:
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care of the girls is entrusted by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs to nobody until full enquiry has been made in the Office and in the Po Leung Kuk; and the ruling consideration is always the best interest of the girls. No opposition is offered to a monetary arrangement being reached between the parties them- selves, but failure to reach such an arrangement would not be allowed to stand in the way of a decision in the interests of the girl.
THE MUI-TSAI BILL.
The Council went into Committee to resume discussion of the Bill intituled, An Ordinance to regulate certain forms of female domestic service.
On the motion of the Attorney-General verbal amendments were made in several clauses.
H.E. THE GOVERNOR : Does any hon. member desire to raise any further question in the Committee stage of the Bill?
No hon. member intimating any desire to do so, H.E. THE GOVERNOR proposed that the Bill be reported to the Council and the Council then resumed.
THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL moved and the COLONIAL SECRETARY seconded the third reading of the Bill.
H.E. THE GOVERNOR: Does any hon. member desire to address the Council? HON. MR. P. H. HOLYOAK: Your Excellency, I crave your permission to dilate somewhat more at length on the remarks which I made in the Committee stage of the Bill at the last meeting of the Council, namely, on the gross misrepresentations of fact which have been made almost throughout the public Press at Home, in what I can unhesitatingly describe as a malicious campaign of propaganda,--whether for political purposes or otherwise I know not; but I do know that statements have been made quite publicly at Home in connection with this subject which ought not to remain unchallenged by this honourable Council in defence of the fair name of the Colony and the good government which it represents. If the statements of whole- sale slavery and of the selling of slaves were a true as they have been depicted, then, Sir, I think there is little doubt that it would stand for a judgment not only upon each Buccessive Governor of the Colony who has allowed it to remain but upon the British people of the Colony who have lived under it for the last 70 years. I am not coq- cerned, however, in discussing in detail the subject of mui-tsai. I have voted already for the first reading of the Bill and I am prepared to vote for its final stages, principally because it adds to the annals of the Colony and the laws of the Colony an Ordinance which is in keeping with other Ordinances. For my own part I do feel sincerely that in a large degree it was perhaps unnecessary because, in practice and in spirit, officially and otherwise, the practice has never received official sanction from beginning to end in the history of the Colony and therefore it seems unnecessary to legislate on the subject. Nor would it have been necessary but for the gross misrepresentation in an agitation representing a somewhat horrible state of affairs which, in fact, does not exist in practice and in the experience of those of us who have lived very many years in this Colony and who know somewhat of the inside of Chinese affairs. think the situation of the mui-tsai in a Chinese household differs so very largely in I do not actual practice from that of a similar practice obtaining at home of adopting an orphan from one of the many orphanages and using her as a domestic assistant and providing her with home, food and clothing. Nor do I think that the ill-treatment which has been so largely described to us is any more widely spread than that revealed in the ordinary practice of a Magistrate's Court in any large town in England. It is becausę I have so recently come from Home and because both from Press and platform and even from pulpit one has heard such atrocious misstatements of fact that I feel they cannot be passed without challenge by this Council, affecting as they do the reputa- tion of the Council and the reputation of the Colony. For that reason I venture to raise my voice in the very strongest protest against such being accepted as facts by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. If it were a fact that slaves were openly bought and sold as depicted in the Press at Home, would not the British Colony itself
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have compelled such a state of affairs to be attended to? If it were a fact that the Government permitted the purchase and sale of slaves as depicted would not the pressure of public opinion in this Colony have forced legislation long ago? But for the fact that certain persons, with a not very wide knowledge of the subject, ventured...... at Home, for purposes of propaganda, and partly for political propaganda, grossly to mis-state the facts for their own ends, the subject would never have been raised at all. It is because of these facts that I desire in the name of the Unofficial Members of this Council to protest against statements which have been made widely and publicly at Home both by the Press and by certain individuals which are a slur upon the good name and Government of this Colony, which are without foundation in fact and malicious in character.
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HON. MR. E. V. D. PARR: I desire to support in the strongest possible manner the remarks that the hon. member for the Chamber of Commerce has made in protest against the exaggerated absurdities that have appeared in the Home press upon this subject. As an instance I would mention that when I was at Home some two years ago I visited some relations at a well-known English watering place and accompanied them to the Parish Church. The good Vicar who preached-i propos of nothing that I could see-began inveighing against the British Colony of Hong Kong for selling Chinese girls in the public market place, "These are not Angles," he said, but angels." I need not say, I took the first occasion to put the reverend gentleman right on the facts as we know them here and he told me that he had obtained his facts and figures from the public Press at home and that he would correct the misstatements that he had made to his congregation on the following Sunday. It has not been usual since I have had the honour of being a member of this Council for the Unofficials to address the Council on the third reading of a Bill, but I do not consider any apology is needed in this instance, and if it serves to give more weight to our protest against those exaggerated absurdities to which we have referred then, I think the end is justified by the means.
HON. MR. A. G. STEPHEN: Your Excellency, I would like to associate myself with the two hon. members who have just spoken in protesting against the imputations upon the good name of the Colony. In all the speeches made on this Bill the one that struck me as being most à propos was that of the Attorney-General in introducing it. After going through the Objects and Reason," damning the Bill with faint praise," he finally reached the impotent conclusion that the measure had to be passed because the system was one which was open to abuse, and grave abuse, at the hands of unscrupulous persons. Well, Sir, he could have said the same about the office he fills with such distinction himself-it is an office that is open to abuse at the hands of unscrupulous persons; and he might have said the same about the position I happen to hold in the Colony: it is distinctly open to abuse in the hands of unscrupulous persons. But what he would have said, I venture to say, if he had been speaking his own mind was this: We do not think this Bill is any usc, but we have got to pass it, because we have been told to." This agitation at Home I do not take so seriously as my unofficial colleagues do, because I have seen so often a similar kind of thing before-people seeking cheap advertisement are quite willing to assume that we Englishmen when we come East of Suez leave behind all we ever learned of humanity and charity. When they see an opportunity of gaining some cheap notoriety they will find some tame Member of Parliament to put questions to the Colonial Office and the harassed Secretary of State for the Colonies ultimately decides that the balance of advantage is to get this Government to pass a Bill which will shut the mouths of these stupid bores in Parlia- ment. Many of the races ruled by the British Government in various parts of the world have habits and customs which do not come up to the standard of Exeter Hall, but it has always been our wise policy to leave them alone in that respect unless, of course, those customs are such as to outrage humanity. I should like to have seen the Secretary of State for India, for instance, sending orders to the Viceroy to disturb some of the customs which are far less innocent and far less humane than the mui-tsai system in this Colony. No, they know very well they cannot do that because local opinion is too strong for them. But here with a Legislative Council
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