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in a year or so, as is your desire, the proposals involve its continu- ance for nearly twenty years and--what is to my mind an insuperable objection-the definite recognition of the system by Government.
seems
3. To say that a mui-tsai is to remain in the service of her employer until she has worked off the "money advanced to her parent to me to introduce at once the status of slavery. In short the draft ordinance submitted by the Committee treats the money paid to the parents of the mui-tsai as a purchase price which entitles the employer to regard the girl as his property until it is repaid either by work or in cash (see paragraph VIII 6).
4. Such an arrangement would be in direct opposition to the previous policy of this Government which has been to refuse to regard the payment of money to the parents as conferring any proprietary rights in the girl and in my opinion if it were adopted many of the criticisms of this Government which have been made without adequate knowledge of the facts might be repeated with full justification.
5. I attach no importance to the argument of the Committee that "mui-tsai keeping is a very old practice and that the interests of the owner cannot be entirely ignored." Persons who have employed mui-tsais (I object to the use of the word
, owner in present circumstances, though I think it would be correct if the proposals of the Committee were adopted) have always known that in the eye of the law the payment made to the parent has conferred no right of property. If they chose, with this knowledge, to pay money for something which the law did not recognise they did so at their own risk. The law as it stands at present would not support them in an attempt to retain control of a girl against her will, on the ground that money had been paid for her, and I should object most strongly to any alteration of the law which placed them in a better position in this respect than heretofore.
6. I submit that more drastic action is required if the system is to be abolished. I am not prepared to put forward cut and dried proposals at the moment. It would take some little time to work out exact details and you have asked me to submit my suggestions before I leave for England. I would ask permission therefore to submit the broad lines of the scheme which I think should be adopted. If the general principles meet with your approval, the details can be elaborated by the Secretary for Chinese affairs in consultation with members of the Chinese Community.
7. I advise that legislation should be introduced on the following lines:-
(a) A declaratory clause should set out the fact that the pay- ment of money to the parent or guardian of a mui-tsai confers no right of property upon the payer.
(b) Employers of mui-tsais must register them at the office of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, the fullest possible particulars being given in each case.
(c) Mui-tsais who have reached the age of 18 are at liberty to leave their employment at once. Those below that age must be restored to their parents at once, either on their own demand or on that of their parents, without any payment. Mui-tsais between the ages of 12 and 18 whose parents or guardians cannot be found and who wish to leave their employ- ment must be allowed to apply to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to find them other employment. It will be necessary to provide that they must take up such employment as the Secretary for Chinese Affairs considers suitable for them. Girls below the age of 12, whose parents cannot be found, should be required to stay with their present employers except in cases of cruelty when they should be sent to the Po Leung Kuk until some suitable arrangement can be made for them.
(d) Mui-tsais who remain with their present employers must be placed on the footing of paid servants, receiving wages at a rate for which a minimum will have to be fixed. Up to the age of 9 or 10, the services of such a girl would prob- ably be adequately remunerated by the provision of board and lodging and I do not suggest any monetary payment in these
cases,
Between that age and 18 wages should be paid at rates to be fixed hereafter the rate would be more or less nominal up to the age of say 15 and thereafter a sum based on the rate of wages normally paid in households where paid maidservants are employed.
These wages should not be paid to the girl, but should be placed to her credit in a bank and accumulate until she reaches the age of 18 when the accumulations should be at her disposal. Girls above the age of 18 can make their own bargains in regard to wages.
(The ages quoted above are inserted for the sake of illustration. The exact ages and the rates of pay are among the details that require to be elaborated in consultation with the Chinese advisers of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs. It will also be necessary to make some provision for seeing that payments to the girls' bank accounts are duly made.)
(e) No girl must in future be taken as a mui-tsai. Mui-tsais already in the employment of families who come from China to settle here must be registered on arrival and treated in all respects in the same way as mui-tsais now in Hong Kong.
(f) No one in future shall employ a female domestic servant, other than one of the former mui-tsais provided for above, below the age of ten years.
(This provision seems to me to be necessary in order to prevent evasion of the law.)