C 2
During the period under review, the Police paid a total of sixty-six visits to an equal number of registered muitsai living in the New Territories.
7. At the beginning of the year the number of registered muitsai was 1,396, but by the end of December they had been reduced to 1,102. The 294 cancellations are accounted for as follows:
Died 2 Absconded 4 Left Colony permanently 3 Married 35 Restored to parents or relatives 23 Earning their own living 110 Removed from the register 31 Remaining with the employer as a member of the family 84 Taken into the care of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs 2Of the fifty girls reported on December 31st, 1937, as attending school, forty-four are amongst those muitsai whose names were removed from the Muitsai Register and transferred to the Register of Adopted Daughters under the Women and Girls Ordinance, No. 5 of 1938. The total number of muitsai on record as school pupils is therefore six.
Of the eighty-four girls remaining with their employers as members of the family, sixty-three have been transferred to the Register of Adopted Daughters under the Women and Girls Ordinance, No. 5 of 1938. In the remaining cases the girls have been allowed, on grounds of age, to remain, at their own request, with their employers as members of the family.
8. 165 persons were prosecuted under the Female Domestic Service Ordinance (1 of 1923) and the Offences Against the Person Ordinance (2 of 1865) in respect of 175 girls. In all 200 charges under this and other enactments were preferred as follows:
(1) Ill-treatment of unregistered muitsai 7 (2) Ill-treatment of child under 16 years 3 (3) Common assault 6 (4) Keeping an unregistered muitsai 105 (5) Bringing an unregistered muitsai into the Colony 67 (6) Failing to report the intended removal from the Colony of a registered muitsai 2 (7) Failing to report change of address of a registered muitsai 6 (8) Failing to report the intended marriage of a registered muitsai 4 Total 200Twelve cases were discharged, in twenty-nine cases defendants were cautioned, in fifty-two cases defendants were bound over, and seven cases were withdrawn.
Where the employers of unregistered muitsai had been prosecuted the girls concerned were disposed of as follows:
Eighty-five girls entered domestic service, thirty-six girls were transferred to the Register of Adopted Daughters and Wards under the Women and Girls Ordinance, No. 5 of 1938, eighteen girls were restored to parents and relatives, fourteen girls were sent to the Po Leung Kuk, ten girls were allowed to remain with their employers, seven girls were married, three girls obtained employment, one girl left the Colony and one girl absconded.