Mr. Tsui to Mr. Blaine.
Washington, D. C., April 12, 1892. (Received April 12.)
Sir: In your absence from the Department on yesterday I called upon Mr. Wharton, the Assistant Secretary of State, and communicated to him the substance of a telegram which I received on the day before from the tsung-li yamên, communicating that it had received information of the passage of a bill by the House of Representatives of the United States prohibiting the future coming of Chinese to the United States, and I was directed to bring the matter to your attention, in view of the fact that the said bill was understood by the tsung-li yamen to be in violation of our treaty stipulations.
In answer to my inquiry as to what course I should adopt in view of this instruction, Mr. Wharton stated that if I should send a note to the Department setting forth the views of my Government the Department would take pleasure in transmitting a copy of it to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, which I understood from him had the bill now under its consideration. I beg, therefore, to direct your attention to the fact that the said bill violates every single one of the articles of the treaty which was negotiated in 1880 by the Commissioners who were sent out from your Government to China for the express purpose of agreeing with the Chinese Government upon such a treaty as the Government and people of the United States wanted, by which to regulate the immigration of the people of China to the United States. The record of the negotiations which took place in 1880 will show that the American Commissioners laid before the Chinese Government the terms of the treaty which they desired and which they said would pro ve satisfactory to their people. In answer to their request the Chinese Government made that treaty and have since that time sought in all ways within its power to have this and all other treaty stipulations between the two countries faithfully executed so far as the Chinese Government is concerned. My Government can not, therefore, understand why a bill should now be introduced into Congress which violates out right all the provisions of that treaty, which was made at the express request of the United States.
The bill about which I now write you not only violates Article 1 of treaty of 1880 in making absolute the prohibition of the coining of Chinese laborers to the United States, but contains legislation which is in violation of the last clause of the article, which says that the legislation [Page 148] shall not be of such a character as to subject the laborers to personal maltreatment or abuse.
It violates Article 2 in that it prohibits the coining to the United States of teachers, students, merchants, or Chinese subjects from curiosity or travel, as it also excludes all their body and household servants. The bill further prohibits the return of Chinese laborers who are now in the United States, and who, according to the treaty, were to be “allowed to go and come of their own free will and accord.”
It violates Article 3 in that it does not grant to Chinese subjects in the United States “the same rights, privileges, immunities, and exemptions” as are “enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation, and to which they are entitled by treaty.” The bill, besides subjecting the Chinese in the United States to various annoyances and penalties, also requires that they shall take out a certificate of residence, which certificate is required to contain a photographic copy of the applicant, together with other restrictions and penalties, which, as I am informed, is not required of the citizens or subjects of any other foreign country now living in the United States.
I beg that you will, Mr. Secretary, exert your influence with the committee before whom I learn from Mr. Wharton the bill is now being considered, believing that you have the same interest and desire as the Chinese Government to preserve inviolate the solemn treaty stipulations which have been made between the two Governments.
I send to you, with this note, an original statement signed by Mr. Phelps, the collector of customs of San Francisco, and also a copy of the same, which shows that since the restriction act of 1882 went into effect the number of departures of Chinese from the port of San Francisco have exceeded the arrivals by 32,000 persons, which statement would seem to indicate there is no occasion for alarm as to the increase of Chinese immigration into the United States. After you have compared the original statement with the copy, in order to be satisfied of its authenticity, I ask that you will return the original to me.
Accept, sir, etc.,