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My own impression is that the respectable parts of the community, Chinese as well as European, including the Government and the police, are fully alive to the brothel and domestic servitude systems, and as well informed as Sir John Smale himself as to the real facts. One would suppose from the tone of his pamphlet that he stood alone in his perception and denunciation of evil.
It seems to me that all slavery, domestic, agrarian, or for immoral purposes, comes within one and the same category." Every word uttered on this occasion by Sir John Smale, Chief Justice, has value, but it is impossible for us to quote it all.
Phillipo, before whom the papers were laid, did not seem disposed to enforce the rights of the father, on the ground that he had sold the child. I did not agree with Mr. Phillipo's view of the law." On October 6th, 1879, Sir John Smale, the Hon.
On August 26, 1880, Sir John Smale replied in a letter meant for the Secretary of State at London, but sent in due form to the Colonial Secretary at Hong Kong for forwarding: "My observations in Court arose out of cases of kidnaping; and, according to the practices of judges in England, in their addresses to the Grand Juries, and on sentencing prisoners, I did as I thought it my duty to do.
And other dyamandes also men fynden in the ile of Cipre, that ben zit more tendre; and hem men may wel pollische. And in the lond of Macedoyne men fynden dyamaundes also. But the beste and the most precyouse ben in Ynde. And men fynden many tymes harde dyamandes in a masse, that comethe out of Gold, whan men puren it and fynen it out of the myne; whan men breken that masse in smale peces.
But it does not so much concern us what the officials in London did and said, excepting at the one point, namely, that they did not at this time back the noble efforts of the Governor and of Sir John Smale to put down slavery, and so rendered it practically impossible for them to accomplish what they wished to do.
On the same occasion, in sentencing a woman who had severely beaten an adopted child, Sir John Smale said, 'In finally disposing of these three cases, with all their enormity, sources of satisfaction present themselves in the fact that, in each of these cases, it has been owing to the spontaneous indignation of Chinese men and women that these crimes have been brought to the knowledge of the police. The Governor closes his letter with the statement, 'It is only due to Sir John Smale to add that his own action has greatly contributed to foster the "healthy" public opinion of the native community, which induced him, when quitting the Supreme Court, to take a hopeful view of the future of this important subject."
At this time the official career of Sir John Smale at Hong Kong terminated. We have traced the development of slavery from State-protected brothel slavery to State-tolerated domestic slavery and "adoption" of boys.
This letter gives us some conception of the almost insuperable difficulties Sir John Smale had to encounter in his endeavor to put down slavery, for not a case could come up in the Superior Court for conviction on the Judge's information, of course, for that would be assuming both prosecuting and judicial powers, and the men who occupied in turn that office, during Sir John Smale's incumbency, refused to act in unison with him, and this Attorney General's language betrays hot prejudice, lack of candor as regarded the facts, and insolence toward Sir John Smale.
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