Telegraph :
50 CITIZENRY, CHURTON, LONDON.
Telephone :
VICTORIA 6065.
82759
The Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society
HON, SECRETARY:
Travers Buxton, M.A.
PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY: John H. Harris.
in which are incorporated the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society and the Aborigines Protection Society.)
DET
AJAN 1931
10E
DENISON HOUSE,
120
296, VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD,
LONDON, S.W.I.
(CLOSE TO VICTORIA STATIONS.)
To:-
12th January, 1931.
The Rt. Hon. Lord Passfield,
His Majesty's Principal Secretary of
State for the Colonies,
Colonial Office,
S.W.1.
My Lord,
47m
72759/30have
Ausd
(8
MUI TSAI THE PRESENT POSITION.
Our Committee has had under consideration the Report
upon the position of the Mui Tsai in Hong Kong which you
been good enough to send to us. We desire, in the
first instance, to express our appreciation of the fact that
at last efforts appear to have been made to deal with the
evils of this system.
In the second place, we cannot accept the local defence
that the system in question is not a form of slavery, for
after all, these young people are sold for a cash payment.
Moreover, the words "sale" "sold" "purchase" appear in
the official records of the Administration and the Courts,
and also in the deeds of transfer. We are therefore still
of the opinion expressed by Lord Kimberley :-
"I cannot doubt that in the majority of these trans-
actions the sellers have believed that they have. validly sold, and the buyers that they have validly. bought that for which money has passed, and the children themselves can scarcely help believing that they are in bond to their possessors.'
11
Nor do we find it possible to accept the view that the
figure of 10,000 as the number of Mui Tsai is based solely
on guess-work, and that the correct number is probably about
4,000. Lord Irwin (then the Hon. Edward Wood), gave the
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.