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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
this reason alone, would make it suddenly in any radical manner rund for such a difficult question. tandard of a whole nation.
le may be illustrated by the fate the system in Canton shortly led the Empire. Chan, nominally very wide powers throughout the th his position (which included troduced a number of enlightened e of the times, and he was strong ple while he lived in everything at matter, at the height of his 's system of registration, set up ave inquisitorial authority to his the tendency in many matters ck again into the old Chinese ow even less likely to succeed. ave, its abusge cannot be denied. it is abused is very large is also saking a proportionate estimate a custom à practically universal serefore, on the whole beneficial. recognised as abuses by all the only a question of the extent to ated that the system itself must problem of checking the abuses and.
I not possible to dissociate Hong large daily passenger traffic with id junk. The island itself is only lar and 90 from Canton, and the 600,000 odd is for the most part more possible to recognise and ing to and fro than it is to re- per and bad characters from the
• amsistance of resident Chinese, ling and dealing with abuses RA to below. It appears that some- suggestion made is for some form knowledge would show that the intering all mui tsai in the Colony silon of small value at the best. in sections appointing Inspectors at least to be under the closest
was of entry to private houses,
B
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 an easily covered. Mui taai 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 aide are very rarely to be found, while the kidnapper or procuress 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 1 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 taai 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,
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C.O. 882/10
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