5363-3
HONG
104
KONG.
Papers relative to the Mui-Tsai Question.
No.
Telegram from the Secretary of State for the Colonies to the Governor of
Hong Kong.
(Sent 22nd February, 1922.)
(Answered by No. .)
Mui-tsai. I am not at all satisfied. Unless I am able to state that this institution does not involve the slightest element of compulsory employment (which is the essence of slavery) and that every mui-tsai of a certain age is in law and in practice free if she wishes to leave her adopted parents or employers, I cannot defend its continued existence in a British Colony. So far as administrative measures can make it so this freedom must be real. Would it be possible, for example, to give to each child on attaining age of discretion (say twelve years) a numbered identity disc which she could at any time post to Secretary for Chinese Affairs whose duty it would then be to secure her release? A Commission (including local advocates of reform) should be appointed to consider :—
(a) What legislative and administrative measures are neces- sary to bring about complete abolition of compulsion in em- ployment of mui-tsai over age (the possibilities of the plan suggested above or other measures for securing real freedom to leave employment might be enquired into).
(b) To recommend precautions to secure to mui-tsai under age an equivalent measure of protection. In view of the practical difficulty of a child asserting her legal freedom par- ticular attention should be paid to devising some means of affording them some safe and secret means of appeal to the Chinese Secretariat in case of ill-treatment.
(c) To investigate fully the possibility of preventing the transfer of mui-tsai without the consent of their natural parents or the Chinese Secretariat.
(d) To report what measures should be taken by Government to cope with the anticipated result of the measures adopted. You should obtain the Commission's Report and send it to me with your recommendations before you leave the Colony in June. You should in any case issue a proclamation immediately making it quite clear to employers and employed that the status of mui-tsai, as understood in China, will not in future be recognised in Hong Kong, and in particular that no compulsion of any kind to prevent girls over age freely leaving at any time their adopted parents or other employers will be allowed.
Please telegraph as soon as possible the substance of the proposed proclamation. CHURCHILL.
No.
Telegram from the Governor of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies.
sent
(Received 16th March, 1922.)
(Answered by No. .)
There has been a meeting between the Secretary Chinese Affairs and the Secretaries of the Societies for the Protection and for the Abolition of Mui-Tsai. Your telegram of 22nd of February* refers. They propose to draw up suggestions in collaboration aimed at the abolition of the system as soon as practicable.
The Government and both Societies have the same aim, namely abolition; but they both agree that the process must be gradual.
* No.
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