§ Mr. Leachasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the buying and selling of Chinese children still persists in Hong Kong and Malaya; whether his attention has been drawn to a statement of Mr. R. H. Oakeley, assistant protector of Chinese, Selangor, that it is no offence to sell a boy; and what steps he is taking to alter this?
Mr. M. MacDonaldMy attention has been drawn to a Press report of the statement mentioned. The buying and selling of children with a view to slavery, prostitution or other immoral or unlawful purpose, is forbidden by law in both1436W Malaya and Hong Kong. The recent Commission which investigated the problems of Mui Tsai in Hong Kong and Malaya made searching inquiries as to the existence of any system of transfer affecting boys, but reported that no such system involving an element of bondage either on the pretext of adoption or on any other pretext could be found to exist. Recently there have been cases of boys sent to Malaya for the purpose, it is believed, of removing them from the zone of hostilities in China, and I have taken steps to assure myself that the authorities in Hong Kong and Malaya are cooperating to maintain a strict watch against the development of abuses from such arrangements, and if circumstances should warrant specific legislation to control them, it will be enacted.