This law was, however, not implemented till two years later when a monthly quota for adult male Chinese immigrant labourers was imposed from August 1,1930 for consecutive
40 Address by His Excellency the Governor to Members o f the Legislative Council at a meeting held on 10th Oct., 1927, m SSLCP.
4lFrom 1905 to 1909, Singapore was a haven for prominent Chinese political refugees such as Dr Sun Yat-sen, Wang Ching-wei and Hu Han-min. Dr Sun remained m Penang during 1910 and part o f 1911, where he made appeals for funds to finance political uprising? against the Manchu government in Canton. He later left for Europe and then America, where he stayed until the 1911 Revolution succeeded m overthrowing the Manchu dynasty m China. Op.cit., pp. 155-6.
42Saw Swee-Hock and Cheng Siok-Hwa, "Migration Policies in Malaya and Singapore," Review
three month periods until the end o f 1932.43 By then, the World Depression had set in and unemployment had reached serious proportions, especially among the Chinese male immigrants who represented the largest labour immigrant community in Malaya. The government repatriated thousands o f voluntary Chinese immigrants and some families sent their wives and children back to China.44 Stricter measures were reinforced by the government on all alien immigrants when the Immigration Restriction Ordinance was replaced by the Straits Settlements’ Aliens Ordinance, 1932, which came into force from January 1, 1933. An alien was defined as any person who was not a British subject or subject o f a British protected state. Initially, the quota for male immigrants was fixed at 1,000 monthly. Thereafter, the figures varied between 6,000 and 500 monthly depending on the economic climate.
An immediate result o f the quota system was an increase in the cost o f passages for Chinese male immigrants as shipping companies and ticket brokers tried to compensate for the scaling down o f migration business. There was also increased competition for the limited places allocated to adult male emigrants as few permits were issued by the Malayan government for the purpose o f importing labourers. However, children over the age o f twelve years and women, as well as residents from Netherlands East Indies, were exem pted from the quota system effective from April 1, 1934.45 This exemption o f women in particular, prompted shipping agents in conjunction with the ticket brokers at Chinese and Hong Kong ports to encourage women to emigrate in large numbers. Chinese ticket brokers refused to sell quota tickets unless ticket agencies and lodging houses bought three or four non-quota tickets in return for each quota ticket. The passages for women and children were much cheaper as they were outside the quota. This encouraged more women to emigrate and the proportions o f Chinese female immigrants increased relative to the men between 1934 and 1938, although Chinese male immigrants still outnumbered the female immigrants.
4,An “adult” only applied to those who aged 14 years and above.
^For example, Vlieland believed that the sex ratio for the Hailam community could be further improved if not for Hailam married men who sent their wives back to China between 1929 and 1930 because o f adverse economic conditions in Malaya. Vlieland, British Malaya, Paragraph No. 289, p. 82.
45Notification No. 612 - The Aliens Ordinance, 1932, in the Straits Settlements Gazette No. 27 o f 23rd March, 1934 [No. 288/33],
Women who emigrated during the period between 1933 and May 1938 were mostly Cantonese peasants from Quangdong province, with a large number drawn from the silk counties o f Shunde and Dongguan. This led Blythe to observe o f these women:
“Their ages ranged between 18 and 40 years and they invariably claimed to be widows. There can be little doubt that in some cases the old custom o f the husband emigrating and
sending money back to China for the support o f his wife and family were reversed — the
wife emigrating to earn money for the husband and family in China. In the five years o f
1934 to 1938, there was a migrational gain o f over 190,000 female Chinese deck passengers.
The majority o f these women were peasant women, workers who have entered the rubber
and tin industries, the building industry and factories.”46
Blythe was undoubtedly correct in his assumption that economic necessity was a prime reason for Chinese women to emigrate in the place o f men since the migration o f male labourers was severely restricted by the imposition of the quota system in Malaya. Indeed, the bulk of Cantonese female migrants came to eam money for their families and regularly sent remittances to China. Blythe's explanation, however, that some wives came to Malaya for the purpose o f earning their livelihoods in the place o f their husbands who had previously worked overseas, risks oversimplification. Married Chinese women were customarily forbidden to take leave from their families without the presence o f their husbands, let alone to emigrate overseas on their own even in dire economic circum stances. An alternative explanation would be the Chinese wives, who emigrated because o f unhappy marriages or some form o f domestic disputes with family members, especially with the mothers-in law, and therefore, were compelled to work in order to support themselves in a new country. This aptly described the situation experienced by Cantonese female immigrants from Zhongshan and Sanshui counties; the latter commonly found work in construction and building sites. They constituted a minority group since an overwhelming number o f Cantonese female immigrants were spinsters or bridedaughters who identified themselves as single women, and widows.
Apart from the imposition of the Aliens Ordinance, the enforcement o f stricter legislative measures to protect female immigrants from the abuse o f the immigration system also helped to encourage more Chinese women from "socially acceptable classes"
to voluntarily emigrate to Malaya. The abolition o f officially recognised brothels in 1929 followed by the enactment o f the Women and Girls Protection Ordinance in 1930, and the registration o f every mui tsai under the Mui Tsai Ordinance in 1933, decreased the likelihood o f Chinese females being imported for immoral purposes and servitude bondage. In addition, the Straits Settlements immigration authorities were empowered by the Aliens Ordinance to refuse entry to any woman from China suspected o f being a prostitute or a person living on the earnings o f prostitution.47
The reforms to various policies had the effect o f crippling the system o f credit ticketing due to the increasing costs o f overseas labour recruitment. A new feature in Chinese migration was that passages had to be paid by either the migrants themselves or through relatives who sponsored them before entering Malaya. The result was also a change in the composition of immigrants, as voluntary emigration was actively encouraged. There was an increasing tendency for female migrants from Quangdong province to travel overseas with the assistance o f sui haak or courier-agents. Most o f the female immigrants found jobs in Malaya through the sui haak, who recommended them to jobs normally dominated by particular dialect-speech groups. The sui haak were largely responsible for bringing autonomous women emigrants to Malaya in the 1920s and 1930s.