CO129-514-3 Mui Tsai system- correspondence 27-8-1929 - 21-11-1929 — Page 55

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that

with the custody of a daughter. It is submitted

the conflict was only apparent, and that though the rights

of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs arise upon such

payment they are not conferred by that payment. Further,

the rights of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs are conferred

solely in the interests of the girl, and in that respect they

differ from rights of an employer and even from the rights

of a parent or guardian. It is therefore submitted that

section 2 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1923 is concerned with

such rights as those of an employer and such rights as

those of a parent, and not with rights conferred on an

officer of the Government to enable him to protect the

girl, if necessary, against both her employer and her

parent. To make this clear, however, section 8 of this

Ordinance adds to Ordinance No. 1 of 1923 a new section

23 which provides that nothing in Ordinance No. 1 of

1923 shall affect any right of guardianship possessed by

the Secretary for Chinese Affairs by virtue of the

provisions of Ordinance No. 4 of 1897.

15. In the second place, while section 32 of Ordinance

No. 4 of 1897 appeared to give the Secretary for Chinese

Affairs the full and unfettered rights of a legal

guardian, section 10 of Ordinance No. 1 of 1923

considerably limits his right to refuse to restore a

girl to the custody of her parent or natural guardian.

The latter section provides that any mui tsai who wishes

to be restored to the custody of her parent or natural

guardian, and any mui tsai under eighteen whose parent

or natural guardian wishes the girl to be restored to

his or her custody, shall be restored to such custody