GIRL SLAVES IN CHINA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 194, 18 August 1933, Page 9

GIRL SLAVES IN CHINA.

Another stop in tlie emancipation of worneri in China has just been taken in the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior to abolish the slave girl, according to a news item in "Stri Dharma." For centuries the system of mui tsai, or women slaves, has been a blot on China. It consisted of the practice of taking young girls from the poorest Chinese families, paying the parents a small sum in recompense,. and selling them into wealthy households for the highest bid, either as a concubine or as a servant. The girl's slavery in most cases paid for her brother's, education. Even now this system is briskly indulged in, especially in the inland villages, where girls are still regarded as anything but a blessing in povertystricken homes. A' girl whose parents are fond of her and would not willingly sell her as a slave very often submits herself voluntarily to slavery, so that her father and mother may eat and her brother become honoured among men. Numerous cases of the ill-treatment and. cruelty accorded to these unfortunate slave-girls, however, have led to the' present step being taken, and the pro-., posal to abolish this slavery is now! awaiting''Government decision, I