CO129-543-2 Mui Tsai system 4-1-1933 - 11-4-1934 — Page 16

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1933, as having been removed from the register as untraceable, 36 were reported in my despatch of 4th July, 1933, as having been traced and replaced on the register. A further 38 have been traced during the period now under review. A total of 74 out of the 206 thus having been traced and replaced on the register, I have deemed it

advisable not to regard the remaining 132 as untraceable

but to replace them, together with the above-mentioned 38, on the register. In coming to this decision I have been

influenced by the fact that it is unsafe to dogmatize about the comings and goings of the shifting population of this Colony. Thousands of persons enter and leave the Colony by railway, steamer and junk every day. Changes of address among the local Chinese population are very frequent. Although reports of removal to another address are made daily by employers of muitsai not only at the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs but also at Police Stations, there will, it is feared, always remain cases of failure to comply with the regulations in this respect.

3. (a) During the period under review there have been 36 prosecutions under Ordinance 1 of 1923. Of these, twenty prosecutions were for keeping unregistered muitsai with additional charges of assault in two cases and of ill- treatment in one case; two were for bringing unregistered muitsai into the Colony; one was for ill-treatment of a

registered muitsai; one was for assaulting a registered muitsai; seven were for failing to notify change of address with additional charges of failing to pay wages in one case and of failing to report intended marriage in another; four were for failing to pay wages to registered muitsai; was for failing to report the intended marriage of a registered muitsai.

and one