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(b) The treatment meted out to a mus | subordinate her welfare to their own teai is similar to that alloted to a slave. purse. To be married to an old man or A slave is bought with money; a mui boorish countryman or disposed of as a Sold for a teai, also, in bought with money. A slave concubins is her usual fate. is robbed of rights and liberties; a mui price, she in no way differs from Boy tsas, also, is robbed of rights and commodity of commerce. Hence the mui
is injurious to system
public liberties. A slave can be exploited with- tai out reserve; a mui tsai, also, can be morality. exploited without reserve. A slave is not paid for labour; a mui tsui, also, is not (b) Subversive of Righteousness. paid for labour. A slave can be re-sold;
In most families where mui trair are a mui tsai, also, can be re-sold. In short, the similarity between the two is most kept. the inmates are afflicted with con
loose morality. The owner striking; indeed, the only material differ- ceft and
assumes the role of a lord and master, ence lies in the fact that, whereas the word "slave" is applicable to those whose while the mui teas is relegated to the The servitude is life-long and extends to their position of a parasite and slave. posterity, the word mui teas applies to gulf between the two being wide, sym- females whose servitude ceasca on attain-pathy cannot hope to bridge it. Frequent ing womanhood. This is a clear instance scolding inevitably leads to cruel treat- of depriving human beings of their ment; incessant peremptoriness breeds human rights.
chronic abuse. All this is subversive of righteousness in the family. When bought (e) It is an incontestable fact that a by those who live by pandering to the mus taat is liable to all sorts of maltreatust of others, she is remorselessly pros ment dictated by the whims and caprices tituted or handled as a tree that beds of her owner. The number of cases of silver coins." Noticed by the voluptuous, grom cruelty reported in the local Press she is promptly rushed into a harem. is not small, but cruelty is rampant, and Hence the mui trai system encourages the amount of cruelty that does not see licentiousness and poisons the more the light of day is incalculable. That a
What is to be said of this atmosphere. murai after being ravished by her injury to public righteousness? master or members of her owner's house- hold is discarded with or without pro- vision, or re-sold, is also frequently heard. Up to the present, it has not been the business of any one to collect proofs of these iniquities that disgust the respect able and appal the clean-minded.
We hereby avor that the above are the chief inherent evils of the mui that system.
(11) REASONS FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE
MUI TSAI SYSTEM.
W
(c) Injurious to National Prestige.
As early as 1884, legislation was intro- duced into Egypt to abolish domestic slavery. In 1885 it was decided at tha Berlin Congress that the traffic in slaves should be rigidly suppressed by Inter- national Law. The Peace Treaty of 1918 included not only the Covenant of the League of Nations, but the International Labour Convention, under which the High Contracting Parties also agree to endeavour to secure and maintain fair and humane conditions of labour for men, women and children, both in their (a) Injurious to Public Morality.
countries and in all countries to Giris bought as mui tsas are mostly of which their commercial and industrial tender ages To burden their partially relations extend. It is necessary to point developed bodies with heavy and unplea out that one of the principles affirmed by sant tasks is both distressing and piti the Signatories to this Treaty is that
Under an owner that is incon- labour should not be regarded merely s able. siderate, the mui teai's fare is of the an article of commerce. We regret that scantiest, her hours of work are unde- there are Chinese resident abroad who fined, her illness is unattended to, her infringe public law by indulging in the duties are exacting, her responsibilities traffic in human flesh. On the plea that ara heavy, and no consideration is given they are but following a long-established to the possibility of her being overworked practice, they slur over the shamefulness Following upon these of such transactions and unknowingly and underfed. harsh conditions, the right of disposing place themselves beyond the pale of Such conduct does not her person is exercised by strangers, who | civilization.
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enhance the prestige of Chins even in the eyes of friendly Powers. Further more, so long as the mui trai system is countenanced by law and remains UA- bolished, the crime of kidnapping is eucouraged, thereby militating against good order and government.
If only for these reasons, we strongly advocate the abolition of the system.
(111) MUI THAI-KEEPING NOT CHARITY.
Opponents of change invariably plead that this traffic in human beings is due to the desperate poverty of the masses and that it is mutually beneficial. The buyer obtains cheap service, while the seller obtains financial relief. Therefore, to buy a mui tsai is a charitable act from which the poor derive material benefit. This argument does not lack plausibility; but careful consideration reveals ita hollowness. In Charity, the dispenser must show sacrifice and the character of the recipient must be preserved. In buy- ing another's daughter to suit one's own Convenience, where is there sacrifice? In accepting another's cash in exchange for obe'a own daughter, where is character manifest i
Were wo approached by a poor man, in the name of Charity, to buy his wife, would we do so? Would we rather not relieve his distress without exacting the pound of flesh One who offers to sell his wife is devoid of character, and philanthropists have not the heart to buy her. The parent who sells his daughter is, likewise, devoid of character, and, anyone who buys her is helping to destroy one of the most sacred of human bonds!
Another superficial view is, that the mtas system helps to decrease the Practice of drowning female children in the interior of China by poverty-stricken parente. Leat the civilization of China be unjustifiably maligned, let it be known that child-murder is a grave criminal offence under China's own laws. Assuming that child-drowning in the past was ram pant, did people refrain from buying and elling girls t
Now that child-drowning is less prevalent, is it to be attributed to tearing or preparing the girls for the slave traffic In child-drowning the victime invariably a day or two old, while girls old new teas have generally attained the age of five or six years, an age at which they can be useful and help to earn their daily bread, which is impossible at the earlier age during which their parents
keep them. The truth is that child- drowning bears no relationship whatever to the mui tsai system, and it is also patent that selfishness or greed underlies every transaction in human flesh.
It
Not only is mui taai-keeping not Charity, but, on the contrary the mui tsai system encourages selfish and mercenary men to part with their children unneces sarily in order to enable themselves to be more self-indulgent. Instances of sell- ing a girl to preserve à roof over the heads of her parents, younger brothers, or sisters, are rare, whereas selling a daughter to satisfy a father's craving for opium and the excitement of the gambling table is so common that it has frequently been depicted on the Chinese stage. is often asserted that the poor soll their issue on account of poverty; but if they cannot keep them, how is it that they manage to do so until the girls are old enough to be sold as mui teat! Even if the plea that poverty is the dominant factor in such an inhuman transaction were true, to what extent can Hongkong hope to relieve the distress of China in this way? Though the assistance must be negligible in this direction, the Hong- a position to kong Government is in aasist in a far more efficacious manner by abolishing the mui trai system within its territory and thereby setting an example of reform which will be followed through- out the vast Republic of China.
We hereby declare that to plead the cause of charity as a defence of the mai teai system is hypocritical and absurd.
(IV) FUTILITY OF REFORM BY PERSUASIVE
METHODS.
The cause of ill-treatment to the mui taas lies in the severity and stringency of the document by which she is sold. The inclusion of such clauses sa "To be disposed of as the payer thinks fit" and "No enquiry of her whereabouts or in the event of her death is permitted " clearly indicates that the question of her life and death is absolutely in the hands of her owner. With this knowledge in her mind, the mui trai dares not revolt against the tyranny by which she is oppressed; anxious not to disturb the neighbourly feeling, the bystander finds it inconvenient to interfere; and, so long as the owner does not get within the clutches of the Law, he or she can do what he or she wishes with the unfor tunate girl. The roots of cruelty to the
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