Open [35.2 MB]

CHINA AND THE WHITE SLAVE TRAFFIC 79
dare not interfere with the Chinese quarter,
for fear of a general rising or general
massacre. It is known that many European
girls
are taken at various times over this
bridge into the Chinese quarter ; that this is
an absolute and undeniable fact no one who
knows about these places will deny. Once
the women enter the gates of that hell on
earth, they can never retrace their steps or go
back, and it is the damnable " pimps " who
keep up the supply of English, French,
German, and American girls for this Chinese
quarter. No virtuous or untainted girl,
however, is ever taken to this hell. They
fetch more money elsewhere. The poor
creatures have been used in Java, beaten and
ill-used in Singapore, dragged about in far-off
Eastern places till they are almost done for ;
then they are brought to Shanghai, and after
living a year or two a life of degradation,
they are sold into the Chinese quarter. Be it
said to the credit of the British that they
do try to stop British women bathing in the
immoral seas of the East. If they are caught
here they are deported without question.
Unhappily they are not always caught, and
once they pass that bridge into the Chinese
quarter, they cannot be caught ! No European
dare enter the Chinese quarter without permission.
The Americans also do their best to
protect their women-folk from this unthinkable
fate, as has already been stated.
As has been said, the late Hon. John
Goodnow, American Consul at Shanghai, a