Sessional_Paper_1935 — Page 218

Committee think wages should be higher than

economic wages,

High wages little danger to children in good homes.

Guardian should

have full powers.

Change of policy needed.

Wards of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs should be treated as a class.

Difficulties diplomatic.

No new Muitsai to be brought into Colony.

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Answer.

The Committee feel that wages are a vital factor. The Ordinance was designed in part to hasten the end of a system of cheap domestic service based on slavery, or something akin to slavery.

The Committee feel that the end of this particular aspect of the system would be hastened if the statutory wages were increased until they exceeded the current wages for the same class of service.

It will be apparent that, if a higher wages could be imposed and enforced, it would end the use of the Muitsai as a cheap domestic servant and would not harm the children who were being brought up from better motives.

Before this scheme could be enforced, it would be necessary to clothe the official guardian with full powers to relieve the burden of wages in suitable cases.

The legal and social problems involved would be lessened if the policy of the Government were changed-not by recognition of the Muitsai System as Sir George Maxwell suggests, but by the recognition of the facts involved in the system.

For example the wards of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs could be ascertained more readily without division being required into Muitsai and non Muitsai. If the Secretary for Chinese Affairs (or Official Guardian) were required to ensure that the needs of each ward-their education, wages &c., were satisfied, the difficulties would no longer be legal, or political, but social and administrative.

Fifth Question.

FIFTHLY "In a despatch dated the 7th January, 1932, the Gover- nor observed that some slight amendment to the law might be desirable to meet the case of bona fide travellers who are merely passing through the Colony. Strange as this may appear at first sight, it nevertheless requires careful and sympathetic investigation. It would clearly be wrong to prosecute a respectable Chinese citizen of one Chinese town who was passing through Hong Kong with a Muitsai as one of his domestic household on his way to some other Chinese town. On the other hand, the law should not fail to "recognise" a patent fact. It might be well to provide by an amendment to the Ordinance that in such cases a stay of a few weeks would not constitute an offence, and that a stay of a slightly longer period, if duly reported to the proper authority, would be permitted. If this were combined with a proviso that, nevertheless, the Muitsai (or any one on her behalf) would be at liberty to apply for protection to the Chinese Secretariat, or to the Police, and that the proper Government authority would have the fullest power of making any order that might seem desirable in the interests of the Muitsai, an anomalous situation would disappear and, in effect, a fuller measure of protection be afforded to the Muitsai passing through Hong Kong."

Answer.

This question raises considerations beyond the competence of this Committee.

The British Government has stated its determination to end the Muitsai System in Hong Kong. In pursuance of that policy, no Muitsai may lawfully be brought into the Colony and no new Muitsai employed in the Colony.