the periodical
sanitary inspection and treatment of the inmates.

"At page 19 the Acting Colonial Surgeon says: 'A large number of
Japanese houses had some time before made private arrangements
with my partner, Dr. Mugliston and myself, for medical attendance,
and the rumor regarding the intended legislation induced most
of the remainder to follow their example during the month of
September. The increase of Japanese inmates (of the hospital) for
this month, therefore, was caused by our sending in those cases
of disease then found among these fresh houses.' Paragraph 4, the
same page, says: 'With regard to the Chinese women we already had
long had a number of Chinese brothels to attend professionally;
during September of 1899 a large proportion of the remainder made
similar arrangements with us.'

"