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statement was received by the Chinese members of
the District Watch Committee with consternation.
One of them exclaimed, "Thy, in that case a mui-tsai
can never become free!" and Mr. Li Yau-ts'ün, C.B.E.,
a most respected Chinese merchant, drew attention
to his own case. He told the Committee that he
himself has a mui-tsai in his household; that he
wished, when the present agitation against the
mui-tsai system began, to give his mui-tsai back
to her parents unconditionally and without
receiving any refund of the money for which he
purchased her. The parents, however, refused to
take their daughter back, and the girl herself was
most reluctant to leave the family of Mr. Li Yau-
ts'ün, where no doubt she is much better off than
she would be with her parents. What then, he asked,
should he do? Was there no means by which he
could get rid of the stigma now attached in Hong Kong
to those who have mui-tsai in their household; and
must he for ever and a day be saddled with the inconvenience, and indeed, the hardship involved in ownership of a registered mui-tsai?
3. I also invite Your Lordship's attention to the case of Mr. Kan Hung-chiu, of the Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company, and proprietor of the King Tai Bank. His position is described in the
letter from Dr. Ts'o, which forms the enclosure to this despatch. Mr. Kan had two mui-tsai. He
restored one of them to her mother and the other to
her father during the course of this year; but both
have