No. 202.
Mr. Daggett to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Legation of
the United States,
Honolulu, March 15, 1884.
(Received March 31.)
No. 132.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the
Hawaiian minister of foreign affairs has at length been enabled to make such
changes and concessions in relation to the granting of special contracts for
the transportation of Chinese laborers to these islands as will harmonize
substantially with the interpretation of the treaty of 1849 which I was
instructed to present to His Majesty’s Government.
Following the receipt of your dispatch of February 2, 1884 (No. 47), I
resumed my correspondence on the subject with His Majesty’s minister of
foreign affairs, and, with an emphasis warranted by more definite
instructions, again advised his excellency of your interpretation of Article
VI of the treaty of 1849, and asked His Majesty’s Government to take such
measures as might be necessary to relieve American steamships carrying the
United States mails of the discrimination against them involved in the
continuance of existing or the making of future contracts according to
particular lines of steamships the exclusive privilege of bringing Chinese
laborers or passengers to the Hawaiian Islands. A copy of this letter,
bearing date of March 5, 1884, I have the honor to inclose herewith.
On the 13th instant I was favored with a reply from the minister of foreign
affairs, a copy of which I also inclose. His excellency conveys the
information that no steamship company holds or has lately held any
authorization to transport Chinese laborers to the Hawaiian Islands. This
will occasion no surprise when it is remembered that the contract with the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company, by previous notification of the Hawaiian
Government, ceased on the 1st of January last, and that the Oceanic
Steamship Company, or Mr. Spreckels, to whom the privilege was to have been
transferred, is still without steamers to perform the service.
Without fully abandoning its position respecting its right, under its treaty
covenants with the United States, to make exclusive contracts for the
transportation to these islands of limited numbers and specified classes of
Chinese immigrants, the Hawaiian Government has met the emergency with an
order, followed with corresponding instructions to its representatives
abroad, to the effect that Chinese immigrants in excess of twenty-five in
any one vessel will not be admitted hereafter into the Hawaiian Kingdom, and
his excellency gives assurance that, pending the consideration of the
subject of Chinese immigration by the next Legislative Assembly, “no permits
are or will be issued to any steamer lines giving them any exclusive
privilege in regard to the transportation of Chinese immigrant laborers from
Hong-Kong or elsewhere to this Kingdom.”
As the enforcement of these regulations in good faith will put an end to
Chinese immigration, as well as to the discrimination complained of in
connection with it, I shall be pleased to be confirmed in the judgment that
a further discussion of the subject at this time is unnecessary.
Very respectfully, &c.,
[Page 280]
[Inclosure 1 in No. 132.]
Mr. Daggett to Mr.
Gibson.
Legation of the United States,
Honolulu, March 5,
1884.
No. 248.]
Sir: Referring to your letter of the 19th of
December last, relating to the granting by the Hawaiian Government of
special and exclusive privileges to the Oceanic Steamship Company in the
transportation of Chinese laborers to these islands, I have the honor to
advise your excellency that I am now possessed of the specific
conclusions of my Government on the subject, with a full consideration
of the correspondence in connection therewith between your excellency
and this legation.
Without reviewing the entire ground covered by the controversy, I beg
respectfully to say that the right claimed by your excellency for
Hawaii, under its treaty relations with the United States, to grant
exclusive privileges for the transportation of Chinese passengers to
these islands, either for sanitary or other reasons, cannot be admitted
by my Government. As has already been brought to your excellency’s
attention, the real question involved is not the grievance of the
Pacific Mail Steamship Company or of any other American line of
steamships, nor the relative rights of such lines, however they may be
incidentally affected.
It is strictly an international question between the two Governments,
involving the construction or interpretation of Article VI of the treaty
of 1849, which guarantees to “steam-vessels of the United States
“carrying its mails the right to freely enter Hawaiian ports and “land
passengers and their baggage.” All steam-vessels of the United States
carrying its mails are entitled to this privilege, without regard to the
lines to which they may belong.
The sovereign right of Hawaii to prohibit the immigration of Chinese to
its shores is not questioned, and American steamships, of whatever line,
would be bound to respect such prohibition; but if Chinese immigrants
are permitted to come to Hawaii, either indiscriminately or in limited
numbers, or under any other condition that may be imposed by the laws or
regulations of the Kingdom, then such immigrants are passengers within
the meaning of Article VI of the treaty of 1849, and all American
steamships carrying the mails possess an undoubted right to take and
land them as passengers in any of the ports of Hawaii, in accordance
with treaty stipulation.
To accord an exclusive right to carry such passengers either to Hawaiian
vessels, to vessels of a nation foreign to both the United States and
Hawaii, or to vessels of any particular line, whether American,
Hawaiian, or foreign, would be equally a discrimination against American
steam-vessels, and would be held by my Government to be a violation of
the plain letter of Article VI of the treaty of 1849; and neither would
my judgment counsel nor my instructions permit me to assent to an
interpretation giving warrant to any such discrimination.
I beg again to assure your excellency that no exclusive privilege is
claimed for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. On the contrary, the
granting of such a privilege to that or any other line would be quite as
objectionable as the discrimination now sought to be made in favor of
the Oceanic Steamship Company.
What is asked is that all American steamships, of whatever line, shall,
with respect to the carrying trade and within the limitations of treaty
provisions, be placed on an equality with each other, with the vessels
of the most favored nation, and with the vessels of the Hawaiian
Kingdom. This is the only interpretation of the treaty which seems to be
just; the only interpretation which my Government is prepared to assent
to; and in connection with it the question of sanitary measures or the
rights of any particular line of steamships cannot be considered. The
treaty must be interpreted in harmony with its spirit and its language,
and so long as its provisions are held to be binding the observance of
its covenants cannot justly or in good faith be contravened or modified
by either party to meet a sanitary or other emergency.
To state the point directly, the exclusive privilege already or about to
be granted to the Oceanic Steamship Company is conceived by my
Government to be an unjust discrimination against all other American
steamships carrying the mails between the eastern and western shores of
the Pacific Ocean; that it is in contravention of the provisions of the
treaty of 1849; and the President hopes, as he believes, that the
Hawaiian Government, noted no less for its high intelligence than for
its sense of justice, will speedily adopt the proper measures to rescind
the privilege, if granted, and if not granted, to prevent its
fulfillment.
I have, &c.,
[Page 281]
[Inclosure 2 in No. 132.]
Mr. Gibson to Mr.
Daggett.
Department of Foreign Affairs,
Honolulu, March 13,
1884.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your excellency’s letter of the 5th instant, replying to mine
of December 19, conveying to me the specific conclusions of the
Government of the United States on the subject of exclusive privileges
connected with the transport of Chinese laborers to these islands, to
the effect that the right claimed by this Government to grant such
exclusive privileges, either for sanitary or other reasons, involves a
violation of treaty stipulations.
In my dispatch of January 4, which was accompanied by a copy of a letter
to His Majesty’s consul-general at Hong Kong, I had the honor to inform
your excellency that ho instruction had been sent to authorize any line
of steamers, to transport Chinese immigrant laborers to these islands,
and at the present time no such authorization exists. Any attempt on the
part of any line of steamers to introduce such immigrant laborers is
wholly without the warrant of permission or instruction from His
Majesty’s Government.
His Majesty fully appreciates the assurances coming from the Government
of the United States that the sovereign right of His Majesty’s
Government to restrict or inhibit Chinese immigration remains
unquestioned.
This immigration cannot be regarded in the same light as ordinary
passenger travel such as was contemplated when the treaty of 1849 was
negotiated.
His Majesty’s Government would not think, even without treaty
obligations, of imposing restrictions on ordinary passenger traffic to
this Kingdom; but a passenger traffic composed exclusively of male
laborers, entirely without means, who show no disposition for settlement
or assimilation abroad, is of such a character that the great American
Republic itself has found it expedient, as Hawaii now does, to have a
complete control of such traffic or immigration. Without such control
there would in the case of this country be danger to its autonomy.
Therefore, His Majesty’s Government, confirming a resolution of His
Majesty in cabinet council of July 13, of last year, have placed in the
control of this Department the regulation of Chinese immigration, and I
have the honor to inform your excellency that an order has been issued
and communicated to His Majesty’s diplomatic and consular
representatives at Washington, San Francisco, and elsewhere, that
Chinese coming here (not already furnished with official permits) in
numbers exceeding twenty-five in any one vessel will not be allowed
entrance into this Kingdom. Meantime the whole subject of Chinese
immigration will be submitted to the Legislative Assembly at its
approaching session with the view of obtaining new and decisive
legislation upon the subject. I have therefore the honor to inform your
excellency that in the mean time no permits are or will be issued to any
steamer lines giving to them any exclusive privileges in regard to the
transportation of Chinese immigrant laborers from Hong Kong or elsewhere
to this Kingdom.
I have, &c.,
