In the knowledge that the Imperial Government is considering legislation on the mui-tsai question, now that it has in its hands the report of the Commission sent out from Home to Malaya and Hongkong, the issues involved are once again attention here. While it is generally He vocal section of the ist child slavery, both Home press and Parliament, is given to over-statement of the focis, there is, none the less, ample evidence of a recognition here in Hongkong of the fact that the existing mui-tsai laws need strengthening Divergence of view is mainly on the point whether the Commission's ma-
[jority report, which is concerned setly with an elaboration of the inspectorate system, goes far enough Apart from the more conservative section of the Chinese community, opinion would appear to incline to a more thorough-going treatment of t evil, along the lines advocated Miss Picton-Turberville in her minority report This envisages the problem as of much wider import than the mui-tsai question; it rests on a Gemand that the whole subject of transferred children—that is, children who, by sale, gift or adoption, are out of the control of their parents—should be brought within the ambit of the proposed new legislation.
Actually, all transferred children are the wards of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, but, as Miss Rathbone, Independent Member of Parliament, has pointed out, as there is no requirement that such children shall be notified when they are tran. ferred to a home not their own, and no requirement that they shall be registered or inspected, it is an impossibility for that official to know the names, the numbers or the homes of his supposed wards. The cases which come under his consideration cre only those which are voluntarily brought to his notice.
There is, therefore, a strong body of opinion which urges that a special officer should be appointed as Official Guardian—one who should devote his whole time to the work, and who should possess special qualifications for the work. Hand in hand with this proposal is a demand that registration of all transferred children be made compulsory, with appropriate provisions in regard to inspection. On the latter point, the old bugbear of "Chinese susceptibility" is being encountered. Respectable Chinese fear that universal registration and inspection would lead to the creation of any army of official "Paul Prys,"
o would be for ever invading the sanctity of their homes.
Answering this objection, the advocates of radical reform suggest that pecial provision could be made for exemption from inspection in such es as the Official Guardian is satis-fled that the child is in good hands and being treated kindly. It seems evident that a registration scheme of some kind will be necessary, and the most likely outcome would appear to be a voluntary system to begin with, this to be made compulsory after due notice of the change has been given. One thing abears certain, namely, that the public as a whole will be satisfied with nothing less than some indication of a really serious effort to deal with the whole question of transferred children on bold and courageous lines.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.