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little chance of discovering the omission: and between these two would fall the large class of the ignorant the careless and the newcomer to provide opportunities for the Chinese genius for "squeeze" and blackmailI
I am confident that Your Lordship would regard a system which rested on such a basis with as much distrust as I do.
It is perhaps not fully realised how wide- spread the systems of adoption and presentation are in China. There must be in Hongkong many thousands of children con- cerned, and any real system of inspection would require an army of officials and an interference with the domestic affairs of great numbers of Chinese families which would be bitterly resented, and which, it is not too much to say, would go far to alienate the feelings of one of the most loyal and law-abiding communities in the British Empire.
6.
A general system of inspection of all adopted and presented children seems for these reasons to be impracticable, and if practicable, extremely impolitic. I submit further that even if practicable there is no fair ground for considering it necessary and that to impose it would be to cast an undeserved slur on the Chinese community. No doubt there are cases of ill-treatment of "mui tsai". The occurrence of prosecutions in the Police Court proves that fact: it also proves that the existing law can and does pro- tect these children. The theory that cruelty is general or even common is entirely unsupported by evidence and is in conflict with the fact that it is a matter of common know- lodge that the Chinese as a race are remarkably fond of and kind to children. The conditions, of course, limit the nature and the extent of the kindness that can be shewn, and it may be (and often is) the best that the most affectionate mother can do to take her child with her to work and even to give it a small task. The parents no doubt would be only too glad to allow a charitable body or the Government
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