Sessional_Paper_1929 — Page 254

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10. Another preliminary point that I may here deal with is the allegation, to which you draw my attention, in a leading article in the South China Morning Post of the 6th February, 1929, that the Secretary for Chinese Affairs assists in the re- covery of the purchase price in the case of mui-tsai, who have run away. You also ask for my observations on other allegations in the same article. In reply I may say that it has for some time been the settled policy of the Hong Kong Government not to assist any person in any way to recover money paid for the purpose of acquiring a mui-tsai. Cases have occurred in the past in which individual officers, including magistrates, have adopted a different practice in order to punish deliberate fraud. The Chinese committee of the Po Leung Kuk, under the influence of Chinese custom, and actuated also by a desire to secure fair treatment, has frequently arranged for the repayment of money paid to secure the services of a mui-tsai; but in such cases the child was not left in the custody of her employer, but kept in the Po Leung Kuk until the vendor had returned the money claimed under false pretences. I consider, however, that such procedure cannot be justified, even though it is natural that an official should feel reluctant to allow himself to be made an instrument to assist in the perpetration of a fraud, and I have given definite orders to the executive officers of the government and to the Directors of the Po Leung Kuk that the practice must be entirely abandoned.

11. As regards the other points in the article of the South China Morning Post to which you refer, I may observe that the article ignores the difficulties of enforcing registration. It also makes the common mistake of assuming the results of registration. For example, it implies that registration would somehow give the government information as to cases of cruelty. It is, moreover, grossly misleading to say, as did the South China Morning Post, that "If a mui-tsai runs away, anyone who shelters her is liable to be arrested and charged with harbouring". The refer- ence is presumably to Section 18 (1) (b) of Ordinance No. 4 of 1897. Every pro- secution under this section requires the consent of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, and his consent would, of course, not be given without adequate reason. Anyone who kidnaps a mui-tsai in order to sell her, perhaps for prostitution, is liable to be arrest- ed and charged, and rightly so; but not a person who harbours a runaway mui-tsai from motives of benevolence. Anyone who sold a mui-tsai to a brothel would be pro- secuted under the Protection of Women and Girls Ordinance of 1897, if there were any evidence at all. Again, assuming the guess of the Anti Mui-tsai Society as to the number of mui-tsai in Hong Kong to be correct, the newspaper article does not contain the vaguest suggestion as to what could be done with the alleged ten thousand young girls if they could be discovered and could be proved to be mui-tsai and were taken away from their employers.

12. This brings me to the question of the number of mui-tsai supposed to be in Hong Kong and to your enquiry whether "in the unlikely event of mui-tsai leaving their houses as a result of any measures taken", it is quite impossible to sup- plement the accommodation in the Po Leung Kuk by temporary arrangements. In the first place I may explain that, if drastic action were taken by the Hong Kong Government with respect to registration of mui-tsai, and it did in fact lead to a large number of mui-tsai leaving their homes it would be completely impossible for the Po Leung Kuk to accommodate them. I inspected this institution on the 8th May, and found that, although on occasion as many as one hundred girls have been accom- modated there, this was only possible by very great overcrowding, and that normally even with a complement of fifty girls the institution is undesirably full. I know of no temporary arrangements which could be made for accommodating a large number of young girls in this Colony. The Chinese community could certainly not be ex- pected to assist in such circumstances, and I do not suppose that the Anti-Mui-tsai Society would be at all helpful. It is not possible to say what the exact number or even the approximate number of mui-tsai in this Colony may be; but I have been very definitely assured by the leaders of the Chinese community that the number is not increasing, but is diminishing.

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13. It must be remembered that the Po Leung Kuk is not so much a home, a temporary refuge, where girls can remain until they are restored to their relatives. It would be quite impossible to obtain additional accommodation for this purpose, and many girls of the class now kept at the Po Leung Kuk have no home or relatives to go to, and something in the nature of a school, or even a reformatory, would be required for their accommodation. At present orphanages and convents will accept a