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in that Colony, and personally interviewed
many of these slave girls, and heard their stories.

The most recent official documents relating to the matter have been
commented upon in _The Shield_ (organ of the British Committee of the
International Purity Federation), in its issue dated London, June,
1906, as follows:

    "One of the most important parliamentary papers of recent years on
    our question has just been issued in response to questions put in
    the House of Commons by Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M.P., on March 8th
    last. The title is, 'Further Correspondence relating to Measures
    Adopted for Checking the Spread of Venereal Disease' (Cd. 2903),
    and relates to enactments in the Straits Settlements, Hong Kong,
    and Gibraltar, during the period in which the Rt. Hon. Joseph
    Chamberlain was at the head of the Colonial office.

    "The correspondence in question further reveals the existence and
    extent of a 'Yellow Slave Trade' in the East of large dimensions.
    The girls in question are stated to be 'bought when young,' and
    'believe themselves bound body and soul to the brothel-keepers.'
    Nine hundred and sixty-eight Chinese women, presumably of this
    kind, are reported at Penang, and 62 Japanese women. There were
    176 admissions of Japanese women, and 141 admissions of Chinese
    women in 1899 to the public hospital at Singapore, besides numbers
    of other cases to private hospitals maintained by the keepers of
    the houses of ill-fame.

    "Many passages in the correspondence give evidence of a continual
    import traffic going on, which 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 Su