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5563-22
In asking Your Excellency to put clauses 4 and 5 in to Part III of the Bill, we would urge that, in view of the time and trouble spet by the Unofficial Members upon the consideration of this Bill, they are at least entitled to have their views on those clauses and on the registration clauses laid before the Secretary of State for the Colonies, before the solid weight of the Official Vote is brought to bear in opposition to the unanimous views of the Unofficial Members. We do not ask for any further or longer delay than is necessary for the above purpose, and in the meantime (in fact, this very day) the other provisions of this Bill which contains all its vital principles will be placed on the statute book of this Colony. There are two vital principales in this Bill and the Unofficial Members of Council accept both of them. The first is the abolition of the mui-tsai system, and this is effected by clause 2 of the Bill, which gives the death blow to the mui-tsai system as hitherto recognised and practised by Chinese custom.
The second principal is the provision for good treatment of mui-tsai. This is dealt with by clause 6 of the Bill. All of the amendments which the Unofficial Members will move in Committee on this Bill are framed for the purpose of furthering and strengthening the above two vital principles of the Bill and for the protection of mui-tsai.
HON. MR. CHOW SHOU SON-Sir, The Honourable Senior Unofficial Member having expressed the joint views of all the Unofficials, I would, ordinarily, have con- tented myself with merely endorsing his remarks; but in this case my Chinese colleague and I have promised both the supporters and opponents of the Bill to repeat here their respective arguments, and to express our own views on this import- ant subject which so intimately concerns the Chinese. I would, therefore, crave the Indulgence of this Honourable Council for so doing.
Since the Bill was read for the first time, meetings have been held by various sections of the Chinese community to discuss it by the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce, by the Kaifong at the Tung Wah Hospital, by thirteen Chinese Commercial Unions, the Anti-mui-tsai Society, the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A., and by the Chinese Labour Guilds. Views on the measure have also been enunciated in both the English and Chinese Press. As representatives of the Chinese Community, the Honourable Mr. Ng and I welcomed such views which have helped us to no small extent in arriving at our own conclusions. The views expressed have resolved themselves into two broad divisions--one in support of the Bill almost in its entirety with certain amend- ments designed to strengthen it; the other in opposition to it as it now stands, though recognising that the mui-tsai system has its evils.
Briefly the supporters of the Bill argue that :-
(1) The sale and purchase of human beings is a degrading and inhuman custom. It is tantamount to treating human beings as chattels and beasts, and it encourages kidnapping, licentiousness and other serious abuses.
(2) Mui-tsai are slaves, because they are deprived of their rights and liberty, are not paid for their labour, and can be re-sold at any time.
(3) There have been innumerable cases of ill-treatment and neglect of mui- tsai.
There have also been some cases of employers seducing their mui-tsai, or selling them for immoral purposes. In all such cases it is very difficult for these girls, owing to their ignorance, to defy their employers.
(4) Child-drowning bears no relationship to the mui-tsai system inasmuch as in child drowning the victim is invariably one or two days old, while girls sold as mui-tsai have generally attained the age of five or six years, an age at which they can be useful to their purchasers.
(5) The argument that the abolition of the system would lead to the starvation of a large number of poor children can be met by the argument that when em- ployers lose the services of their mui-tsai they would have to employ paid servant-girls to take their place; and so the daughters of the poor, instead of being sold as chattels, would become paid servants.
(6) Mui-tsai keeping is not charity but, on the contrary, tends to encourage selfish and mercenary men to part with their children in order to enable them- selves to be more self-indulgent.
(7) To pass a law with the object of merely preventing cruelty would mean the preservation of the poison in the system by neglecting the source of the disease.
(8) Registration should not cause undue inconvenience and trouble. At present, schools, companies, births and deaths, and medical practitioners have to be registered, and no inconvenience has been experienced by the parties con- cerned.
(9) The system was abolished by law in China towards the end of the Manchu regime, and again at the beginning of the Republic; and if such could be done in so vast a country as China, there is no reason why it should not be done in this small Colony.
(10) Even if there were some flaws in the draft Bill, the proper way would be to point them out in order to have them remedied, instead of asking that the whole Bill be withdrawn.
The arguments of the other side for the withdrawal of the Bill are, roughly, as follows:--
(1) Mui-tзai are not slaves, and have never been so regarded in China either by law or by custom. When a mui-tsai is married, she is allowed to look upon the home of her former employer as her own home and is treated as a member of the family.
(2) The lot of the majority of the mui-tsai in Hong Kong is far better than that of the children of poor families in the interior of China, the former being much better fed and clothed. Their parents, if they so wish, are allowed to see them at regular intervals.
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