6226.
Extract from a letter from Sir C.Clementi to Mr. Amery
Dated 23rd February, 1929.
148A
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This
As regards mui tsai, please allow me to
thank you very sincerely for the stand which you made
on our behalf in the House of Commons, when questions
and supplementary questions were asked upon the subject.
I should hate you to think that either I or any of my officers are prepared to countenance female slavery in this Colony; but the mui tsai is not a female slave.
One might as well call Chinese wives, concubines and
daughters "slaves". It is the custom of the country
for wives and concubines to be acquired by purchase,
so much so that the polite phrase for a daughter is "the thousand of gold", meaning that she is expected
to fetch a thousand pieces of gold on marriage.
phrase has become conventional to such an extent that
my Chinese friends, speaking to me in Cantonese, use it
when asking after my own daughters. No remedy for
the mui tsai system has yet been suggested, which is
not worse than the disease. Any drastic step taken
by this Government would almost certainly raise a storm
of protest throughout Chinatown in this Colony. The
Chinese do not regard the mui tsai system as cruel or morally wrong, and they would resent any house-to-house inquisition, such as would be necessary if registration,
were to be made effective. I trust that I may not be
made into the Amanullah of Hong Kong, and I hope that my despatch may enable you to protect the Hong Kong Government from uninformed criticism of our action by
members of the House of Commons.
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