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Government to handle direct, and this reason alone would make it difficult or impossible-to interfere suddenly in any radical manner with the solution the natives have found for such a difficult question. It becomes a matter of raising the standard of a whole nation.
The attitude of the Chinese people may be illustrated by the fate of Chan King Wa's attempt to alter the system in Canton shortly after the Revolution of 1911 which ended the Empire. Chan, nominally Chief of Police in Canton, exercised very wide powers throughout the Province, and no one quarrelled with his position (which included the
power of life and death). He introduced a number of enlightened reforms, many of them far in advance of the times, and he was strong enough to impose his will on the people while he lived in everything but the question of mui tsai. In that matter, at the height of his power, he forbade "sales," decreed a system of registration, set up an expensive system of homes, and gave inquisitorial authority to his men-and nothing happened. And the tendency in many matters since the Revolution, to settle back again into the old Chinese groove, makes any such movement now even less likely to succeed.
That the system has, and must have, its abuses cannot be denied. That the number of cases in which it is abused is very large is also true; but there are no data for making a proportionate estimate beyond auch generalities as that the custom is practically universal and the system accepted, and is, therefore, on the whole beneficial. The abuses, however, are actively recognised as abuses by all the better Chinese, and with them it is only a question of the extent to which they can be checked, and, granted that the system itself must be allowed as yet to continue, this problem of checking the abuses becomes the immediate matter in hand.
In a question of this nature it is not possible to dissociate Hong Kong from China. There is a very large daily passenger traffic with the Colony by river steamer, train and junk. The island itself is only some 20 miles from the Chinese border and 90 from Canton, and the Colony's native population of some 600,000 odd is for the most part a constantly moving one. It is no more possible to recognise and keep a check on the mui tsai moving to and fro than it is to re- cognise and keep a check on all robbers and bad characters from the interior.
The Colony has, with the active assistance of resident Chinese, developed its own system of detecting and dealing with abuses as far as possible. This will be referred to below. It appears that some- thing more is asked for, but the only suggestion made is for some form of registration. A very slight local knowledge would show that the practical difficulties in the way of registering all mui taai in the Colony are so great as to render the suggestion of small value at the best. The regulations would have to contain sections appointing Inspectors (who, if not Europeans, would have at least to be under the closest European supervision), with large powers of entry to private houses,
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Penalties for breach would be necessary. Arrangements would be required to cover the cases of travellers passing through the Colony; and with it all we should only at best irritate without making any real advance. Cases of abuse could be just as easily covered. Mui tsai are young and simple, with all the stupidity and timidity of the most rustic inexperience, and the truth is rarely to be got from them or through them. Witnesses on their side are very rarely to be found, while the kidnapper or procures has little difficulty in finding support for any story that may fit the case. Relationship itself can be claimed, with little chance of the claim being disproved. All the evil-disposed would be no worse off than they are at present, but a new burden would be laid on the well- disposed. And the burden would be a heavy one. A registration scheme would create endless openings for squeeze and blackmail, in addition to the interference with private life already referred to. The ground would be well prepared for such a development by the ignorance of most of the Chinese concerned, and not less by the suspicions that would be aroused in a very large class, even of honest people, that the Government had some ulterior motive in their regis- tration scheme. These would attempt to hide the truth, and would so give the blackmailer his opportunity. The Chinese genius for squeeze and blackmail, as well as the weakness which the victims show, are matters almost inconceivable to those who have not been in direct touch with the people.
So much for general registration. It would fail because evasion would be too easy, and because it would lack public sympathy or even perhaps alienate it by the Regulations that any serious attempt to enforce it would require.
But would a partial registration scheme be possible for Hong Kong residents alone! The abuses are not mainly in the class that seems to be intended by this suggestion, for while it is difficult to define exactly what is meant by "Hong Kong resident," those who have made Hong Kong their permanent home are little, if at all, concerned in the mui tasi traffic. But all who can afford it, from the highest down, have mui tsai, and this part of the community is very ready to do all it can for their protection. Such limited registration would mean in a more pointed manner than ever that the well-disposed would be put to extra trouble, and the omission from the Regulations of the regular trafficker, who moves about the country and lives nowhere, would entirely emasculate the suggestion. These people would be left to be dealt with exactly as at present-by detective enquiries, leading to Police Court prosecution wherever possible, or, where evidence for the Court might be lacking, but the case in the opinion of the Governor in Council justified such action, by banishment. The records of the Colony show that the campaign against traffickers along these lines is actively carried on, and they show also a con- stant strengthening of the law, generally on the advice of the Chinese,
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :--
CO. 882/10
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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