CO129-465 - Public Offices & Others - 1920 — Page 293

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

My dear Archbishop,

November 26th 1920.

292

I do not think I can do bettor than

enclose a copy of a Hinute recently made for me in the

office on a similar memorandum distributed by Mrs.

Haslewood.

The essential point about the situation

somia to me to be that you are dealing not with any

legal status, but with the family customs of the Chinese. ·

There is no such thing as slavery in Hong Kong in the

sense that one person can acquire any rights over another

by an act of purchase: these domestics are in the eye

On the

of the law perfectly free and in onse any i1l usage

comes to light can be, and indeed are, at once removed

from thefamily with which they are living and are placed

in an Institution, or with another family.

other land you have the univoreal and immemorial custom

of China that the ordinary domestic work of the house

is done either by the deuchtors of the house between

the ages of ten or twelve and marringe, or,falling a

sufficiency of daughters, by these so-called adopted

daughters. I had a very full talk the other day with

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