9.
75
her
A
retain her services for domestic purposes and would guard from the wiles of ill-disposed persons. Mui-tsai are more closely attached to the family than are hired servants, and
they cannot so easily be decoyed away without enquiries being set on foot. As a rule, children acquired for training as
prostitutes are not employed as domestic servants. They are
generally taught to sing and to play Mah Jong and to act as
entertainers at restaurants; and in China large numbers of
these girls, who are known as "guitar girls", may be seen frequenting restaurants, where they are called to amuse
customers at dinner. It should be clearly understood that
the mui-tsai is only one variety of purchased child; and it is of course, very necessary, if the practice of sale and purchase of children is to be suppressed, that the activities
of all professional traffickers should be curtailed in every
possible way. This is the aim of the Hong Kong Government acting through the department of the Secretary for Chinese
Affairs and by means of the Police. But in practice it has
proved very difficult to deal effectively with these traffickers, deportation being as a rule the only remedy. As regards further safeguards in this respect, unless the buying and selling of girls is stopped in China, nothing can be done in Hong Kong which will have much effect. The only effectual safeguard is to enlist the co-operation of the Chinese community to put down these practices by exposing
any cases which may come to light.
10.
Another preliminary point that I may here
deal with is the allegation, to which you draw my attention, in a leading article in the "South China Morning Post" of the 6th February, 1929, that the Secretary for Chinese Affairs assists in the recovery of the purchase price in the case of mui-tsai, who have run away. You also ask for my
observations
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