6
148
13.
The following is an excerpt from the latest report
of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children,
which is of interest: -
"Two of the cases concerned muitsai.
In one of these a girl aged twelve years, the
daughter of very poor sampan folk, had been handed over
to apparently equally poor sampan folk. She ran
away and complained of being beaten, and of receiving
insufficient food. The only mark of violence on
her was an old bruise on the inner side of her thigh,
and this seemed most unlikely to have been caused by
a blow.
This girl was handed over to the
Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and was returned to
her mother.
In the other muitsai case, there were complaints that a girl aged 15 years was always being beaten.
The matter was referred to the Secretariat for Chinese
Affairs and the girl was promptly removed from her
employer's custody. No marks of violence were found.
She was offered accommodation in an orphanage, and
given time to consider this. But nothing would
content her save being allowed to return to her
employer. This she was eventually permitted to do, under satisfactory independent guarantee for her future proper treatment.
With the exception of the two last-mentioned cases, a further case, in which a girl was unable to point out the house in which the alleged ill-treatment had taken place, and the case of Plaint No. 126 of which details are given among the selected cases, no complaints of improper treatment of muitsai have been
brought