Sessional_Paper_1935 — Page 216

Whether altera- tion of law

necessary.

Qualifications necessary for guardianship. Appendix No. 12,

Guardian should be associated

with new Committee.

Sir George Maxwell's

suggestion already complied with.

208

In the opinion of the Committee, the law should be altered, if that is necessary, to remove any doubts of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' right to make any suitable provision for any Muitsai regardless of the wishes of any employer or parent. There seems to be no difficulty in finding a suitable officer to perform the duties of guardian.

His qualifications are happily outlined by Sir George Bowen in a despatch to Colonel Stanley.

"The officer concerned must have a wide knowledge of the Chinese language and Chinese law and customs and, in addition, the moral qualities of patience and kindliness; to give publicity and security against human errors, he should associate himself with a com- mittee of Chinese gentlemen."

The Government has two aims. The one is to suppress an old custom, the other to protect the children from the undesirable features of the custom. Because the policy of suppression may result in harm to individual children, the Government should minimise this as far as possible.

The Committee are of the opinion that the connection between the officer entrusted with the suppression of the system and the officer detailed to protect the children should be severed.

The Committee are of the opinion that the Government might consider the advisability of including in the Committee to assist the Official Guardian, both European and lady members. This would possibly remove some of the ill-feeling that this difficult question has aroused in the British Press.

Third Question.

THIRDLY-It seems desirable for the purpose of efficient super- vision, to compile from the Register a table classifying the girls by ages and giving the numbers at each year of age. There have been no new Muitsai since 1923. An infant in arms at that date would be ten years old now. There can, therefore, be no Muitsai under the age of ten years and very probably few under the age of eleven or twelve years.

For the purposes of the law, Muitsai now falls into three classes, namely,

(i) those between ten and fifteen years;

(ii) those between 15 and 18 years; and

(iii) those over 18 years.

Although, in many cases, a Muitsai's exact age is unknown, yet it is necessary for the purpose of the law to assign an age to her, and there can be no real difficulty in carrying out this suggestion for a more detailed classification.

It is further suggested that this statement should be included in the Governor's half-yearly despatches to the Secretary of State.

Answer

The Committee understand there is no objection to Sir George Maxwell's suggestion of classifying by ages and that, in future, this will be carried out.