CO129-514-2 Mui Tsai system- suggested regulations and possible abolition 9-1-1929 - 16-5-1929 — Page 168

2.

170

immediate reforms. In fact the whole agitation concerning

muitsai had been quiescent for many years in face of serious local emergencies which arose owing to the political

conditions in China.

3.

On searching the official archives of the

Colony since I assumed the Government in November, 1925,

I find that on the 17th March, 1927, my eye was caught by

a paragraph in the Wa Tsz Yat Po, one of the vernacular

papers of Hong Kong, stating that, since regulations had

been promulgated in Canton abolishing the muitsai, the

number of persons selling children in Hong Kong had

increased.

I asked the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for

a report on this statement and he replied on the 28th March,

1927, that he had on that day interviewed Mr. Yeung Shiu-

chuen, President of the Anti-muitsai Society in Hong Kong,

and had ascertained from him that it was Mr. Yeung himself

who had caused the paragraph in question to be inserted in Wa Tsz Yat Po. Mr. Yeung could not, however, supply any

definite information on the subject and was not very helpful.

Moreover, it was quite clear that the Canton regulations were merely eyewash, muitsai being renamed "adopted daughters", a method comparable to the renaming of opium as "anti-opium medicine". Regarding the truth of the

statement in the Wa Tsz Yat Po, the Secretary for Chinese

Affairs reported that he had not observed any increase in

the number of cases of traffic in children brought before his department. He added:- "I am inclined to regard the Canton regulations merely as propaganda. Brigandage and general distress in South China,which is also reflected in the notable increase in emigration, would be quite enough to account for the prevalence of the traffic."

-

4.