5363-31
137
n
No.
Despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for
MY LORD DUKE,
the Colonies.
(Received 9th April, 1923.)
Government House,
Hong Kong,
6th March, 1923.
In a despatch of even date* I am forwarding to Your Grace for the signification of His Majesty's pleasure the Ordinance " to regulate certain forms of domestic service which has been passed in order to effect the abolition of the mui-tsai system.
2. In my despatch of 24th January† I informed your Grace that I understood that when the second reading of this measure was brought forward the Unofficial Members of the Council would ask for a long adjournment with a view to bringing forward counter-proposals and that at the moment of writing I was doubtful as to what would be the wisest policy to adopt if they should do so. As will be seen from the reports of the debates enclosed in my numbered despatch the Unofficial Members changed their minds on this point. Their reason, if my information is correct, was that the Chinese Members felt that if the Government insisted on passing the measure, after they had opposed it, the labour guilds who, as I stated in my previous despatch‡ were endeavouring to exploit the situation for political purposes, would claim that this was due to their support of the proposed law and that they had therefore won a victory over the representatives of the “bourgeoisie.”
* No.
+ Not printed.
‡ No.
3. At any rate, whatever the reason may have been, they did not vote against the passing of the Bill. There was, as will be seen, a division on the question whether clauses 4 and 5 of the Bill which · provided that no person should in future take into his employment a mui-tsai or a female domestic servant under ten years of age should be included in the part of the Ordinance which was to come into immediate operation or should be relegated to Part III which is to be brought into force by proclamation. Mr. Pollock proposed that they should be placed in Part III for reasons which, in the course of his speech, he made completely incomprehensible.
4. Having Your Grace's instructions that there could be no com- promise on this point I decided that I could not accept the motion, even if Mr. Pollock's reasons had been intelligible, and the question went to a division with the result that all the Unofficial Members voted for the motion and all the Official Members against. In paragraph 2 of my previous despatch I deprecated the use of the official majority in order to pass the Ordinance but in the present case I felt certain that some at least of the Unofficial Members were not really in favour of Mr. Pollock's motion and that if they voted for it it would only be in order to preserve the solidarity of the opposition. I ascertained afterwards that I had correctly diagnosed the situation and that some of those who voted for the motion did not agree with it and shared my inability to understand Mr. Pollock's reasons. I am fully satisfied therefore that the use of the official majority on this occasion has left no ill-feeling behind.
5. The Bill was read a third time and passed on the 15th of February and it is therefore now clearly established that no more mui-tsai are to be engaged and that no employer of a girl previously taken as a mui-tsai can exercise any proprietary rights over her.
The only question remaining is with regard to Part III of the Ordinance which deals mainly with the question of registration and the payment of wages. The Ordinance provides that this Part is Mot to come into operation until such date as may be fixed by
proclamation by the Governor in Council.
6. After very careful consideration I am convinced that the introduction of a system of registration should not be attempted at present. The Chinese have accepted with, on the whole, a very
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