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Hon. Colonial Secretary,
I have consulted the District Watchmen Committee
and the Po Leung Kuk Committee as to the practical effect of Ordinance No. 1 of 1923 in Hongkong. It is generally agreed
that the number of "mi-tsai" in Hongkong has been very considerably reduced since the ordinance came into operation. In many cases the girls have been voluntarily restored to their parents or relatives by masters or mistresses wishing to avoid all risk of contract with the law. In other cases "mui-tsai" have been giving in marriage at an earlier age than usual. Instead of waiting till a girl is 20 or so, arrangements have been made for marriage at the age of 17 or 18, the object being to divest the masters or mistresses of further
responsibility.
In some cases "mui-tsai" have shown the utmost unwillingness to return to their parents. They had been enjoying a higher standard of living with kindly masters or mistresses, and were strongly disinclined to revert to a life of comparative hardship. The result has sometimes been that by general consent the girl has remained with her master, Sometimes on the other hand the parent has insisted on recover- ing the girl who has been prevailed upon by means of exhortation appealing to her sense of filial piety, to leave her comfortable home and rejoin her relatives,
It is generally agreed that the section prohibiting engagement of new "mui-tsai" has been scrupulousy observed, and that no transference from one master to another has taken place. Whether or not parents who have recovered their "mai-tsai"
daughters have disposed of them again outside the Colony, is beyond our power to determine.