CHEAP AND LAZY MEN.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17222, 4 October 1927, Page 8

CHEAP AND LAZY MEN.

300,000 CHINESE OUTCASTS !KIPROVED LOT FOR DEGENERATES (From a Correspondent.) SHANGHAI, August 2. An edict just published by the “Nationalist” Government at Hangchow, 120 miles south of here, gives social and political rights to 300,000 members of “inferior races” hitherto regarded as outcasts by the Chinese. These curious castes are known officially as the Lazy Men, the Cheap Men, and the Fishermen of the Nine Families. They are the degenerate descendants of the Mongol garrison troops left behind on the collapse of the Yuan dynasty in 13 GB, when the Imperial Family retreated from Peking to Urga and their soldiers became slaves of the victorious Chinese.

Throughout the Ming and Ching dynasties these aliens were never permitted to hold any public office or to take part in Civil Service examinations. They were prohibited from intermarrying with the Chinese, and their children were \ot allowed to receive an education. They are for the most part barbers, tailors, chair carriers and ricksha coolies.

An official inquiry in the Province of Chekiang has revealed the presence of 20,000 “Tu-Min,” or Lazy Men, at Ningpo and Shaosing; 200,000 Yi-Min, or Cheap Men, in Wenchow and Chuchow; and about 70,000 Fishermen of the Nine Families in Hangchow and Chichow.

In granting these descendants of slaves full civil rights, the “Nationalist” Administration has ordered the local • magistrates to investigate their conditions of living and to assist them to improve their lot.