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The Anti-mui-tsai Society and the "Protection " Society can assist in the carrying out of the present Bill by having all mui-tsai informed of their status as declared in clause 2, and of their right to report at once to the Government in case they are ill- treated; and also by advising employers to treat their mui-tsai well, otherwise they would be punished severely. It should be remembered, as analogous to this matter, that the foot-binding practice which had been in existence in China for nearly two thousand years, and which was, as recently as twenty-five years ago, tenaciously clung to by the people, was eventually abolished, not by legal enactments but by gradual pressure of enlightened public opinion, until we see to-day middle-aged dames and young girls, instead of being carried on the backs of amahs, merrily tripping about in the streets in short skirts and high-heeled shoes, just like their Western sisters. What has happened to foot-binding should happen to the custom of keeping mui-tsai.
Let me now recapitulate the views of my Chinese colleague and myself, which, I think I can say, are also the views of my other Unofficial colleagues, namely, that to make illegal the engagement of mui-tsai in Hong Kong at this juncture would be impracticable, that, as a preventive of ill-treatment of mui tsai, persons guilty of gross cruelty should be sent to prison for a long term with hard labour. It has been a source of regret to me that, while the case for stopping the employment of mui-tsai has been so ably and widely presented, those who are in favour of retaining the system for the present, with certain radical improvements in their position, have, until only quite recently, remained almost inarticulate. I say this because I wish that both sides had had an equal chance of presenting their respective cases to the Secretary of State. Those in favour of the Bill have undoubtedly been actuated by generous motives and lofty ideals, but I am afraid that their burning zeal has not permitted them to study the problem with that calmness and impartiality which the import- ance of the subject demands. I do not keep, and have never kept, any mui-tsai, but this does not blind me to the unwisdom of trying to sweep away in a day the custom with its good points. My Chinese colleague and I have given this grave problem much careful and anxious thought; and, while we recognise that there is much to be said for the arguments adduced by both sides, we have felt it our bounden duty to state, as I have done, the conclusions we have arrived at, without fear or favour. It remains for us to signify our support to the amendments which will be moved in committee by the Honourable Senior Unofficial Member.
H.E. THE GOVERNOR: Gentlemen, Before we pass on to the next stage of the Bill I desire to make a few general remarks on the subject. I should like, in the first place, to make it perfectly clear that I dissociate myself entirely from the venomous attacks which have been made on the whole Chinese population of this Colony by ignorant persons at Home who seem to assume that because a system is liable to abuse it is therefore essentially bad. At the same time, I think it must be admitted that there is, from the Western point of view, a strong case against the maintenance of a system which, to the unsubtle Western mind, is very difficult to distinguish from slavery owing to the passing of money and the acquisition of services which are subsequently unpaid. The arguments which have been brought forward with regard to the general contentment of the mui-tsai and the general excellence of the system, may very likely be perfectly correct. I have very little doubt that many of the statements, that ninety per cent. of the statements are correct. But if any hon. member will take the trouble to read up the literature of the early part of the nineteenth century he will find in numerous pamphlets of West Indies' societies precisely the same arguments, reproduced in almost exactly the same words, as to the rare occurrence of cases of ill-treatment amongst negro slaves. These arguments were not allowed to stand in the way of the abolition of the system of slavery in the British Colonies, and I fear that it is impossible to allow arguments of the same kind to stand in the way of the abolition of a system of keeping mui-tsai in Hong Kong. The hon. member who spoke on behalf of all the unofficial members commented on the reference to" certain persons " who had " erroneously supposed" certain things, in Clause 2 of the Bill and he suggested that those certain persons
who had made erroneous suppositions were all the 300 or 400 million inhabitants of China. It seem to me
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B