Viscountess ASTORasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies the number of brothels known to the authorities in Hong Kong, the number of women in them, and the age at which women are allowed to enter these houses; and if the Secretary for Chinese Affairs still passes girls and women into the known brothels in the Colony on their request and registers them as brothel inmates?
§ Dr. SHIELSI have no recent information on these points, but my Noble Friend will call for a report from the officer administering the government of the Colony, and he proposes to review the whole question in the light of the report of the Commission of the League of Nations which it is intended to send to Hong Kong in the near future.
428W
Viscountess ASTORasked the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies if, seeing that hitherto the Straits Settlements and Hong Kong have been under identical legislation in regard to brothel keeping, it is his intention to impress upon the Government of Hong Kong that it should frame its policy now with a view to making possible, at the earliest practicable date, the suppression of all brothels, as recommended by the Colonial Office Advisory Committee on Social Hygiene in the case of the Straits Settlements?
§ Dr. SHIELSI would refer the Noble Lady to my reply of 29th January. My Noble Friend does not propose to request the Government of Hong Kong to take action upon the recommendations of a committee which confined its inquiry to conditions in the Straits Settlements.