No. 125.

Mr. Cheng Tsao Ju to Mr. Bayard.

Sir: Having acknowledged the receipt of your note of the 11th instant, advising me that an instruction was to be sent to Mr. Robert E. Withers, the newly appointed United States consul to Hong-Kong, to issue to the Chinese subjects, not laborers, certificates in accordance with the present statutes and the circular of the Secretary of the Treasury dated December 6, 1884, and that the Secretary of the Treasury has been requested to have a fixed form of such certificates to be drawn up, I have the honor to express to your excellency my gratitude for your kindness and courtesy in these matters. In compliance with your request that you shall be furnished with a list of the ports from which Chinese subjects of the exempt classes are likely to depart, and where there may be no Chinese official to issue them certificates, I take Treasure to inclose a list of those ports where there are comparatively more such Chinese persons to come to or through the United States.

Accept, sir, &c.,

CHENG TSAO JU.
[Inclosure.]

A list of the ports where there are comparatively more Chinese subjects of the exempt classes to come to or through the United States.

Asia; Hong-Kong, China; Saigon, Anam; Bangkok, Siam; Ceylon, India; Manila, Philippine Islands.

Oceanica: Sydney, Australia; Melbourne, Australia; Honolulu, Sandwich Islands.

North America: Victoria, British Columbia.

South America: Panama, United States of Colombia; Aspinwall, United States of Colombia: Iquique, Chili.