Mr. Wu Ting-fang to Mr. Hay.

No. 180.]

Sir: I have the honor to bring up again, by special instruction from my Government, the subject of extending the Chinese exclusion laws of the United States to the Philippine Islands for the consideration of your Government.

Minister Conger has undoubtedly informed the Department by this time that the tsungli yamen, in a note addressed to him, expresses the deep anxiety of the Chinese Government as to the steps to be taken by the United States in this direction, with the request that the same be communicated to the United States Government. A reply having been received by Minister Conger conveying the information that the Congress of the United States has not yet taken any legislative action in the matter, and suggesting that the views and wishes of the Chinese Government be laid before the Congress of the United States, the tsungli yamen has accordingly given me instructions to this effect.

As the views of my Government and the status of the immigration question affecting the Chinese as applied to the Philippines have been fully set forth in my correspondence with your Department on the subject, I will not here repeat them, but content myself with simply referring to them for your further consideration. It is the earnest wish and hope of my Government that this question be dealt with by the Government of the United States in a just, fair, and liberal spirit, having in view the continuance and enlargement of the existing friendly relations between the two countries. The Imperial Government feels that the reasons for the adoption of an exclusion policy by the United States respecting Chinese laborers do not hold good in the Philippines, but that on the contrary, even from the testimony of many American and European travelers and observers, the presence of Chinese is indispensable to the proper development of those islands.

I feel confident that if Congress be put in possession of all the information possible on the subject so as to enable it to consider the [Page 403] question in all its bearings, it will, in its unerring wisdom, enact such measures when the proper time comes as will be satisfactory to all concerned.

With this object in view I beg to request that you will kindly transmit to the Congress copies of my notes to your Department on this subject, viz, No. 122, of February 3, 1899; September 1, 1899; No. 148, of September 12, 1899; No. 152, of November 15, 1899, and a copy of this note.

Accept, etc.,

Wu Ting-fang.