CO129-514-2 Mui Tsai system- suggested regulations and possible abolition 9-1-1929 - 16-5-1929 — Page 70

4.

20

be married later than 23, but might be allowed to remain single if they chose; that no "adopted daughters" should be forced to become concubines; that adequate clothing, board and lodging should be provided for "adopted daughters", according to the circumstances (of their "adopted parents");

that if any person should be discovered by the police to have beaten or maltreated an "adopted daughter", the girl should

be sent to a poor girls' home or an industrial school to be

brought up, and that the person who ill-treated the girl

should be fined as a warning; that when anybody, who had been

fined for maltreating his "adopted daughter"

was then

found to have maltreated her again, a greater fine or other

punishment would be imposed.

4.

It is, of course, very important to know how

far these fair-seeming regulations have been carried into

practice, and I have made such enquiries as were possible on

the subject. Mr. A. A. L. Tuson, the acting Consul General

at Canton, wrote to me on the 29th April that he had no

reliable information as to the extent to which the regulations

had been enforced. Mr. A. G. Major, His Majesty's Consul at Swatow, wrote to me on the same date as follows:-

"Whilst regulations prohibiting the mui-tsai system were

promulgated locally over two years ago and are still nominally enforced, actually the practice still flourish- es, though under a different name, 'adopted daughter'. At the time of the introduction of the prohibition all

indentures were called in, and those that were surrender-

ed were cancelled and destroyed, though no steps were taken, for obvious reasons, in the direction of liberating the vast numbers of girls concerned. I understand, however, that the application of the regulations has brought about some improvement in the treatment of

mui-tsai

Page 70Page 71