CO129-449 - Governor Sir May & Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1918 [7-9] — Page 260

15. breaking into

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indeed the only course that can be followed. Transfer of the nature defined will continue a common custom in spite of any Government action: it is entirely out of the question for Government to take direct charge of the large numbers con- -cerned: and the position given to the Government by the section quoted is the only practical one and makes it

possible gradually to raise the treatment of "mui tsai" to a

higher plane. The guardianship becomes very clearly a trust at pleasure of Goverment. The bad guardian can be deprived of a "mui tsai", without any question of compensation, and

-

the community will assist as it has always been ready to do

- in bringing such cases to notice. If there is to be any

real progress in the matter of raising the standard of treat-

-ment, recognition of the circumstances with a proper dis- -crimination must be increasingly conceded.

4.

The necessity for such recognition as the

only means of enforcing important sections of the law has in

Hovething truas the fact been occasionally admitted. For the purpose of prosecut-

mit felony

TL 22 of 15. 1897

-ions under section 45 of Ordinance No. 2 of 1865, the em-

-ployer has sometimes been treated as having the lawful care

of the child as against the child stealer although not

possessed of any authority from the legal guardian, the

Secretary for Chinese Affairs. Refusal to adopt this course

would encourage kidnapping: an offence which is very profit-

-able for the purpose of sale outside the Colony, particular-

-ly for immoral purposes. The recognition is not based on the

fact of purchase and the section of the English law for the

protection of children could, it was found, be enforced in

no other way. If this much can be admitted, it would seem no

less than reasonable to admit the same amount of recognition

in other directions, where the one object in view is the

benefit of the children. The section of the Ordinance is

carefully worded in this respect as there is no recognition

of sale or owership: and once there has been such a trasfer, all rights of all the parties are vested in the Government

with

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