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alternative may quite well be starvation. Until some
measure of prosperity has returned to the countryside it
will prove very difficult to put a stop to the practice of
transferring children from one household to another. In
fact even the Anti-Muitsai Society do not expect this and
their proposals for the enforcement of registration not only presuppose the continued existence and quasi-legalisation of the muitsai system but also provide for the registration of
adopted daughters.
6. The practical difficulties in the way of any
satis factory form of registration in a colony such as Hong Kong with its daily ebb and flow across the frontier and the constant movement of the population within the city itself can hardly be exaggerated. An army of inspectors with the
search would be required to
widest powers of entry and enforce it and even so the difficulty of proving the initial payment to the parents or guardians which brings a girl under the law would be almost insuperable. The parents of the child are satisfied with the situation, and the child herself is usually content with her position and quite prepared to co-operate in the necessary deception; while even assuming that persons qualified to make the necessary inquisition could be secured there is no doubt that these proceedings would rouse strong opposition fran all classes of Chinese in
the Colony.
7. The results to be secured would hardly seem to outweigh these disadvantages. The alternatives must still be faced of registration cards and recognition of the system as suggested by the Anti-Muitsai Society, or of the whole- sale removal to Homes of girls who are themselves unwilling to be removed, or their restoration to parents who are unable
to support them.
8.