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85. Fifthly. In a despatch dated the 7th January, 1932, the Governor 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 investiga- tion. It would clearly be wrong to prosecute a respectable Chinese citizen of one Chinese town who was passing through Hong Kong, with a Mui-tsai as one of his domestic household, on his way to some other Chinese town. On the other hand the law should not fail to recognize" 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 Mui-tsai (or anyone on her behalf) would be at liberty to apply for protection to the Chinese Secretariat or to the Police, and that the proper Gov- ernment authority would have the fullest power of making any order that might seem desirable in the interests of the Mui-tsai, anomalous situation would disappear, and in effect, a fuller measure of protection be afforded to the Mui-tsai passing through Hong Kong.
86. Sixthly. The Ordinance, as its title shows, relates only to females”. "Mui-tsai" (see paragraph 5 (1)) means "little sister"; and the Attorney-General, when he introduced the Bill in the Legislative Council on the 28th December, 1922, was scornful of the people who made the "surprising mistake" of imagining that there were "boy" Mui-tsai. On the other hand, Sir Cecil Clementi (see paragraph 4) drew a vivid picture of famine-stricken parents begging passengers to accept as a gift the children who would otherwise starve. As boys are as liable as girls to star- vation, it seems hardly credible that girls only should be offered. Certainly Sir Cecil Clementi does not suggest it.
Some years ago,
87. In this connexion, I may mention a personal incident. I was stationed in Penang (in the Straits Settlements). My eldest son
My eldest son was about three years old. One day his Cantonese amah (nurse) said to my wife that the boy had no one of his own age to play with in the house in the day-time, and suggested that I should buy a Chinese boy of his age as a play-mate. Not noticing the sur- prise on my wife's face, the amah went on to say that sturdy, healthy boys cost no more than fifty or sixty dollars, and that there were plenty of them on offer. When my wife came to me and asked whether such a thing was possible in a British Colony, I could only say that the Chinese Protectorate knew all about it, and that the policy of the British Government was "Non-Recognition". It is quite possible that there may be in Hong Kong some system, distinct from, but analogous to the Mui-tsai system, relating to the employment of small boys and youths who have been acquired by gift or sale.
88 Seventhly. I now come to what is really a psychological question. More than any other nation in the world, the Chinese believe in the sanctity of a contract. The word of a Chinese is his bond. Having been closely associated with Chinese for 35 years of Government service, I feel justified in expressing an opinion that this has a bearing on the Mui-tsai problem. I believe that many a decent minded Mui- tsai girl would not feel justified in seeking the relief of the law in order to escape from the consequences of a contract made between her parents and her employer. I am assuming, of course, that she had been well-treated and had no real grievance. She would probably feel that she would bring public, and well-deserved, shame upon her parents, and, to a lesser degree, shame upon herself and her employers. Deep in her mind would be the sense of primitive justice, and of respect for a custom of immemorial age, in the midst of which she herself had grown up, and she would feel that whatever the new, exotic law might decree, nothing could alter the fact that she had been purchased for a sum of money. If she, or her parents, could pay that money back, she would say, it would be a very different thing.
89. If I am correct in this belief, some enquiry by the Hong Kong Government may be desirable. The question that I would raise is this, "Is it desirable to provide by Rules under the Ordinance that, in addition to the statutory wages. every employ- er shall pay a specific sum monthly into a Savings Bank Account to the credit of
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