COPY.
72759/30.
WA
DOWNING STREET,
6th August, 1930.
49
4.7.1930.
Sir.
I am directed by Lord Passfield to
transmit to you
to be laid before Mr Secretary
Henderson, the accompanying copy of a letter which has been received from the Anti-Slavery and
Aborigines Protection Society and in which they suggest that papers relating to the Mui-tsai question in Hong Kong should be communicated to the League of Nations in order to impress upon the League the extent to which the difficulties of the Hong Kong Government are due to slavery in
China.
2. As Mr Henderson is aware, Mui-tsai,
whe ther in China or in Hong Kong are not slaves,
and the institution has no connection with slavery.
It will be necessary to make this point clear in any communication to the League.
It is not altogether clear from the
Society's letter whether the expression "widespread
practice of slave-owning and slave-trading in
China itself" is meant to refer to the Chinese
institution of Mui-tsai or to recent modifications
of it under the abolition decree, or to the exis-
tence of some other institution more nearly
approaching to slavery.
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3. In any case Lord Passfield apprehends
that Mr Henderson would reluctant to couple the communication of papers to the League, whichhe has promised in Parliament, with an attack on China
and Chinese national customs in the manner
suggested by the Society in their letter, and that
THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE
FOREIGN OFFICE.
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