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9. It is constantly
alleged that muitsai are
for Chinese Affairs which would, of
course not be given with adequate
reason. Anyone who kidnaps a muitsai
in order to sell her, perhaps for
prostitution, is liable to be arrested
and charged, and rightly so; but not a
person who harbours a
from motives of benevolence.
runaway muitsai
Again,
assuming the guess of the Anti Muitsai Society as to the number of muitsai in
Hong Kong to be correct, the newspaper
article does not contain the suggestion as to what could be done with
a regular source of recruit-
ment for prostitution. Can
any further safeguards against
this be introduced?
the alleged ten thousand young
girls if they could be discovered and
could be proved to be muitsai and were
taken away from their employers.
(Para q) It is very necessary to state
emphatically that the muitsai 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
traffickers from whom they pass into
the hands of women who train the
children with the object of their becoming prostitutes. Muitsai are by training not suited for use as prostitutes. The sale of a girl to
be a muitsai has indeed the effect of
protecting her from prostitution as her
master