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The attitude often taken up by foreigners on this question seeme to ignore the efforts of the Chinese themselves in Hong Kong and, indeed, would almost seem to deny them the possession of any proper sympathy or initiative. The institution known as the Po Leung Kuk is evidence to the contrary, and it is difficult to see what better means there are at present of finding a solution for the difficulty. The Kuk is managed and financed by voluntary annual Committees of Chinese, there being in addition a permanent Committee, called when necessary, of the most prominent and public-spirited residents of the Colony. All of them have served on the Annual Committee, and on other charitable committees as well. The Kuk itself is the Girls' Home, and in it are kept cases under consideration. Special ordinances give the necessary powers, but very many cases are dealt with daily that do not go through the Home itself. The Committee is the advisory board for the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (8.0.A.) in such matter. Cases are constantly daily referred for advice, and the police are in the closest touch with the Institution, and the community at large frequently sends cases to it direct. The Government chooks every detail of the Institution and of the Committee's work through the 8.C.A. The Committee keep in touch with charitable bodies all over China, and not infrequently succeed in checking a girl's statements and in finding her parents or relations. When necessary, girls are escorted home through the assistance of these other bodies. Some claimants to girls are permitted after enquiry to keep them under bond; other girls are kept till they can be married from the Kuk or till they are properly adopted-under bond in both cases. Every possible kind of case passes through the hands of the Committee, which sits daily, including Sundays, and brings to bear a knowledge of Chinese life and methods of thought impossible for a foreigner. The Committee works under conditions of the greatest publicity, and bears the very highest reputation for integrity. It does work which is quite beyond the reach of any Government Department not so assisted.
There is a new Committee of twelve each year; but the retiring Committee do not lose all their interest in the work. They come from all parts of the Colony proper, and are always ready to receive and forward complaints, to give information, and to make enquiries.
In addition, Chinese subscriptions support a force of 100 “ District Watchmen," under the control of the S.C.A. They rank as police, but are appointed and managed through a Chinese Committee, and deal only with crime-not merely statutory or municipal offences. They are, perhaps, for this reason, more in the confidence of the people than are the regular police, and one of their principal duties is the detection of cases of kidnapping and of offences against women and girls.
The Tung Wa Hospital, the Confucian Bociety and some temples, maintain quite a large number of schools-mostly free-and con- stantly press the Government to further their efforts in vernacular education. The point does not bear directly on the mui taai question,
but goes to show that the Chinese will readily expend thought and effort on raising the standard around them. The mni taai question is a very prominent one, and it is impossible that they should have omitted to look carefully for a cure for its abuses, which have the effect of bringing everyone who shares in the system and follows the custom into disrepute abroad.
These institutions are good evidence that the Chinese are not indifferent in this matter, and the trouble and money they expend is evidence also that there is no simpler solution to be found than the detailed detection of abuses. They have realised that native sympathy and assistance are essential, and the best of them have assisted loyally. Registration, either in the general or the more limited form, does not meet with their approval as a practical measure--and they are intensely practical men and will even perhaps be resented for reasons already detailed, and any attempt to impose it would risk the loss of the present sympathy and co-operation without which the efforts of the Government would amount to very little indeed. Even now there seams a dangerous tendency to resent the manner in which their work has been ignored in all the publicity that has been given to the Slavery question, and to feel that the position given them is not proper recognition for arduous work done by busy men for no remunera- tion. It might be added that the implied reflections on their capacity are no less unjustified. The members of the Committees are drawn from the most prominent Chinese business men of the Colony, who have set a high standard for broadmindedness and ability. If any better practical scheme than their own can be devised, they will undoubtedly do their best to make it successful; but they will have nothing to do with registration and the risks of trying to act against their advice are that they may cease their active co-operation and leave the Government to employ just the ordinary official methods.
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Social workers in the Colony, perhaps, make too little allowance for the necessity for sympathy and co-operation. Non-Christians are apt to be thrown together as "heathens," and no custom with the alightest "heathen" taint can be tolerated. The Chinese recognise the attitude of mind and allow for it. They are broadminded enough to give Christian effort full opportunity and even to subscribe funds for it. But they have their own civilisation and customs and ask for the same treatment in respect of matters where their conscience is free, and the mui taai question is one of these, for the mere statement that the sale of a human being is immoral does not in the circum- stances carry any conviction to them. To cruelty they object, whether the human being has been bought or not; but standards of cruelty vary, and it may even be doubted whether there is more real ill-treat- ment of children in Hong Kong than there is in the East End of London.
To these notes should, perhaps, be added a word on a confusion of ideas which constantly appears in European writings on this subject, the point of confusion being the connection between the mui taai and child labour. The mui taai system may be attributable to the samé
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