Sessional_Paper_1935 — Page 279

271

Appendix No. 18.

Extract from the Chinese Regulations for the Emancipation of Slaves and "Mui-tsai” of March 1st of the 16th Year of the Republic (1927).

(Copied from Report to League of Nations on the Traffic in Women and Children in the East, 1933).

1. The mayors and magistrates of all cities and districts shall make careful en- quiries as to the condition of slaves and Mui-tsai in their respective localities and report to the Provincial Government and the Commissioner of Civil Administration. The magistrates shall send in their reports within three months and the mayors within two months.

4. From the date of the publication of these regulations, no girls shall be bought, sold or pledged as Mui-tsai, and all agreements for such purposes shall be null and void.

5. All existing Mui-tsai at the time of the enforcement of these regulations shall no longer be called Mui-tsai, but shall be called "adopted daughters". All agreements or presentation deeds in respect of their purchase and sale shall be sent to the nearest police station for cancellation and registration in a register specially provided for the purpose.

6. No adopted daughter shall be ill-treated. They shall be sent to school dur- ing the age of 12 to 16, and shall not be married later than 23, but may be allowed remain single if they choose.

7. No adopted daughters shall be forced to become concubines.

8. Adequate clothing, board and lodging shall be provided for adopted daughters according to the circumstances (of their adopted parents).

9. Each district magistrate and mayor should, after considering the local con- ditions, take steps to establish poor girls' homes or female industrial schools.

10. After the publication of these regulations, if any person is proved by the "Kai-fong" or neighbours or discovered by the police to have beaten or maltreated. his adopted daughter, the magistrate, mayor or officer in charge of any police station. concerned shall send the girl to a poor girls' home or a female industrial school to be brought up. The person who ill-treated the girl shall be fined as a warning. When anybody who has been fined for maltreating his adopted daughter is found to have maltreated her again, a greater fine or other punishment will be imposed.

11. Anybody who commits any breach of Regulations 3, 4 and 7 shall be punish- ed according to the law, and anybody who violates Regulations 2, 5, 6 and 8 shall be fined according to the offence.

12. These Regulations shall be enforced from the date of publication.

Appendix No. 19.

Extracts from Books IV and V of the Civil Code of the Republic of China.

Article 1072.-Where a person adopts the child of another as his own child, the adopter is called adoptive father or adoptive mother and the person adopted is called adopted son or adopted daughter.