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2. It may be said at once that the payment of money is not and never has been recognised as conferring any rights on the person making the payment; and that from the beginning the officers of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs have in every case which has been brought to their notice dealt with the matter solely from the point of view of the interests of the child. It is believed that by now this principle is well understood: certainly no one attempts to dispute it and the claim to the services of a female domestic servant is always based on the argument that the girl is happy and does not wish to leave her employment.
3. One prosecution was brought under Section 6 of the Ordinance in 1928. There were none in previous years. Even if prosecutions for ill-treatment of children brought under the Offences against the Person Ordinance of 1865 are included the total is insignificant. As a rule Chinese are particularly kind to children and the disgrace of being hailed to court to answer a charge of cruelty to a child is one which all dread.
4. No prosecutions have been brought under Sections 4 and 5 of the Ordinance, and no information is available as to the number of mui-tsai who may have been taken into employment in the Colony since the Ordinance was passed, though Chinese opinion in general considers that the number of mui-tsai employed has tended to decrease especially in upper class households. It would in practice be all but impossible to prove in any particular case that the payment of money which alone differentiates a mui-tsai from any other domestic servant had in fact been made.
5. On the general question it might be possible to meet criticism by maintaining as is done in China to-day that as such payments confer no right to the services of the mui-tsai, the distinction between mui-teai and domestic servants or between mui-tsai and adopted daughters has in fact ceased to exist and that there are now no mui-tsai in South China. It would in short be a simple matter to abolish mui-tsai by abolishing the name, and by substituting the title "adopted daughter" to direct public attention to another and less invidious aspect of the system. It would, however, serve no useful purpose to deny that there are still mui-tsai in Hong Kong as well as in China. This has been made inevitable by the history of the past five years which have witnessed a state of disorder and distress in Kuangtung and else- where unsurpassed since the Taiping Rebellion. Those who have had experience of famine relief work will realise that it is seldom the desire for money which induces parents in China to part with their children and that the alternative may quite well be starvation. Until some measure of prosperity has returned to the countryside it will prove very difficult to put a stop to the practice of transferring children from one household to another. "In fact even the Anti-Mui-tsai Society do not expect this and their proposals for the enforcement of registration not only presuppose the continued existence and quasi-legalisation of the mui-tsai system but also provide for the registration of adopted daughters.
6. The practical difficulties in the way of any satisfactory form of registration in a colony such as Hong Kong with its daily ebb and flow across the frontier and the constant movement of the population within the city itself can hardly be exaggerated. An army of inspectors with the widest powers of entry and search would be required to enforce it and even so the difficulty of proving the initial pay- ment to the parents or guardians which brings a girl under the law would be almost insuperable. The parents of the child are satisfied with the situation, and the child herself is usually content with her position and quite prepared to co-operate in the necessary deception; while even assuming that persons qualified to make the necessary inquisition could be secured there is no doubt that these proceedings would rouse strong opposition from all classes of Chinese in the Colony.
7. The results to be secured would hardly seem to outweigh these disadvantages. The alternatives must still be faced of registration cards and recognition of the system as suggested by the Anti-Mui-tsai Society, or of the wholesale removal to homes of girls who are themselves unwilling to be removed, or their restoration to parents who are unable to support them.
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8. Meanwhile a recent declaration by the Canton Government of a similar nature to the preamble to the Hong Kong Ordinance marks a step in advance. The practice of obtaining servants by purchase is clearly stated to be without validity and public opinion in China may be expected before long to accept this attitude. Improvement in economic conditions on the mainland will no doubt hasten the change. As has been said already in Hong Kong this view has been for some time accepted without question and the fact that a money payment may have been made is not considered relevant to the transaction. In the circumstances it is hard to see how the charge that the practice is in any respect a form of slavery can be sustained.
9. I enclose a copy of certain suggestions forwarded to me on February 6th last by the Anti-Mui-tsai Society and on these I would make the following comments :-
(a) Section (1) at once raises the question of the disposal of mui-tsai whose employers fail to register them within six months.
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(b) Section (2) provides for the destruction of the "deed of sale or gift which has no legal validity whatsoever and its substitution by a certificate As evidence of the employers right to employ the girl as mui-tsai.” This would give semi-legal sanction to a status which the law as it stands does not recognise.
(c) Sections (3) and (4) call for no special comment.
(d) Section (5). It is difficult to see how such a regulation could be enforced. (e) Section (6). A very short experience of the conditions of life in the Chinese quarters in Hong Kong will I feel convince anyone of the impossibility of tracing and keeping in touch with anyone who wishes to escape notice. Chinese families occupying one or more cubicles in a tenement house can move bag and baggage at any time without trouble or expense and do so constantly.
(f) Sections (7) and (8). Present the same difficulty. The enforcement of such restrictions would involve an almost daily search of all premises in that large area of the city where the population is a floating one.
The Po Leung Kuk has a daily average of some 40 inmates and can accom- modate about 70 in all. The number of Chinese entering and leaving Hong Kong is several thousands daily.
(g) Part II, Sections (1) to (6). Present the same difficulties as the proposed regulations regarding mui-tsai. There is an even stronger objection to the issue of certificates in the case of so-called “adopted daughters." Instances of genuine mui-tsai being disposed of as prostitutes are rarely met with; but it is quite usual for persons who procure young girls to describe them as "adopted daughters." Such persons would be only too glad of the opportunity to secure an official certificate of adoption.
R. A. C. NORTH, Secretary for Chinese Affairs,
21st February, 1929.
SUGGESTED REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE REGISTRATION OF MUI-TSAI AND ADOPTED DAUGHTERS.
Registration Regulation for Mui-tsai.
1. After the promulgation of the registration law all mui-tsai must be registered within six months. After the period prescribed, no registration is permissible. Failure on the part of owners to register their mui-tsai will be punishable by a fine. 2. All documents, either deeds of sale or deeds of gift relating to the mui-tsai, must be surrendered to, and cancelled by, the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, who in turn will issue a certificate to the Master or Mistress as evidence of his or her right to employ the girl as mui-tsai.
3. Two copies of a photograph of every mui-tsai must be supplied by her owner at the time of registration, one of which is to be filed with the Chinese Secretariat and the other is to be affixed to the certificate issued by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, so as to avoid any attempt at fraudulent substitution. As an additional safeguard, the mui-taai will be required to place on the register as well as on the certificate, her finger print.
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