Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 7, 1874

No. 314.
Sir Edward Thornton to Mr. Fish.

Washington, January 23, 1874. (Received January 24.)

Sir: With reference to a conversation which I had with you on the 8th of November last, when I had the honor to speak to you upon Earl Granville’s suggestion for an arrangement with regard to the labor-traffic in the South Sea Islands, I have been instructed by his lordship to inform you that Her Majesty’s government will be most willing to co-operate with the Government of the United States with a view to putting a stop to the abuses of the Macao coolie traffic, and it will be prepared, if you think such a course desirable, to address, jointly with the Government of the United States, a remonstrance on the subject to the Portuguese government.

Her Majesty’s government has, during the last few years, made repeated representations at Lisbon in the sense suggested, nor has it been wanting in other efforts in the same direction.

An ordinance was passed by the government of Hong-Kong on the 24th of April last, providing for the careful inspection, by the emigration officer, of all ships intended for the conveyance of Chinese emigrants to be embarked at any port or place out of that colony. The officer is empowered to see that there are no objectionable fittings onboard, such as barricades and gratings, and any such ship leaving Hong-Kong is obliged to provide itself with a certificate that it has been inspected and has no prohibited or objectionable fittings on board. Violations of this ordinance are punished by heavy fines and imprisonment with or without hard labor. Practically, these provisions prevent altogether the fitting out of ships at Hong-Kong for the coolie trade.

At the date of the issue of the above-mentioned ordinance there were several vessels at Hong-Kong preparing for the coolie-trade; these, being obliged to leave, went up the river to the anchorage at Whampoa, about twelve miles below Canton. But in consequence of the urgent representations of Sir D. B. Robertson, Her Majesty’s consul at Canton, to the viceroy, these vessels were ordered to leave the river, and a notification was given that for the future no vessel destined for the carriage of Chinese coolies and belonging to non-treaty powers would be allowed to enter the port.

At the instance of Sir D. B. Robertson a kind of blockade of the settlement of Macao had been instituted by the viceroy of Canton, with a view to the prevention of the kidnaping of coolies and with some good result, although there was great difficulty in making it completely effective.

But it is hoped that the measures taken by the viceroy of Canton, in conjunction with the above-mentioned ordinance of Hong-Kong, will materially diminish the traffic.

Earl Granville has also desired me to add that Her Majesty’s government has learned with regret your observations as to the emigration of coolies to British possessions and their treatment there. The memorandum, of which I communicated the substance to you verbally some months ago, and of which I now have the honor to inclose a copy, shows that there is no foundation for the statements that force is used to procure coolies, and that they are kept in practical bondage. A second memorandum, which I have just received from Earl Granville, repeats that there has not been a single emigrant-ship from China to the British colonies since March, 1866, although there appears a prospect now for re-establishing the emigration to British Guiana. As regards any supposed oppression of Chinese in those colonies, it adds that on December 30, 1872, there were no less than 5,948 Chinese working on estates in British Guiana, and as all these must have long before worked out their first indentures, they must have taken service on estates of their own free-will. Chinese, after more than six years’ residence in the colony, must have been fully aware of their legal rights, and are not likely to have been forced or entrapped into a mode of labor which was distasteful to them.

Emigration to Singapore is as free as to San Francisco, and there must apparently be some mistake as to the destination of the coolies whose exportation you mentioned to me that the consul of the United States at Swatow had been charged with countenancing. The transaction referred to may possibly have been one which took place in the summer of 1872, when a naturalized American citizen, named Wermuth, was tried and sentenced to a fine for attempting to inveigle Chinese on board a vessel which was to convey them to Callao.

Emigration under contract has, for the first time since 1866, been resumed very recently on a small scale from Canton to British Guiana. But Earl Granville desires me to state that you may rest assured that Her Majesty’s government would not countenance it without the most ample precautions being taken that the emigrants fully understand the terms of their engagement and have proper treatment and supervision secured to them, during their voyage and after their arrival at their destination.

I have, &c.,

EDW’D THORNTON.

[Inclosure.]

memorandum.

There has been no emigration from China to British colonies since the convention of March, 1866, between the British and French ministers on the one hand and the Chinese government on the other hand.

When the emigration was in progress, that is, from 1859 to 1866, great care was taken to prevent, so far as possible, any abuses in its conduct. With this view the employment of native recruiters for the enlistment of emigrants was prohibited, the depots were put under strict supervision, and regulations were drawn up for their government, under the authority of the allied commanders, and the Chinese passenger act of 1855 was passed to provide not only for the seaworthiness and proper equipment of the ships employed in the service, but for the examination of the emigrants before embarkation, to ascertain that they understood and had entered voluntarily into their contracts. On these points the report of the emigrant commissioners for 1860, pp. 50–52, and Appendix, pp. 187 to 196, and the Chinese passenger act, 1855, are the principal documents to be referred to. It will be observed that the Chinese passenger act applies to all British ships carrying emigrants from any port in China or within one hundred miles of the coast. The result, it is believed, has been entirely to stop the carriage of Chinese in British ships to Cuba or Peru. In respect to contracts of service, it was stated, when Chinese emigration was first set on foot, that the Chinese objected to emigrate except under the protection of a contract; and in a dispatch dated as recently as February, 1870, the government of Hong-Kong, in reporting on a scheme then in progress for obtaining Chinese emigrants for some of the Southern States of the Union, says there was a difficulty in inducing emigrants to engage without a contract to which they attached importance. It is alleged that even in the emigration now in progress to San Francisco there is an understood contract between the emigrant and the representative of his future employer in the United States.

The number of Chinese who emigrated to the British West Indies between 1859 and 1866, inclusive, was:

To British Guiana	11,981
To Trinidad	1,657
To Honduras	474
	14,112

That the people have prospered in the colonies is stated in reports from the governors, and is proved by the large sums some of them accumulate. The actual amount of their accumulations cannot be known, but in 1870, of 14 who paid their own paa sages back to their country, one man took with him £916, and £333 6s. 8d. was deposited with the government for remittance. In 1871, 15 paid their own passages and deposited £666 13s. 4d., while in 1872 free passages were given to 34, 15 paid for themselves, and the amount deposited for remittance or taken away by them was £1,416 13s. 4d.

In respect to the intentions of Her Majesty’s government, it may be assumed that there is no disposition to prevent a renewal of the emigration, to the British colonies, provided it can be renewed with the consent of the Chinese government, and in a manner and on conditions to insure the good treatment and, well-being of the emigrants; but as regards the Macao emigration, which is carried on by means of native crimps and kidnaping, that Her Majesty’s government will be willing to co-operate with the governments of the United States and other countries to put a stop to its abuses.