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H.B.M. Consulate-General,
CANTON.
November 18th, 1929.
Dear Sir Cecil,
who
-
I travelled up from Fanling yesterday in
company of Mr. Lai, Secretary to the Municipality of Canton,
with his Co-Secretary lir. Chang, is in charge of the
Municipal Administration during the absence of Mayor Lum in
Nanking. I discussed at length with him the article which
appeared in the Hong Kong Daily Press of November 16th on
"Canton's Charter of Freedom for Muits'ai" (which I showed
him). He discussed the matter freely and intelligently.
(He was educated at Michigan and Harvard). He stated that
Dr. Wu Po Liang's action in publishing new regulations was
designed to draw attention to the fact that a Mui Tsai Law
is on the National Statute Book, although it is some years
old and was almost forgotten, and that this action was also
designed to proclaim a standard of social endeavour.
He
did not say in so many words that it was prompted to show
that Canton keeps ahead of Hong Kong on paper, but implied
that such was the case. He did state that the new regulations
would not be taken seriously by respectable owners of mui
tsai in Canton; they would however be useful in case it
became necessary to deal with exceptional cases of cruelty.
He agreed with me that the regulations were a "paper tiger"
and are not intended to be enforced generally. They were
quite different to similar British regulations which would
be enforced by the machinery of Police, Inspections, Reports,
Registrations and the La Courts. He remarked that it was
contrary to human nature to force people to treat mui tsais
as they would their own daughters, although as a rule they
were very well treated and public opinion would be against,