To the Editor of the "Nonta-Cama Dairy News."
Sm,—The conclusion arrived at by your contributor and in your leader of Saturday +é the girl slave question is disappointing to those who regret that there should still be found British people who defend slavery in any form. The benefits to the slave when "she is fortunate enough to fall into the hands of good people" may be freely admitted. Exactly the same arguments were used in England and America against abolition; but fortunately the good sense and humanity of our forefathers at last prevailed, and slavery, even with silken cords, was declared to be a violation of the primitive rights of human beings.
The articles in Saturday's issue show quite clearly that the slave-girl system bristles with possibilities of evil, and experience of its practical working puts the matter beyond all doubt. I have seen enough during a long residence in the interior unhesitatingly to condemn the system, and in Shanghai I live near enough to a house from. whence the pitiable screams of a beaten girl have been so unbearable at times that we have had to protest. What right has any person to hold as a chattel a fellow human being, entirely at his or her mercy? Riches and poverty, or old custom, are not sufficient excuse; who would justify serfdom in these days in European countries because it was an ancient custom? Sweating and labour hardships still exist, unfortunately, but there is at least some outside supervision and control, and moreover, the worker is free, and that makes a vast difference.
Remember it is not only children who are slaves in China; the girls grow into young women who are entirely in the hands of their masters, without even the rights and privileges of concubines. We are told that girls can flee to certain institutions when their lives become unbearable; that is easier seid than done, as is well known, and a vast amount of misery and suffering is endured because the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.