Mr. Combs to Mr. Hay.
Guatemala and Honduras,
Guatemala, February 26, 1903.
Sir: I have the honor to request information as to the relations of this legation to Chinese citizens residing in Guatemala and how far I am permitted to go in making representations in their behalf.
The concrete case which suggests this inquiry is as follows:
On February 19 Ton San Lon, a Chinese merchant, reported to me that upon Sunday, the 16th instant, a boy, Low Hip, in charge of his branch store at Jutiapa, had been arrested for refusing to give an officer small bills for $10,000 in bills of the denomination of $100 each, the officer offering him 10 per cent premium for the exchange, which is about the current rate in Guatemala. Ton San Lon declared he did not have that much in small bills and to give up such small bills as he had would destroy his ability to make change for his customers and therefore paralyze his business.
I went to the minister of foreign affairs and requested that he investigate the case and, if he found it to be as represented,” to direct the immediate release of the Chinese from prison.
The minister of foreign affairs called upon me the next day and informed me the man had been released, but defended instead of apologized for the act. He declared the Chinese merchants would gather all the small bills up and send them to Guatemala for sale, and suggested that I advise them to cease doing this and to furnish the officials with change when called upon. I replied that I had advised not only the Chinese but Americans to be considerate in doing all they could to accommodate the Government officials during these difficult times, but I hoped the Government would not fail to recognize that if the Chinese merchants were in honest possession of money, of any denomination, they could not legally or rightfully be imprisoned for not giving it up for an equivalent unsatisfactory to themselves.
Ton San Lon reports the officer has warned his boy that he must furnish $3,000, change, per week or be arrested.
The trouble grows out of the fact that one of the banks, The Occidental, in issuing currency did not go to the expense of issuing it in convenient denominations, but put out the entire block, through the Government, in bills of $100 each, consequently one has to pay about 8 or 10 per cent to get these bills broken. One can not draw one’s [Page 573] own money out of the bank except in even hundreds and then it is paid over in these bills.
Am I to understand that I should afford an aggrieved Chinese citizen the same protection I would to an American citizen?
I have, etc.,