}
153
that this small deviation from the strict letter of
the regulations will not be regarded as unreasonable.
•
I have stated in paragraph 1 that there are
It has,
at present 3,482 kui faal on the Registers.
however, been discovered through constant visits of
the Inspectorate Staff that 770 Mui Tsai are not at
to be
Out of
present found at their registered addresses.
this total of 770, 169 could not be traced by the
Inspectors at the addresses given at the time of
the original registration and the neighbours had
never heard of these girls, while 130 had been heard
of by the neighbours but were stated by them to have
married or in other cases to have returned with their
employers to China. These 299 have not yet been
removed from the registers, but if no further
information about them is obtained before my next
half-yearly report, I propose then to write them off.
here remain 471 who have been visited on
at least one occasion by the Inspectors, but subsequent
visits elicited the information that the girls and
their employers had removed to addresses unknown with-
out notifying the Authorities.
The importance of such notification is
kept well before the public, not only by the efforts
of the Inspectors but also through the medium of the
vernacular press. he fact must be faced, however,
that in cases of permanent removals from the Colony,
it is not to be expected that all employers will
take the trouble to acquaint us with their purpose
to