Entry

Chen Zhen, acting secretary in the Ministry of Works memorialized: "The envoy Ma Huang-bao and others from the country of Siam have purchased the sons and daughters of starving people in Shan-dong and are taking them back to be servants. This is not only base and unprincipled, but it will result in people there laughing at and deriding China. It is requested that officials be urgently sent to pursue them and that, at the office where they are found, official funds be dispersed to buy back the children. The children should then be sent back to their original domiciles to be re-united with their families." This was approved.