CO129-551-2 Mui Tsai system 30-11-1934 - 22-11-1935 — Page 46

Cinad.166)

53502./35 [No 62] income)

FOR UN:

Easter

769

ONIAL OF

6 'Logan Place.W.8.

13

*

December, 1935.

Sir,

In reply to your letter No 53502/35*

of the 20th November, I have the honour to submit some

observations upon the report of the Committee on

Mui Tsai in Hong Kong. It will be convenient if I

first refer to the eight questions raised in my

memorandum and answered seriatim by the Committee, and

then make some remarks of a general nature.

My first question,

This related to the age

at which a girl ceases to be a mui-tsai.

The

Committee's answer is based upon an obvious misunder-

-standing. I had merely drawn attention to the

difference between the Malayan legislation, which provides

that a girl shall cease to be a mui-tsai on attaining

the age of 18 years, and the Hong Kong legislation, which

contains no age limit, and I had suggested that the Hong

Kong Government might consider the advisability of

amending its own definition by a similar proviso.

quite content with inviting attention to the difference

between the two sets of laws, and with suggesting -as I

did,in the clearest terms, in my paragraph 93 (printed

on page 32 of the report)- that the question should be

referred to the Committee. I refrained from making any

recommendation that the definition should be amended.

I was

In connection with this question of an age limit,

the Committee's finding (see page 12 of the report)- is

that every Chinese girl "is in greater need of parental

"control between the ages of 18 and 21 than in her more

"tender years." In the particular case of the mui-tsai,

the Committee recommends that supervision should cease

when the girls reach the age of 21 years. The only

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