CO129-518-9 The Mui-Tsai question- printed papers relating to the system 20-9-1929 - 1-11-1929 — Page 78

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I cannot recommend at present the establishment of an Industrial Home such as the Committee suggest. Very heavy expense would be involved and very likely without due cause the number of girls who may need to be provided for may be only a few dozen at the most. For disciplinary reasons, it would be necessary to run the institution on lines similar to those of a reformatory and to restrict the liberty of the inmates: it would therefore be unpopular and no girl would enter it if she could find any alternative work.

Moreover, such an institution could scarcely be built and ready for occupation in less than two years at the earliest by which time it may be hoped that any need for it would practically have ceased to exist.

I think that it is reasonable to anticipate that the number of cases to be provided for will not be larger than can be dealt with adequately with the assistance of the Po Leung Køk and other charitable institutions or by arrangements with individual employers of labour, and I advise that the matter should be left in that state for the present. If a detailed scheme has to be worked out to deal with contingencies that will very probably never arise there will be indefinite delay before a start is made with the abolition of the mui-tsai system.

I have, etc.,

R. E. STUBBS,

Governor, etc.

YOUR EXCELLENCY,

Enclosure 1 in No.

Mui-tsai.

The report has been received just now; I submit it direct without detailed criticism for information, noting only some of the obvious lines criticism must follow.

in a year.'

(1) There is no attempt at abolition

(2) The scheme of abolition (in something under 20 years) involves Govern- ment recognition of the system in a very pronounced form.

(3) The difficulties of registration and importation, both as interfering with private rights and in the way of netting real evildoers, are very airily dealt with. (4) To the expenses noted-$500,000 for initial expenses of the Home and some $60,000-$70,000 upkeep of inmates and teachers must be added other forms of upkeep e.g. buildings. And the Head Office Registry and detective work expenses will fall largely beyond existing Government Estimates.

(5) The Home must be of the nature of a Reformatory-i.e. there must be compulsory restraint.

(6) It is a little optimistic to make no allowance for girls left on hand after reaching age 20.

(7) And to hope that mui-tsai-especially the unsaleable ones-would not continue to be dumped on us. The Home would be a splendid place for them. I do not see where the proposed limit of 500 for the Home comes from.

I await instructions as to a detailed report. The documents enclosed are originals without duplicates.

The Honourable,

SIR,

The Secretary for Chinese Affairs,

Present.

E. R. HALLIFAX, Secretary for Chinese Affairs.

29th May, 1922.

Hong Kong, 29th May, 1922.

In compliance with your verbal request made on 11th March, 1922, that the Society for Protection of Mui-tsai and the Anti-mui-tsai Society should co-operate to devise a scheme for the abolition of the mui-tsai system for submission to the Hong Kong Government, we, the members of the Joint Committee separately elected by these two societies for this purpose, have the honour to communicate our conclusions. In our deliberations, we bear in mind that the number of mui-tsais is in the neighbourhood of ten thousand and that it may be beyond the resources of the Government to provide maintenance for all of them. Moreover, we realize that mui-tsai-keeping is a very old practice and that the interests of the owner cannot be entirely ignored, and, consequently, we are inclined to adopt the expedient of treating the purchase price of a mui-tsai as money advanced to her parent. For this consideration, the mui-tsai has to remain to work for her owner for a certain number of years before she regains her freedom. Only on this foundation can we hope to build up an adequate organization for effecting abolition.

Legislation.

To our mind, the first step lies in promulgating the necessary legislation, par- ticulars of which are suggested in Appendix A. Registration of mui-tsai is absolutely necessary to effect abolition: the form recommended is not so irksome that opposition from the public has to be met. Moreover, registration is necessary in order to check the importation of mui-tsai, which, after the passing of the necessary ordinance, is