3.
भ
Enclosure No.1.
Enclosure No.2.
4.
The inquiry which I had initiated, appears to
have galvanized the Anti-muitsai Society into fresh activity, for on the 9th April, 1927, this Society assembled at the Chinese Young Men's Christian Association Headquarters in Hong Kong in the first meeting it had held for several years.
I enclose an extract from the South China Morning Post of
the 11th April, 1927, giving an account of the proceedings,
which did not, however, result in representations of any kind being made to this Government by the Society. The Secretary for Chinese Affairs after further investigation, reported to
me on the 20th July, 1927, that no doubt the traffic in children still persisted, being the custom of the country which it would take a long time to alter, but that it remained to be proved that this Government's efforts were not making headway against the abuses of the custom. He pointed out that the Anti-muitsai Society was not very representative of Chinese opinion. "The Chairman" he wrote, "comes up occasionally and makes general reports, which give no opening for special enquiries or action: on being pressed to carry his own enquiries far enough to give us sane opening, he has produced a case or two of little or no importance. Recently he has produced a case of gross cruelty to a child: but not a muitsai or a bought child." In view of this report and the absence of any case at all under the Female Domestic Servants Ordinance, No.1 of 1923, during the years 1923 to 1927, both included, no further action was taken by this Government.
5.
A
The next event in this connection was the
annual meeting of the Anti-muitsai Society on the 20th October, 1928, to which I have already referred.
I attach
a translation of an extract from the Wa Tsz Yat Po of the 23rd October, 1928, giving the names of the members of the
Committee