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people, including local Europeans, believed that we could not
be successful. What I have been trying to convey is that, in
view of all the forebodings and the statements that we were
not wise in attempting to carry out regulations which would
prevent altogether new bui-tsai being either created in, or
brought into, the Colony, and would also transform the status
of the remaining Mui-tsai from what was comparable to chattel
slavery into that of a domestic servant, we feel that we have
had a surprising amount of success. It will, of course, take
a little time before the large and cosmopolitan population of
dong Kong get it firmly into their minds that this change is
a permanent and definite one, and that the Government is
determined to see that no attempt at evasion can be
successfully carried out. I want you to look at the reports
of these trials and convictions as the best evidence we can
have of the determination of the Government to see that
evasion does not take place, and I au satisfied that if the
law is firmly applied, as we have instructed that it shoul^
be,