CO129-514-2 Mui Tsai system- suggested regulations and possible abolition 9-1-1929 - 16-5-1929 — Page 174

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starvation that the too numerous children must find

work or die, and they cannot always find work in

their own villages.

(d) The existing muitsai, whose numbers constantly

fluctuate owing to the arrival of new families from

China or the departure of Hong Kong families to China

are so numerous that it would be quite impossible to

deal with them if they were taken away from their

employers.

(e) To enforce drastic measures against the legal sense

of the Chinese community would be to invite obstruct-

ion in a matter in which obstruction would be

peculiarly easy and from a class peculiarly skilled

11.

in obstruction.

I have given instructions that all cases in

which a muitsai is concerned and particularly any case of

cruelty to a muitsai, shall be brought at once to the notice

of the Colonial Secretary, in order that I may make personal

inquiry into such cases. I shall explore further the

proposal that there should be instituted in this Colony an

organization similar to the Society of Prevention of Cruelty

to Children in England and that in this connection female inspectors, appointed by the Hong Kong Government, might be employed. For the rest and I am quite certain that it would

be useless, and even detrimental to the cause in view, to

attempt to advance ahead of public opinion in China itself,

and I do not doubt that the spirit of reform, now wide-

spread in China, will before very long address itself practic ally (and not merely on paper) to the modification of the

muitsai system. Its disappearance is not, however, to be

expected