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with the sum of about $100, which is acquired from the sale, and save their families from starvation. If mui-tsai are suddenly abolished, unless loans can be raised, such people will not be able to do anything but fold up their arms and wait for death. The so-called prohibition in previous years of girls binding up their breasts and the suppression this year of Chinese medical practitioners and astrologers were all attempted without due regard to circumstances and the fact that it would lead to unemploy- ment, and I am afraid that such measures will only turn out unsuccessful. If the mui-tsai question is to be solved for the sake of humanity, it will suffice if the rich families are prohibited from maltreating them. Poor girls, who have been sold to be mui-tsai, generally refuse to go back to their parents, even when forced to do so by their masters. They prefer to remain mui-tsai, for they are free from cold and hunger and can have better food, lodging and clothing. Each year very few cases have oc- curred in which mui-tsai want to go back to their families".
8. I have also received a report from the Honourable Dr. S. W. Ts'o, 0.B.E, member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council. He writes concerning the Canton Regulations:-
"These regulations are but dead letters. *
* * * As a matter of fact.
the buying and selling of girls is still going on in China”.
Similarly the Secretary for Chinese Affairs reports :-
"I have asked a number of Chinese whether they have heard of any attempt being made to enforce these regulations, but the answer has always been no"
I think it is, therefore, safe to say that the regulations published by the Chinese au- thorities on the 1st March, 1927, have not as yet been carried into practice with respect to mui-tsai and that the practice now in force is to all intents and purposes the same as that described in paragraph 2 of this despatch.
9. There is another preliminary point which it is well to dispose of. You sayIt is constantly alleged that mui-tsai are a regular source of recruitment for prostitution", and you ask whether any further safeguard against this can be intro- duced. It is very necessary to state emphatically that the mui-tsai system is not a regular source of recruitment for prostitution. The usual source of such recruitment is among poor families, which in times of distress will sell female children to traf- fickers from whom they pass into the hands of women who train the children with the object of their becoming prostitutes. Mui-tsui are by training not suited for use as prostitutes. The sale of a girl to be a mui-tsai has indeed the effect of protecting her from prostitution as her master and mistress retain her services for domestic purposes and would guard her from the wiles of ill-disposed persons. Mui-tsai are more close- ly attached to the family than are hired servants, and they cannot so easily be decoyed away without enquiries being set on foot. As a rule, children acquired for training as prostitutes are not employed as domestic servants. They are generally taught to sing and to play Mah Jong and to act as entertainers at restaurants; and in China large numbers of these girls, who are known as "guitar girls", may be seen frequent- ing restaurants, where they are called to amuse customers at dinner. It should be clearly understood that the mui-tsai is only one variety of purchased child; and it is of course, very necessary, if the practice of sale and purchase of children is to be suppressed, that the activities of all professional traffickers should be curtailed in every possible way. This is the aim of the Hong Kong Government acting through the department of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and by means of the Police. But in practice it has proved very difficult to deal effectively with these traffickers, depor- tation being as a rule the only remedy. As regards further safeguards in this respect. unless the buying and selling of girls is stopped in China, nothing can be done in Hong Kong which will have much effect. The only effectual safeguard is to enlist the co-operation of the Chinese community to put down these practices by exposing any cases which may come to light
*Not printed.