CO129-539-4 Mui Tsai system 28-6-1932 - 28-11-1932 — Page 123

6

148

13.

The following is an excerpt from the latest report

of the Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children,

which is of interest: -

"Two of the cases concerned muitsai.

In one of these a girl aged twelve years, the

daughter of very poor sampan folk, had been handed over

to apparently equally poor sampan folk. She ran

away and complained of being beaten, and of receiving

insufficient food. The only mark of violence on

her was an old bruise on the inner side of her thigh,

and this seemed most unlikely to have been caused by

a blow.

This girl was handed over to the

Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and was returned to

her mother.

In the other muitsai case, there were complaints that a girl aged 15 years was always being beaten.

The matter was referred to the Secretariat for Chinese

Affairs and the girl was promptly removed from her

employer's custody. No marks of violence were found.

She was offered accommodation in an orphanage, and

given time to consider this. But nothing would

content her save being allowed to return to her

employer. This she was eventually permitted to do, under satisfactory independent guarantee for her future proper treatment.

With the exception of the two last-mentioned cases, a further case, in which a girl was unable to point out the house in which the alleged ill-treatment had taken place, and the case of Plaint No. 126 of which details are given among the selected cases, no complaints of improper treatment of muitsai have been

brought