THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. (No. 280.) SIR,
Downing Street, 9th May, 1923.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No., 191 of the 29th of March,* enclosing a report of a Committee appointed to make a final revision of the proposals of the Salaries Commission and to work out details for bringing the scheme into operation.
2. I appreciate the careful and exhaustive work which the Committee have done, and the ability which they have brought to the settlement of the many com- plicated questions of detail which have arisen. I have to convey to you my general approval of their recommendations.
3. I am glad that you have been able to accept the view expressed by my pre decessor with regard to the enforcement of efficiency bars in the salary scales. Seeing that the whole system of promotion from class to class has, in the case of many departments, been swept away, you will, I think, agree that it is essential that the efficiency bars should be a real obstacle to prevent the inefficient officer from rising automatically to the top of the salary scale.
4. I trust that with the adoption of the proposals of the Committee, the task of improving the position of Government servants in Ceylon, which was an urgent necessity, has now been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
20108
No. 29.
I have, &c.,
DEVONSHIRE.
[Printed for the use of the Colonial Office.]
322
EASTERN
No. 137.
HONG KONG.
THE MUI TSAI SYSTEM.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. (No. 281.) SIR,
Downing Street, 9th May, 1923.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 190 of the 29th of March,† regarding the position of the Chief Justice under the new Salaries Scheme.
2. In view of the recommendation of the Committee, with whose general proposals I have dealt in my despatch of even date, I approve of your proposal, that the Chief Justice should be allowed a house in Colombo free of rent.
I have, &c.,
DEVONSHIRE.
?
* No. 27.
↑ No. 26.
↑ No. 28.
MEMORANDUM BY MR. H. R. HALLIFAX, O.B.E.
This system may be considered to have become the means by which the demand for domestic servants is supplied. The circumstances of the country (for reasons given below) have made board and lodging in a family which can afford it something to be fervently desired for their female children by very many parents. The girls' maintenance and training become the wages of the work done, whilst a single payment to the parents represents the support a child in other circumstances might be expected voluntarily to afford. The age at which children must work if they are to live is so low that any idea of trusting the average mui taai with wages to be disposed of at her own will is out of the question at the beginning, and the Chinese of the class which would supply mui taai cannot afford to look far ahead, Some idea of the ultimate money value of the girl on marriage may even be considered in the payment made; though the exact ideas underlying the "deeds of gift"—the formal documents of transfer. of mui tsai-are left to be inferred from a comparison of the many varying conditions they contain. The deeds take many shapes, down to the most illiterate, and have little in common beyond the use of the word "Bung" (present) and the avoidance of “
mai (mell).
35
They generally contain conditions as to treatment, and perhaps as to marriage; they may go further and enter the details of the control which the parents may continue to exercise; but all thin is as a rule omitted and has to be regulated by the customs applicable
to the facta.
For in theory still parents do not lose all control over the destinies of their daughter who goes out to work as a mai tuai—unions (and the costom is not common among girls) she is formally and fully adopted.
EN NYONY) WL 19000--P90 108 109 W à 1, 144. DI
៩ ·
56
20109
(No. 280.)
No. 28.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
Downing Street, 9th May, 1923.
SIR,
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 191 of the 29th of March,* enclosing a report of a Committee appointed to make a final revision of the proposals of the Salaries Commission and to work out details for bringing the scheme into operation.
2. I appreciate the careful and exhaustive work which the Committee have done, and the ability which they have brought to the settlement of the many com- plicated questions of detail which have arisen. I have to convey to you my genera! approval of their recommendations.
3. I am glad that you have been able to accept the view expressed by my pre decessor with regard to the enforcement of efficiency bars in the salary scales. Seeing that the whole system of promotion from class to class has, in the case of many departments, been swept away, you will, I think, agree that it is essential that the efficiency bars should be a real obstacle to prevent the inefficient officer from rising automatically to the top of the salary scale.
1
I trust that with the adoption of the proposals of the Committee, the task of improving the position of Government servants in Ceylon, which was an urgent necessity, has now been brought to a satisfactory conclusion.
X
20108
No. 29.
I have, &c.,
DEVONSHIRE.
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