" Child Slavery "
Tii F British flag has floated over the colony of Hong Kong ever since 1841. It is the one bit of the British Empire in the whole of Far Cathay. Out of its total population of nearly 800,000, about 785,000 are Chinese, and there is much coming and going from and to the mainland of China. To this beau- tiful island, eleven years ago, came an experienced officer of the British Navy to fill an Admiralty appointment, and when he and his wife took up their quarters and looked about them, they saw sights and heard sounds which caused them to make searching investigation.
They noticed long processions of small children carrying burdens, often beyond their strength, up the steep paths of the Peak. They heard the scream of terror and pain from an eight-year-old child working in a house owned by Chinese close to their hotel. They learned from a sermon preached in the Cathedral by a brave chaplain that there were little Chinese children in the island who were " owned and bought and sold " and that " the apathy and indifference of the greater number of the British people " in the colony had per- mitted " so old-fashioned an evil to continue." And they realized that beneath the flag of England small children and young girls were being sold and resold at a profit, bartered as human property," and that " the governing officials in the colony allowed these practices to go unprosecuted, thereby concurring in them."
Whatever others could condone or disregard, the thought of these things gave Commander Haslewood and his wife no rest. Mrs. Haslewood wrote to the Hong Kong papers and received valuable support ; her husband gave up his post sooner than fail to do his utmost for these helpless little slaves ; they have carried on the crusade to expose the evils of the Mui Tsai system ever since.
This book tells the moving story. Everyone concerned for the credit of the British name and the protection of children front cruelty should read it. And everyone who does read it is bound to feel the force of its appeal and the necessity for more vigorous action to end a horrible scandal.
The authors do not hesitate, as the title of their book shows, to describe the Mui Tsai system as it prevails in Hong Kong by the blunt name of " Child Slavery." Yet in the House of Commons the official answer has been given " There is no form of slavery in force or recognized in Hong Kong," and ten years ago, at the very thne when Commander and Mrs. Haslewood began their investigations, the Colonial Office was issuing a statement which began " Buying and selling of human beings does not take place in Hong Kong." Where, then, does the truth lie ? As for the appropriateness of calling the system " slavery," the former Chief Justice of the island had no doubt about it. Sir John Smale, sitting in his own seat in the Supreme Court of the island, declared it to be " Chinese slavery as it de facto exists in Hong Kong," and denied that it could receive the sanction of British Law as a permitted " Chinese custom." His own estimate of the number of slaves at that time (1879) in the Colony amounted to 10,000 (though we do not notice this fact mentioned in the book before us) ; there seems to be no reason to suppose that the number is materially less to-day. As to the buying and selling of these children, the authors quote a case heard in the magistrate's court at Hong Kong on May 27th, 1921, where this tribunal of British justice had before it the complaint of a Chinese merchant that a Mui Tsai acquired six months before had been stolen from him by the defendant, a Chinese woman, who offered the excuse that the girl was " willing to be sold as a slave in Macao." There- upon the magistrate demanded " What has that got to do with it ? It is not your girl to be sold ; it is this gentleman's girl." And he sentenced the thief to three months' imprisonment I If a Mui Tsai was a chattel or an article of sale, this is intelli- gible : if she is a free human being, or at any rate is regarded as such by those who administer the law in Hong Kong, is not such a decision incomprehensible ? But the authors carry the matter further by printing in the appendix to their volume a deed of sale by a Chinese mother of her daughter aged eleven—price 240 dollars, receipt given, no right of redemption, purchaser guaranteed against interference, but once the goods are delivered—caveat emptor ! Nothing more business-like can be imagined, even in the days of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." But if
this sort of transaction goes on in Hong Kong, what is the good of pretending that it does not amount to child slavery ? The money paid is never paid to the child ; the child receives no wages and has no contract ; the authors quote a case in which one of these helpless little creatures was sold and resold four times over.
" The Mui Tsai is regarded by the Chinese as a purchased domestic and has been always so regarded. If kindly disposed the purchaser may treat her as a daughter, and this is undoubtedly the case in many instances. He may also treat her as a bit of his properly to be used as he thinks fit."
This book gives a deeply interesting account of the recent history of efforts made by the Colonial Office to deal with this question. Mr. Churchill took it up with the Governor of Hong Kong in a strong despatch in 1922, declaring :
" Unless I am able to state that this institution does not involve the slightest element of compulsory employment (which is the essence of slavery) and that every Mui Tsai of a certain age is in law and practice free if she wishes to leave her adopted parents or employers, I cannot defend its existence in a British Colony."
The Governor answered that a scheme for the abolition of the system as soon as practicable was being drawn up, and Mr. Churchill replied :
" I recognize that it must take a little time, but I am deter- mined to expedite it as much as possible, and I expect the change to be carried out within a year."
And Mr. Churchill confidently announced to the House of Commons, on March 21st, 1922, that " orders had been given to the Hong Kong Government to abolish the system within one year." Yet six years afterwards, as Lord Passfield points out in his despatch of August, 1929, " the most that can be said is that there is no reason to believe that the number of Mui Tsai in the Colony has increased."
It is not surprising, therefore, that Commander and Mrs. Haslewood give to the chapter which follows the heading " A Pledge Unhonoured." The Ordinance of 1923 contained provisions under which, at any rate, existing Mui Tsai might be registered, so that the further buying and selling of these children, which was declared illegal, might be more effectively prevented. But until within the .last six months no attempt has been made to put registration into force ; without it, the proximity of China makes the task of the officials in enforcing the Ordinance (even if they were zealously pursuing it) doubly difficult ; and even now the authors of this book declare that registration is not being effectively enforced.
" When we were in Hong Kong," they sum up, " we were told that the Mui Tsai system would eventually be ended, not by the local Government, but by public opinion in England." Unless the British people is content to be lulled again into indifference by an Ordinance on paper, public opinion will insist that child slavery in Hong Kong must really end. This little book will do much to inform the public mind and rouse the public conscience on a tragic situation which should leave
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