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admittedly repugnant to English ideas, and successive
Secretaries of State for the Colonies have considered
how so deeply rooted an institution could be ended.
In 1923 an Ordinance was passed in the Colony providing that no person should in the future take into his
employment any Hui-Tsai, that any ui-Tsai who wished
to be restored to the custody of her parent or natural
guardian and any Mui-Tsai under the age of 18 whose
parent or natural guardian wished her to be restored
to his custody should without any payment whatsoever
be restored to such custody unless the Secretary for
Chinese Affairs saw some grave objection in the interest
of such Mui-Tsai to such restoration. At the same time
the right of every Mui-Tsai to appeal to the Secretary
for Chinese Affairs was reaffirmed and imprisonment
was prescribed as the penalty for gross illtreatment
of a Mui-Tsai.
In August, 1929, Lord Passfield sent out a
despatch to the Governor (which is printed along with
other correspondence on the subject as a White Paper Cmd.3424, Price 1/3d) instructing the Governor that a
third part of this Ordinance should be brought into
force immediately providing for the registration and
that remuneration of existing Mui-Tsai and/special care should be taken to inform the population generally that
the law was in force and that it would not be allowed
to be a dead letter. The Governor was instructed at the
same time to proceed at once to make regulations for the register of Mui-Tsai, for their remuneration, for
their inspection and control. The Ordinance was also
to be amended so as to forbid the bringing into the
Colony of any new Mui-Tsai. Proposals for the institution of a Society in Hong Kong on the same
ration
lines