8.
176
starvation that the too numerous children must find
work or die, and they cannot always find work in
their own villages.
(d) The existing muitsai, whose numbers constantly
fluctuate owing to the arrival of new families from
China or the departure of Hong Kong families to China
are so numerous that it would be quite impossible to
deal with them if they were taken away from their
employers.
(e) To enforce drastic measures against the legal sense
of the Chinese community would be to invite obstruct-
ion in a matter in which obstruction would be
peculiarly easy and from a class peculiarly skilled
11.
in obstruction.
I have given instructions that all cases in
which a muitsai is concerned and particularly any case of
cruelty to a muitsai, shall be brought at once to the notice
of the Colonial Secretary, in order that I may make personal
inquiry into such cases. I shall explore further the
proposal that there should be instituted in this Colony an
organization similar to the Society of Prevention of Cruelty
to Children in England and that in this connection female inspectors, appointed by the Hong Kong Government, might be employed. For the rest and I am quite certain that it would
be useless, and even detrimental to the cause in view, to
attempt to advance ahead of public opinion in China itself,
and I do not doubt that the spirit of reform, now wide-
spread in China, will before very long address itself practic ally (and not merely on paper) to the modification of the
muitsai system. Its disappearance is not, however, to be
expected