[Inclosure in No. 14.]
circular.
Office
of the Board of Immigration,
Honolulu, August 10,
1885.
His Majesty’s Government are anxious to secure the successful settlement
in this country of Portuguese, Japanese, and other agricultural
laborers, and the legislature by its liberal appropriations, and in the
discussion which occurred in regard to immigrants of various
nationalties that come to settle here, has manifested a similar feeling.
Expressions of public opinion, both from those specially interested in
the question of plantation labor and from other classes of the
community, have forcibly indorsed this desire as the expression of a
sound national policy. The arrangements for securing this settlement
have been perfected, but, in order to attain satisfactory results, it
will be necessary that the needs and requirements and the peculiarities
of the several races of men who come to this country in the hope of
thereby bettering their condition should be studied by those with whom
they are brought into contract as employers.
Peculiarities of race require consideration. For instance, it must be
evident to all who have had occasion to employ the Japanese that they
are eminently a teachable race, and that at the same time it is only by
a kind and just treatment that they can be successfully dealt with. Such
treatment is indeed essential to success in the management of immigrant
foreign laborers generally. In view of this fact it is well that the
bases of the agreements which exist between His Majesty’s Government and
the several Governments interested in this subject should be clearly
understood by all employers of laborers who are serving under original
contracts with the board of immigration.
The understanding with the Japanese Government is that while the
immigrants remain under their original contracts they are to be under
the immediate guardianship of the Government, and that the planters to
whom their contracts are assigned are the agents of the Government, the
latter being really responsible on the original contracts at all points.
This provision, which is but a definite and legal definition of the
contents of the contracts themselves, will apply equally to Portuguese
and all other laborers who are performing their original terms of
service under contracts to which the board is a party.
From this understanding it follows that on the Government rests the duty
of inquiring into, and endeavoring to settle in an amicable manner, all
complaints and differences that may arise between the actual employer
and the laborer. To insure the fulfillment of this duty, the Government
has decided to establish under the board of immigration a special
commission of inspection of Japanese laborers (of which Mr. Nakayama is
at present the chief), also a special inspection of Portuguese and
others, the whole system being under the direction of an
inspector-general, who will receive his orders from the board of
immigration. Under this arrangement the Government will be able to place
inspectors and interpreters on the principal islands.
To these commissions of inspection all complaints on the part of
employers of immigrant laborers are to be made. The laborers themselves
will be instructed (as the Japanese have already been) to make any
complaints they may have to these inspectors rather than to the
representatives of their own Government, the twofold aim being to
obviate the necessity of the several representatives making official
complaints and also to secure the prompt settlement of all disputes that
may arise between employers and employed without need of reference to
the courts of law.
[Page 475]
It is indeed fully understood that the actual employers of immigrants
brought here by the Government being virtually agents of the Government,
arrests for breach of service contracts are not to be made without the
concurrence of the board of immigration. The Government has confidence
that in almost all cases the action of the several commissions of
inspection will render such arrests unnecessary.
It has further been distinctly considered and determined by the
Government, that no employer or overseer (luna)
shall be permitted, under any circumstances (except in self-defense), to
strike or lay hands upon any contract laborer who is recognized as a
Government ward. This determination is made binding by agreements to
this effect, actually entered into; and it is rendered all the more
important when considered in the light of the sensitive nature of the
Japanese race, in particular, which renders any rough handling of the
laborer abortive, if intended to secure obedience. It must therefore be
understood by all employers that blows or other violence used against a
contract laborer, except in absolute self-defense, will be deemed suffix
ground for the withdrawal of the assignment made to them of any person
so dealt with.
It rests mainly with employers to make these new arrangements successful.
It is only in detail that they are new. The
spirit which animates this Government and the Governments of the several
countries from which the immigrant laborers come is already embodied in
the laws and in the settled polity of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Employers
have now before them the understanding on which they hold the services
of the immigrant laborers assigned to them, and if they endeavor to
bring about the adjustment of all disputes which may arise with their
laborers in the spirit of that understanding, they will also be acting
in a spirit which will secure the cordial commendation, not only of the
several Governments interested, but of all enlightened nations
everywhere.
CHAS. T. GULICK,
Minister of Interior
and President Board of Immigration.
