CO129-532-3 Mui Tsai system 4-12-1930 - 9-11-1931 — Page 30

4.

2.

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It seems open to doubt whether the transaction

referred to the sale of a mui-tsai at all, but I will make

further enquiries if I can be furnished with the original documents in the case and the names of the parties in Hong Kong through whom they were obtained.

5. The position in regard to mui-tsai has been very

fully dealt with in previous despatches and is within Your

Lordship's knowledge. I do not propose therefore to make more

than a brief comment on the debate on the subject in the House

of Commons as reported in the copy of Hansard which accompanied

Your Lordship's despatch.

6.

The somewhat contemptuous reference made by Miss Picton-Turbervill in regard to my visits of inspection to some

of the homes of the mui-tsai indicates the curious mentality

which some persons bring to bear on this subject. They in si st

in spite of direct evidence to the contrary, far more reliable

than much of the second hand information received by them, that

the system is entirely pernicious and that I and my advisers fail deliberately to appreciate this or to take adequate steps

to deal with it.

7. It may be of interest to state that my visits were entirely surprise visits, that the employers could not possibly

have had any prior knowledge of my intention, that the mui-tsai

whom I saw were seen by me at once on my entering the respective houses and that there could not possibly have been any window- dressing on the part of the employers. I was accompanied by the Secretary for Chinese Affairs and the cadet officer specially

in charge of mui-tsai and we found no reluctance on the part of

both the employers and the mui-tsai to give full and frank

information regarding the conditions under which the latter

were living. I scarcely anticipated that the special steps

which

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