File No. 803.

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Rockhill .

No. 190.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 366, of the 1st ultimo, inclosing a copy of a note to you from the Chinese foreign office wherein is set forth a communication from the Chinese minister at this city to his Government as to the issuing of certificates to Chinese of the exempt classes (as required by section 6 of the exclusion act), when such Chinese may wish to enter this country from some country other than China.

The explanation of the communication to you is doubtless as follows:

Section 6 of the act approved July 5, 1884, provides that Chinese entitled to enter the United States under said act—

shall obtain the permission of and be identified as so entitled by the Chinese Government or of such other foreign government of which at the time such Chinese person shall be a subject.

The officials who have been designated by their respective governments to issue the above certificates are mentioned in rule 33 of Chinese Exclusion Regulations (p. 53). The only officials whom the Chinese Government has ever designated to issue the certificates are set forth in dispatch No. 1570, April 12, 1904, from Mr. Conger to [Page 273] this department, and all said officials are located within the Empire of China.

It thus happens that when a Chinese of the exempt classes wishes to enter the United States from any country in which there is no official authorized to issue a section 6 certificate he finds himself unable to proceed. In March last a certain Doctor Yen came from South Africa with what purported to be a certificate from the Chinese consul-general there (that officer having never been authorized by his Government to issue certificates of this character). Doctor Yen was allowed to land at Boston, March 7, 1906, notwithstanding this irregularity, and the Chinese minister was requested by this department to secure a correct certificate for him. In the note to the Chinese minister in this connection (No. 71, April 13), attention was called to the necessity—

if subjects of the exempt classes are to be admitted to the United States from countries other than China, that persons located in such foreign countries shall be empowered by the Government of China to grant to its subjects there resident the certificates in question.

On the 18th of April last the Chinese minister replied to the above note, stating that he would bring to the attention of his Government the necessity of empowering persons in other countries than China to grant to Chinese subjects there resident the certificates required by the laws of the United States.

The note of the foreign office inclosed in your dispatch under acknowledgment is doubtless the sequel to the above. It is to be noted that the communication of the Chinese minister to his Government was without the knowledge or consent of this department. The plan proposed by the foreign office is objectionable in two particulars: First, the designation of officers authorized to issue section 6 certificates is too general. It will not answer to give this authority generally to “the Chinese minister, * * *, the chargé d’affaires, * * *, consul-general, or consul.” In respect to each country a specific officer or class of officers should be designated. Second, this Government has not consented, and it is not willing that “in places where there are no Chinese diplomatic or consular officials the same American officials shall be empowered to issue certificates,” as proposed by the Chinese minister. American diplomatic and consular officers are charged by the law with the duty of viséing these certificates, and it would be extremely inadvisable to make them issue a certificate to be viséed by themselves.

You are requested to bring the above points to the attention of the foreign office, and to ask that a proper designation of officials be made in accordance therewith at such places as the Chinese Government may find proper.

It is to be suggested to the Chinese Government that the above authority need not be widely given, because in the case of Chinese who are subjects of foreign governments it devolves upon such foreign governments, not on China, to issue the said certificates, and because it would be an easy matter for any Chinese subject abroad who wishes to come to the United States to present himself en route to some official empowered by his government to issue certificates. It is neither necessary nor advisable that an official be empowered to issue certificates at every port from which a Chinese might possibly embark for America.

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I inclose herewith a copy of a letter from the Acting Secretary of Commerce and Labor from which you will see that the draft of this instruction was submitted to him for his consideration, and that this instruction has the unqualified approval of his department.

I am, etc.,

Alvey A. Adee.