-9.
76
2.
A master, I understand, would be quite ready
and willing to restore his muitsai to her
parents, if they could be found. In the
majority of cases the parents of the muitsai
could not be found and, if found, some parents
might not be willing to take the girl back or
the girl herself might not be willing to leave
her master. In any such cases the master will
be quite willing to go before the Secretary for
Chinese Affairs and destroy any documentary
evidence which made the girl a muitsai and to
place her at the disposal of the Secretary for
Chinese Affairs. Since the Secretary for
Chinese Affairs has no ready means of providing
for the care of such girls, her master may,
however, be induced to take her back as a
Chu Nin Mui; provided he could have the usual
power of dismissal if this new kind of registered
Chu Nin Mui should become disobedient.
Under the above
circumstances I would suggest,
as I have already suggested to you at our private meeting,
that the form of Registration may be amended or altered in
such a way as to encourage masters to come forward and
register their muitsai.
The aim of the instructions from the Secretary of
State is, I understand, (1) to remove the stigma of allowing
muitsai to be kept in the Colony, which has been branded in
England as "slavery", (2) to enforce registration of muitsai
with the object of eliminating them by degrees and, in time
to come, entirely from the Colony. No form of registration
is insisted upon, but this is left to local legislators.
I submit that in order to attain the above objects,
the simplest way is, to change the "Status" of a muitsai
into