File No. 819.55/31.
The feeling of the entire community, even on the part of those who would
naturally object to the presence of the Chinese within the Republic,
being opposed to the application of the law, not as a law excluding the
Chinese but in the form in which it now stands, I have urged at the
close of the note the suspension of the application of the law until the
next session of the National Assembly, to be held in October, 1914,
when, after a full consideration of all of its provisions, a new law may
be passed freed from the objectionable and probably unconstitutional
provisions of this one.
The attitude of the Government is now weakening on this point and it is,
in my opinion, their unspoken desire to suspend the application of the
law until after the opening of the next session of the National
Assembly. Their reluctance to state this up to the present is due in
part, in my opinion, to a regret at losing the expected opportunity for
heavily taxing the Chinese under the present law, and even more,
according to the confidential statement of Señor Lefevre, to fear of the
opportunity given to the opposition in the next Assembly to attack the
Government for weakness, or even of trafficking with the Chinese. It is
probable that some method will now be found, probably by taking the
matter into the courts, to suspend the law without appearing to do so,
and as this is the earnest desire of the Chinese colony here I am
lending my best effort in that direction.
As mentioned in my despatch No. 509 of September 29, 1913, I have taken
great care at the very beginning to make clear to Señor Lefevre, as well
as to the Chinese and to the press, that while in charge of the
interests of China in Panama I am acting as a representative of that
Government and not in my capacity as an official of the United States
Government. I would accordingly request, if it seems advisable to the
Department, that the duplicate copy of my Foreign Office note enclosed
herewith may be transmitted to the American Legation at Peking for
forwarding to the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of
China.
[Inclosure.]
The American Secretary of
Legation in charge of Chinese interests in Panama to
the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Chinese Legation,
Panama,
October 10, 1913.
Excellency: I have the honor to refer to
our recent interview with regard to the situation of the Chinese in
the Republic of Panama under Law 50 and Decree No. 44 of 1913, and
to inform you that the census and registration which I am making of
the Chinese within the Republic indicates that all but a very small
percentage of these possess cédulas signed by officials of the
Panaman Government, authorizing their admission or recognizing their
presence within the country. A certain number of these cédulas
present difficulties in the way of identification, due in part to
errors resulting from local dialects and the plural names of the
Chinese. It is of course probable that only the most correct cédulas
have so far been presented, and that a few Chinese have no cédulas
at all, but their number will be proved definitely only with the
completion of this registration.
In the course of the investigations inseparable from this
registration I have been brought into closest touch with the Chinese
and been made aware of many difficulties, easily explained by your
excellency, which are still to them matters of uncertainty and
doubt. I have accordingly and at your excellency’s suggestion put
these in writing in order that through your reply I may receive your
excellency’s answer in a form suitable for accurate communication to
the Chinese.
It appears, following the recent reply of your excellency to the
delegation of Panaman merchants, a matter of vital importance to the
Chinese in their commercial relations with the Panaman people, as
well as with Americans and other foreigners who are creditors of the
Chinese to very considerable amounts, that the Chinese receive some
assurance that they enjoy constitutional rights within the Republic,
and that neither by registering with your excellency’s Government,
nor by in any other way conforming with the provisions of Law 50,
will they lose constitutional rights which they at present possess.
Written assurance on this point, however needless it may appear to
your excellency, when transmitted through me to the Chinese, will, I
feel sure, tend to relieve an existing tension and uncertainty in
commercial relations between the Chinese and your own people, as
well as with Americans and other, foreigners, which are now most
unfortunately affected.
A second point which your excellency can easily make clear but which
is not yet realized by the Chinese, is that under Law 50 all Chinese
who are now in the country in conformity with the provisions of the
Law of 1904 and subsequent legislation, and who possess or can prove
the loss of cédulas signed by authorized agents of the Panaman
Government recognizing their presence within the Republic, shall be
allowed to remain permanently as of right, without being subject to
further compulsory registration or to the payment of any special
tax, and also that these rights will not be affected under future
legislation. With this assurance in writing, which your excellency
has so frequently expressed to me in person, the position of the
Chinese will be no longer uncertain or precarious, and I beg your
excellency clearly to express the attitude of your Government on
this point in your esteemed reply.
As a third point I would call your excellency’s attention to what
seems a most important matter in connection with the granting of the
new certificates and the surrender of the old. Aside from the
constitutional objections, which I am assured by the most eminent
lawyers from among your own countrymen exist in regard to the
registration of the Chinese as a race, coupled with the payment of a
compulsory registration fee, but which objections are at this time
more properly a means of defense than matters to be raised at a
friendly adjustment of this problem, I would point out that the
application blank required to be filled out by the person
registering and issued under the law in return for the surrender of
the cedilla already possessed by that person, fails to assure that
person so registering of his right to remain thereafter within the
country as a right. This new paper, a copy of which was handed to me
recently by your excellency, appears on the contrary to be a mere
application blank which when filled out will contain only items of
identification and no assurance of the continuance of rights to its
possessor. The form, moreover, resembles the identification blanks
used in the registration of criminals in foreign
[Page 1129]
countries, for which reason it
appears most objectionable to those whose registration is thus
required. I cannot see that to obtain such a document offers any
inducement to the possessor of a cédula to register, and your
excellency will, I am sure, consider it a most inadequate exchange
to demand of the Chinese the surrender for destruction of cédulas
issued by the proper authorities and which bear on their face an
authorization to remain in the country in return for a mere paper of
identification. I would therefore request from your excellency some
assurance, for transmission to the Chinese, that the law will be so
modified that upon registration the old cédula will not be
surrendered and burned, but marked in some way for identification
and attached permanently to the new application blank. With regard
to this document, moreover, I venture to suggest a simpler form,
such as that now used in taking my registration of the Chinese for
the information of the Chinese Government, namely: photograph of the
applicant, firmly attached to the page and sealed; name; customary
name; age; height; physical peculiarities; address in Panama;
occupation; district of residence in China (which involves the added
test of acquaintance with the local dialect); thumbmark. To this
should advisedly be added the assurance that the person registering
was thereby entitled to remain within the Republic as of right and
free from taxation under the present law as well as from special
taxation in the future. This would go far to remove a deep-seated
feeling of opposition and suspicion with regard to registration
which the application blank in its present form seems inadequate to
allay.
Moreover the Chinese have come forward willingly at my request to
register in the books of the Chinese Republic but are absolutely
opposed to registration with your excellency’s Government under the
present law, objecting, if I understand their attitude aright, not
so much to the law, or even to the tax imposed under it, but in the
fear that by complying with it in its present objectionable and
unmodified form they will lose inherent rights which they would not
lose under a law more fully considered and more carefully drawn.
Registration also involves considerable expense and a second
registration will very possibly raise intense opposition. I would
suggest that even this matter might be simplified by taking, with
the permission of the Chinese, certified copies of the pages of my
registration books in place of a personal registration. This
procedure might involve as well an inspection and certification of
cédulas, which could be accomplished following some plan which your
excellency may be pleased to suggest.
Finally I have received from your excellency assurances not only that
the amount of the tax to be levied upon Chinese who are here without
legal right but also every matter connected with the application of
Law 50 will be brought up before the National Assembly at its next
session for approval or disapproval as well as possible
modification, in order that the provisions of the law may be made to
conform more nearly to the wishes of the people and to avoid at the
same time the present constitutional objections. I would accordingly
request from your excellency in a form suitable for accurate
communication to the Chinese assurances of this intention on the
part of your excellency’s Government as expressed to me verbally,
renewing your promise that the efforts of the Government would be
directed to induce the National Assembly to reduce from 250 balboas
to 125 balboas the tax on Chinese who may be here without legal
right; to discuss a return of the registration fee of three balboas,
against which constitutional objection has been raised; and upon
broad lines to consider such modifications of the law as a whole as
may, following this present full and valuable investigation of all
its provisions, be found just and advisable by the National
Assembly.
I have in the foregoing paragraphs enumerated at your excellency’s
request and placed in a form appropriate for written answer the
several points raised at our recent interviews and leading toward a
satisfactory adjustment of the matters in dispute. I would now go
further and outline to your excellency my conviction that the really
and only satisfactory and permanent solution of the present
situation must lie in placing this whole matter for full
consideration and final action in the hands of the National Assembly
at its next session. In arriving at this conclusion I have been
struck by the variety and weight of the objections raised with
regard to the application as well as the constitutionality of the
Law No. 50 in its present form. Merchants, bankers, consumers and
the press, not only Panamans but also Americans and foreigners, have
all commented unfavorably upon this law, not indeed as a law for
excluding further immigration by the Chinese, but in its form as it
now stands.
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In fact I
have up to the present heard not a single expression of approval
from any person whatsoever with regard to its application in its
present form. The obvious dislocation of trade and shortening of
credit, the consternation among the poorer classes with whom the
Chinese largely deal following the proposal for the expulsion or
withdrawal of the entire Chinese colony, and the opinion expressed
by the most eminent lawyers of your country that the law is open to
attack on constitutional grounds, all merit a greater consideration
than was given to the law at the time of its passage by the late
Assembly. Your excellency knows best the attitude of your own people
on this point and the support which they have already accorded this
measure.
I urge this with the more earnestness in view of the well-known
conditions under which the present law was passed, namely at nearly
the last hour of an extraordinary session of the National Assembly,
with a bare quorum of the delegates present and a bare majority to
insure its passage, and certainly, although an opportunity was given
at earlier readings for a discussion of the law, without that full
consideration of all of its provisions which its subsequent
importance demands. I feel sure that at a later consideration many
points heretofore overlooked would be dealt with and a law passed
which would accomplish the purpose of the desired legislation in
excluding the further immigration of Chineses without violating the
constitutional rights of any class of the community or the best
interests of your excellency’s people.
This would indeed be a greater achievement than any present
application of so disputed a law, and I respectfully urge that
before considering the replies to be made by your excellency to the
points enumerated above the matter may be laid before His Excellency
the President of the Republic with the request that by the exercise
of the Executive Power the application of Law 50 may be postponed
for further consideration by the next Assembly.
