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To-day, news of any Muitsai who is unhappy or ill-treated would soon become public, even if the child did not herself go to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs.
A Chinese boy would consider a position analogous to Muitsai intolerable because of the inferior position. The Committee find diffi- culty in believing that any Chinese boy, if old enough to run away, would tolerate such a position.
The Committee feel that the only problem arising out of the sale of boys is the well known risk of kidnapping for sale as adopted sons.
Seventh Question.
SEVENTHLYI now come to what is really a psychological ques- tion. More than any other nation in the world, the Chinese believe in the sanctity of a contract. The word of a Chinese is his bond. Having been closely associated with Chinese for 35 years of Govern- ment service, I feel justified in expressing an opinion that this has a bearing on the Muitsai problem. I believe that many a decent minded Muitsai girl would not feel justified in seeking the relief of the law in order to escape from the consequences of a contract made between her parents and her employer. I am assuming, of course, that she had been well treated and had no real grievance. She would probably feel that she would bring public, and well-deserved, shame upon her parents and, to a lesser degree, shame upon herself and her employers. Deep in her mind would be the sense of primitive justice and of respect for a custom of immemorial age, in the midst of which she herself had grown up, and she would feel that, whatever the new exotic law might decree, nothing could alter the fact that she had been purchased for a sum of money. If she, or her parents, could pay that money back, she would say it would be a very different thing.
If I am correct in that belief, some enquiry by the Hong Kong Government may be desirable. The question that I would raise is this: Is it desirable to provide by Rules under the Ordinance that, in addition to the statutory wages, every employer shall pay a specific sum monthly into a Savings Bank Account to the credit of each Mui- tsai". The idea of a Savings Bank Account was put forward by Sir Reginald Stubbs in para. 7 (d) of his despatch of 10th June, 1922. He suggested, however, that the girls should receive nothing in cash. My suggestion is that they should have both monetary wages and a Savings Bank Account. If the girls had savings bank accounts, the system would stimulate thrift and would encourage the feeling of in- dependence. The girls would feel that, as soon as they had enough money in the bank, they could terminate their employment in an honourable manner. In any event, a Saving Bank Account makes a pleasant wedding dowry. The matter nevertheless requires careful consideration from all points of view. It is necessary to remember the British policy of "Non-Recognition." The British view, as set forth in the declaratory statement " (the charter of liberty) of the Ordinance is that the money transaction cannot be recognized ". The Chinese attitude is that, whether it is recognized or not, there
it
is ".
CC
It would be necessary to reconcile the two ideas by making it quite clear that "the introduction of the Savings Bank system must not be taken to imply any weakening of the Government's attitude re- garding the declaratory statement".
Personally, I cannot help feeling that this Charter of Liberty (like many another one) has partially defeated its own object by overstating