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Part III provides that all mui-tsai are to be registered, that no one is to employ an unregistered mui-tsai, and that all mui-tsai over a certain age shall be entitled to
wages.
Now as regards the details of the Bill. Clause 2 of the Bill is declaratory. Pay- ment by an intending employer to a parent or guardian of a child has never in this Colony conferred any rights whatever on such employer to retain possession of the child as against the parent, or even to retain possession of the child as against the child itself. The clause, therefore, is simply declaratory of the existing law. Clause 3 is the definition clause. A mui-tsai is defined as a female domestic servant whose employer has obtained her services by means of a payment. Paragraph (ii.) of the definition is intended to cover two cases: one is the case where the girl has been transferred from one employer to another, and the other is the case where the employer has died and the care of the house and the custody of the child has devolvel on the widow, the son, or the concubine of the employer.
Clause 4 is the main clause in Part II of the Bill-the part which is to come into operation at once. It provides that no person shall hereafter take into his employ- ment any mui-tsai. That, of course, will not prevent anyone taking into his employ- ment as a hired servant a girl who was formerly a mui-tsai. Clause 5 provides that no employer shall hereafter take into his employment any female domestic servant under the age of 10 years. That is intended to prevent evasion because in the case of children under 10 it would be very difficult to prove that they were or were not mui-tsai. Clause 6 provides that every employer of a mui-tsai must provide the girl with sufficient food and clothing and medical attendance in case of illness, and that no employer of a mui-tsai shall overwork or ill-treat a mui-tsai or subject her to any punishment to which he might not reasonably subject his own daughter. That, I think, really expresses a duty already recognised by all good employers, who, as I said before, are in a large majority.
That brings us to Part III of the Bill-the postponed part. Clause 7 gives a power of making regulations. The regulations that are at present proposed have been published in draft with this Bill. They deal with registration and also with notice of the death of the employer of a mui-tsai and with the wages of mui-tsai. Clauses 8 and 9 require registration, and prohibit the employment of unregistered mui-tsai. Part of the policy of the Bill is to prevent transfers of mui-tsai from one employer to another, but it is obvious, of course, that the case of death must be provided for, and section 11, whilst prohibiting transfers, provides that on the death of an employer the Secretary of Chinese Affairs may make any order which he may think fit for the transfer of such mui-tsai to a new employer. No doubt in the ordinary way in the case of death of an employer he would give the child over to the care of the widow if she were a fit and proper person and the conditions of employment were sufficiently good to justify that order. Sub-clause (2) of that clause provides that when any person becomes the actual employer in fact of a mui-tsai owing to death or for any other reason, such new employer must report that fact within one week. Clause 12 provides that every mui-tsai of or over the age of 10 years may leave her employment at any time without any notice and with- out any payment to any person. That clause again is merely declaratory, as at the present moment such girls have the right to do so. Clause 13 provides that every mui-tsai under the age of 18 who wishes to be restored to her parents, and every mui-tsai under 18 whose parent wishes the mui-tsai restored to his or her custody, shall be so restored unless the Secretary for Chinese Affairs sees some grave objection. That clause, too, is largely declaratory, except that it gives the Secretary for Chinese Affairs a right to enquire into the case in the interests of the girl herself. For example, as I have said in the "Objects and Reasons," he might refuse permission to restore a girl to the custody of a mother who was living an immoral life.
Clause 14 provides that every mui-tsai of or over the age of 12 and under the age of 18 shall have the right to apply to the Secretary of Chinese Affairs and upon such application the Secretary for Chinese Affairs may make any order he may think fit in regard to the custody, control, employment and conditions of employment of the
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applicant. That is largely declaratory, too, because, of course, every mui-taai has that right at present, and no doubt the Secretary for Chinese Affairs will be prepared to listen to any application by a mui-tsai whether she be under 12 or over 18 or between those ages. Clause 15 is the wages clause. The wages proposed are given in Regulation 7 of the Draft Regulations. They may seem small by English stand- ards, but, of course, they must be judged by local standards and in view of local conditions.
I think that is all, Sir, that I wish to say as regards the details of the Bill. In conclusion I only wish to say that the Government fully recognises the difficult and delicate nature of this legislation and the Secretary of State is prepared to consider carefully and sympathetically any representations the Chinese community may wish to make before Part III is brought into operation.
THE COLONIAL TREASURER Seconded the first reading of the Bill, which was carried.
THE MUI-TSAI BILL.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved the second reading of the Bill intituled, An Ordinance to regulate certain forms of Female Domestic Service.
THE COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded.
HON. MR. H. E. POLLOCK, K.C., said: Your Excellency,-As the Senior Unofficial member of the Legislative Council, I have been asked by my British Colleagues to address this Council on the subject of this Bill. What I am saying, therefore, must
be regarded as our joint views. The Senior Chinese Unofficial Member will address the Council on behalf of himself and his Chinese Colleagues. I should add that the Chinese Members of Council concur in and support what I am about to say, and that we British Unofficial Members also concur in what the Senior Chinese Unofficial Member is about to say on behalf of the Chinese Members. We regret to find that a great deal of misunderstanding has gathered round this subject. The mui-tsai system is neither so benevolent as the more extreme of its supporters have sought to maintain, nor, on the other hand, is it so wholly wanting in good points as the opponents of the system would have us believe, and we are content to accept the following language of the Attorney-General, in moving the first reading of this Bill: "Many of the mui-tsai-I think the majority--are contented with their lot and are fairly well off."
We, therefore, start with a system which viewed as a whole has not worked badly; which has been practised in China for several thousands of years right up to the present time, and which has its root in a superfluity of daughters due to the ancestor worship imposed on a man's eldest son as a filial duty (medical science not yet having discovered any means whereby a parent can select the sex of the child whom it is desired to bring into the world). Whilst, however, we regret to find that the evils of the working of the system have been grossly exaggerated to the detriment of the good name of this Colony, we agree with all the provisions for the protection of mui- tsai from ill-treatment which are contained in the present Government Bill, and are prepared, as will presently appear, to make those provisions against cruelty even stronger than they are at present.
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Clause 2 of the Bill is all-important, and may justly be regarded as the charter of freedom of the mui-tsai, for it shatters at one blow the mui-tsai system, as defined by Chinese custom, and as it has existed for some thousands of years. The certain persons " referred to in that clause as the persons who have "erroneously supposed that the payment of money in return for the transfer of a female child confers certain rights over her " are the three or four hundred millions of Chinese who compose the inhabitants of China.
Clause 6 which provides for the good treatment of mui-tsai is, as far as it goes' good; but it does not go far enough, and we shall suggest, in Committee, with the view of protecting mui-tsai from gross cruelty the insertion of the following clause :- "In every prosecution for overwork or ill-treatment of a mui-tsai medical evidence shall be given before the Magistrate trying the case as to the injuries
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