Sessional_Paper_1935 — Page 210

Legislation

gives effect to this policy.

The sale of children made criminal in

some cases.

Appendix No. 15.

Attacks in the House of

Commons.

The Female Domestic Service Ordinance, 1923.

Appendix No. 14.

The scheme of the Ordinance.

What is a Muitsai?

The importance of the guardian- ship of the

Secretary for Chinese Affairs.

Little Legisla- tion necessary to supplement guardianship.

The powers and duties

of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as guardian have not been officially dis- cussed.

202

Effect was given in 1887 by legislation to Mr. Russell's recom- mendation, with the result that to-day the legal guardianship of these girls is vested in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs who continues to associate himself in these matters with the Committee of the Po Leung Kuk, a Society of Chinese gentlemen founded in the eighties to assist the Hong Kong Government to suppress the then prevalent crime of kidnapping children.

In 1929, the sale of children under the age of 18 years for valuable consideration was made criminal, except on marriage or adoption. It may be added that prosecutions in bad cases are not uncommon and magistrates have given sentences as heavy as 12 months' imprison- ment.

Since 1922 the House of Commons has frequently discussed the condition of children referred to as Muitsai. There seems, however, to have been considerable confusion in the meaning attached to the expression Muitsai, a confusion that seems to persist. In 1922 the Hong Kong Government was ordered to end the system within its territories.

On the instructions of the Secretary of State, who was "unable to defend the Muitsai System in the House of Commons ", the Female Domestic Service Ordinance was passed in 1923. This ordi- nance was amended in 1929 and is now in force. A copy of this ordinance, as amended, with the current regulations, is given in the Appendix.

In the main the Ordinance is designed to secure the registration of all Muitsai to prevent the taking of further Muitsai and to prevent the entry into the Colony of Muitsai from abroad.

Supplemental provisions provide for the inspection of Muitsai and the payment of wages.

The Ordinance does not define Muitsai. It places on any de- fendant prosecuted under the Ordinance the onus of satisfying the magistrate that the child is not a Muitsai. As a result of displacing the onus no reliable deduction can be made from the registrations made under the Ordinance.

The Committee have carefully examined all the relevant files of the Hong Kong Government and the works and articles on the subject brought to their notice. The importance, legal and otherwise, of vesting the guardianship of these children in the Secretary for Chinese Affairs does not appear to have been fully appreciated. Indeed, in some quarters, it has been wholly overlooked. This is seen most strikingly in the documents referred to the Committee.

It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that had the Secretary for Chinese Affairs exercised, unfettered, the powers and duties of a guardian, there was little need for supplementary legislation except such as was necessary to enable him to ascertain the identity of his wards, and to enforce his guardianship.

The Committee have failed to discover among the Government files any memorandum in which the powers and duties of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as guardian are discussed. Further, the Com- mittee have been unable to find anywhere discussed, the inconsistency of entrusting to an Officer, who stands in loco parentis to the children, the execution of a policy of suppression by means of criminal pro- ceedings that may adversely affect the children.

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