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The custom of employing mui-tsai has grown up in the course of long years of adjustment to social and economic conditions and we realise that we incur certain dangers in attempting to deal with that custom. There is a danger that we may lose the quasi-parental control and responsibility which I am sure the better class of employer recognises. There is also the danger that we may increase the risks of neglect, kidnapping and prostitution. But when all allowances and apologies are made for ill-informed criticism, and while we acknowledge that the custom of employing mui-tsai is by no means wholly bad and that many of the mui-tsai-I think the majority—are contented with their lot and are fairly well off, and while we recognise the dangers of this legislation, it cannot be denied that the system does lend itself to abuse, and grave abuse, in the hands of evil and unscrupulous persons. Hence this Bill.
The Bill is divided into four parts. Parts I and IV may be called formal or auxiliary. Part II is intended to come into force as soon as the Bill is passed and the Ordinance is gazetted. Part III is to be postponed and not to come into operation until proclaimed by the Governor-in-Council. Part II provides that hereafter no one is to take into his employment in the Colony any mui-tsai as a mui-tsai, and Part III provides that all mui-tsai are to be registered, that no one is to employ an unregistered mui-tsai, and that all mui-tsai over a certain age shall be entitled to
wages.
Now as regards the details of the Bill. Clause 2 of the Bill is declaratory. Pay- ment by an intending employer to a parent or guardian of a child has never in this Colony conferred any rights whatever on such employer to retain possession of the child as against the parent, or even to retain possession of the child as against the child itself. The clause, therefore, is simply declaratory of the existing law. Clause 3 is the definition clause. A mui-tsai is defined as a female domestic servant whose employer has obtained her services by means of a payment. Paragraph (ii.) of the definition is intended to cover two cases: one is the case where the girl has been transferred from one employer to another, and the other is the case where the employer has died and the care of the house and the custody of the child has devolved on the widow, the son, or the concubine of the employer.
Clause 4 is the main clause in Part II of the Bill-the part which is to come into operation at once. It provides that no person shall hereafter take into his employ- ment any mui-tsai. That, of course, will not prevent anyone taking into his employ- ment as a hired servant a girl who was formerly a mui-tsai. Clause 5 provides that no employer shall hereafter take into his employment any female domestic servant under the age of ten years. That is intended to prevent evasion because in the case of children under 10 it would be very difficult to prove that they were or were not mui-tsai. Clause 6 provides that every employer of a mui-tsai must provide the girl with sufficient food and clothing and medical attendance in case of illness, and that no employer of a mui-tsai shall overwork or ill-treat a mui-tsai or subject her to any punishment to which he might not reasonably subject his own daughter. That, I think, really expresses a duty already recognised by all good employers, who, as I said before, are in a large majority.
That brings us to Part III of the Bill--the postponed part. Clause 7 gives a power of making regulations. The regulations that are at present proposed have been published in draft with this Bill. They deal with registration and also with notice of the death of the employer of a mui-tsai and with the wages of mui-tsai. Clauses 8 and 9 require registration, and prohibit the employment of unregistered mui-tsai. Part of the policy of the Bill is to prevent transfers of mui-tsai from one employer to another, but it is obvious, of course, that the case of death must be provided for, and section 11, whilst prohibiting transfers, provides that on the death of an employer the Secretary of Chinese Affairs may make any order which he may think fit for the transfer of such mui-tsai to a new employer. No doubt in the ordinary way in the case of death of an employer he would give the child over to the care of the widow if she were a fit and proper person and the conditions of employment were sufficiently good to justify that order. Sub-clause (2) of that clause provides that when any person becomes the actual employer in fact of a mui-tsai owing to death or for any other reason, such new employer must report that fact within one week. Clause 12 provides that every mui-tsai of or over the age of 10 years may leave her employment at any time without any notice and with- out any payment to any person. That clause again is merely declaratory, as at the present moment such girls have the right to do so. Clause 13 provides that every mui-tsai under the age of 18 who wishes to be restored to her parents, and every mui-tsai under 18 whose parent wishes the mui-tsai restored to his or her custody, shall be so restored unless the Secretary for Chinese Affairs sees some grave objection. That clause, too, is largely declaratory, except that it gives the Secretary for Chinese Affairs a right to enquire into the case in the interests of the girl herself. For example, as I have said in the "Objects and Reasons," he might refuse permission to restore a girl to the custody of a mother who was living an immoral life.
Clause 14 provides that every mui-tsai of or over the age of 12 and under the age of 18 shall have the right to apply to the Secretary of Chinese Affairs and upon such application the Secretary for Chinese Affairs may make any order he may think fit in regard to the custody, control, employment and conditions of employment of the applicant. That is largely declaratory, too, because, of course, every mui-tsai has that right at present, and no doubt the Secretary for Chinese Affairs will be prepared to listen to any application by a mui-tsai whether she be under 12 or over 18 or between those ages. Clause 15 is the wages clause. The wages proposed are given in Regulation 7 of the Draft Regulations. They may seem small by English stand- ards, but, of course, they must be judged by local standards and in view of local conditions.
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