the underlining
is mine
हिंद
1
11)
108
families to China are so numerous that it would be
quite impossible to deal with them if they were
taken away from their employers. Though the Govern-
ment has done all in its power to make it clear that
they are free agents, there has been no more than an insignificant voluntary movement of Mui Tsai
away from their employers.
(e) To enforce drastic measures against the
legal sense of the Chinese community would be to
invite obstruction in a matter in which obstruction
would be peculiarly easy and from a class particularly
skilled in obstruction.
The Governor has given instructions that
all cases in which a Mui Tsai is concerned shall be
brought at once to his notice in order that he may
make personal enquiry into such cases. It is his
considered opinion, as it was the opinion of
his predecessor, that it would be useless and
even detrimental to the cause in view to attempt
to advance too far ahead of public opinion in
China itself, and he believes that the spirit of
reform now widespread in China will, before long, address itself practically (and not merely on paper) to the modification of the Mui Tsai sy stem, but its
complete disappearance in practice cannot be expected
accepted until there is a considerable improvement
in economic conditions in China.
Mr. Churchill's pledge.
Mr. Churchill directed the issue without
delay of a "Proclamation making it clear to employers
and employed that the status of Mui Tsai, as understood in China, will not in future be recognised in
Hong Kong