4.
2.
30
It seems open to doubt whether the transaction
referred to the sale of a mui-tsai at all, but I will make
further enquiries if I can be furnished with the original documents in the case and the names of the parties in Hong Kong through whom they were obtained.
5. The position in regard to mui-tsai has been very
fully dealt with in previous despatches and is within Your
Lordship's knowledge. I do not propose therefore to make more
than a brief comment on the debate on the subject in the House
of Commons as reported in the copy of Hansard which accompanied
Your Lordship's despatch.
6.
The somewhat contemptuous reference made by Miss Picton-Turbervill in regard to my visits of inspection to some
of the homes of the mui-tsai indicates the curious mentality
which some persons bring to bear on this subject. They in si st
in spite of direct evidence to the contrary, far more reliable
than much of the second hand information received by them, that
the system is entirely pernicious and that I and my advisers fail deliberately to appreciate this or to take adequate steps
to deal with it.
7. It may be of interest to state that my visits were entirely surprise visits, that the employers could not possibly
have had any prior knowledge of my intention, that the mui-tsai
whom I saw were seen by me at once on my entering the respective houses and that there could not possibly have been any window- dressing on the part of the employers. I was accompanied by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the cadet officer specially
in charge of mui-tsai and we found no reluctance on the part of
both the employers and the mui-tsai to give full and frank
information regarding the conditions under which the latter
were living. I scarcely anticipated that the special steps
which
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