CO129-472 - Others - 1921 — Page 624

person from having a mui tsai in his household.

a law even if it could be worked could only have

disastrous results.

Such

3. An instance of the misunderstandings liable to take place even among those in England who take the most pains to inform themselves on the subject may be - found in paragraph 2 of your letter, where you speak

It appears of the mui tsai system as affecting boys. to have escaped your notice that a mui taai is necessarily a girl, that the adoption of boys for domestic service is

unknown at any rate in komplong and the Kwangting Province, and

that the adoption of boys for the purpose of carrying on the family rites is an integral part of the Chinese religious system, The prohibition of such adoptions would amount to

religious persecution.

4. For your further information on the subject of adoption, I am to enclose a copy of a minute by the Acting

As regards paragraph 5 Secretary for Chinese Affairs

of your letter I am to invite reference to the answer given in the House of Commons on the 9th August to a question

Mr. Churchill

asked by Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck.

fuck with

does not accept the view of your Committee that it was a fact apparently accepted by all parties that the right reposed in one party to sell the girl, and he must express his surprise that your Committee should apparently regard as evidence the unsupported statement made by a woman accused of kidnapping in an attempt to justify the action

Mr. Churchill of which she was subsequently convicted. considers that he has a right to expect of a society

bearing such a title as yours that it will avoid the

inferences appearance of supporting its case with the evidence of

convicted kidnappers.

¿4. As regards the question of child labour I am to enclose an extract from the Hong Kong Government Gazette.

the thing and the terms of reference subicct of Child Labour.

R

Commisscom

FL

? O mit

441,

رقم

617

7. As to the suggestion of an impartial

into the ui T: Committee of Enqui Mr. Churchill

Enquiry

is

consulting the Gov. but he doubts whether

such an enquiry could be set on foot and

carried out without antagonizing the

Elders of the Po Leung uk and other en-

lightened menuers of the Community who are

giving very valuable assistance to the 7071

Govt. in the direction of social reform,

and without causing grave unrest among the

Chinese community generally at the pros-

peot of having forced upon them a revo-

lution in their domestic arrangements.

It-must-ce-remembered-that-no-auggestion-Wy

has-yet-been-put-forward.

(Blgond) H. a. HEAD