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HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.
assert a claim as against a third party to the custody of the girl if the Secretary for Chinese Affairs were not to exercise his legal right of guardianship.
7. In the second place, the present section appears to give the Secretary for Chinese Affairs the full and unfettered right of a legal guardian. Section 10 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1923, however, con- siderably limits his right to refuse to restore a girl who is a mui tsai to the custody of her parent or natural guardian. There is a distinct conflict here between the two Ordinances. No doubt the later Ordinance would prevail, but it is advisable to make that posi- tion quite clear. Accordingly, the proposed new section 32 provides that the rights of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as legal guardian shall be subject to the provisions of section 10 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1923. That section provides that any mui tsai who wishes to be restored to the custody of her parent or natural guardian, and any mui tsai under eighteen whose parent or natural guardian wishes such mui tsai to be restored to his or her custody, shall be restored to such custody unless the Secretary for Chinese Affairs sees some grave objection in the interest of such mui tsai to such restoration.
8. In the third place, it might be argued that the declaratory clause of Ordinance No. 1 of 1923, i.e., section 2, negatives the right of guardianship conferred on the Secretary for Chinese Affairs by section 32 of Ordinance No. 4 of 1897. Reasons are given in the Objects and Reasons attached to the Female Domestic Service Amendment Bill for suggesting that the conflict here is only apparent, but it has been thought better to make the matter quite clear, and this is being done by means of a new section 23 which the above bill proposes to insert in Ordinance No. 1 of 1923. That new section will provide that nothing in Ordinance No. 1 of 1923 is to affect any right of guardianship vested in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs under Ordinance No. 4 of 1897, or to be vested in him under Ordinance No. 4 of 1897 as amended by this Ordinance.
9. Section 39 of the principal Ordinance gives to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, and any officer authorised for that purpose by him in writing, power to search any vessel or place where he has reasonable cause to suspect that there is any woman or girl who may be liable to be dealt with under the Ordinance, or in which he has reasonable cause to suspect that an offence against the Ordinance is being committed. It also gives power to search. for the purpose of ascertaining whether there is in any vessel or place any woman or girl who may be liable
be dealt with under the Ordinance, or for the purposes of ascertain- ing whether any offence against the Ordinance is being committed there. The section gives power to remove and detain the woman or girl, but it gives no power to arrest, and it gives no power to seize documents or other articles which may be evidence of an
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