contract; and on the expiry of the three days, those who continue unmoved in their resolution to leave their native country are again brought forward. On this occasion
the same explanations with reference to the contract and its accessories are made as on the day of registration, and even with greater minuteness, in addition to which I have always put various questions in order to convince myself of the voluntary action of the emigrants.
18.--At both these examinations, after the explanations made to the emigrants in a body, they are all called up, one by one, to declare before myself and a Student Interpreter whether they understand the contract, and whether they have freely resolved upon emigrating, or whether they have any cause of complaint against any person. I have almost always taken advantage of this opportunity to give renewed explanations and hints.
19.--Not until the spontaneous consent of the emigrants has been ascertained by proof, and until they have shown that they are well acquainted with the terms of the contract, are they allowed to affix their signatures to that document as the preliminary to embarkation.
20.--All such emigrants as may manifest their unwillingness to embark, (and these are not a few) are at once set aside, remaining under the protection of the superintendency, and are lodged in a building appropriated to this purpose, where they are safe and free from the influence of the brokers. All these Chinese are sent to their native places by myself, by the best and safest opportunities that present themselves.
21. Any complaint made by the emigrants has at once been listened to, and I have always exerted my utmost diligence in arresting the person complained against, who is at once punished with the full penalty allowed by the law.
22.--I have most particularly exerted myself, and have employed different means, as from time to time I have reported to Your Excellency, for checking an abuse which was formerly very prevalent, and which consisted in the fact that the Chinese who presented themselves to sign the contract were not the same with those who had previously been present at the registration. I cannot flatter myself that the abuse in question has not been committed since I assumed charge of the Superintendency, but I am convinced that the instances in which abuses of this description have occurred must at the same time have been very rare.
23.--Notwithstanding my efforts, I must still confess, new obstacles arise day after day against the repression of this abuse, to obviate which there remain, it appears to me, but two expedients, which I take the liberty of submitting to Your Excellency's consideration.
24.--The first expedient consists in reducing the two examinations of the emigrants before the Superintendent to a single one, whereby the registration, the signature of the contract, and the shipment of the emigrant would all take place on the same day.
25.--This expedient is very easy of execution and up to a certain point has its recommendations; but it at the same time offers objections, among which the most salient is that the emigrants would be deprived of sufficient time for reflection before definitely engaging themselves, whence it might frequently happen that the Chinese, led away by the novelty of their situation, and taken by surprise by the fact of finding themselves for the first time in the presence of a foreign official, would deem themselves coerced and obliged (coactos e obrigados) to answer in the affirmative to every question. The evils that might hence arise may easily be conceived; and in view thereof the expedient in question is not the preferable one.
26. The other, more effective, but difficult plan consists in establishing a house under the direction and inspection of Government, with official employés appointed by the Government, where the emigrants would be lodged immediately after registration, and where they would remain until the day of embarkation, entry into the house being throughout this period forbidden to the brokers.
27.--This expedient appears to be the only one which offers a guarantee of extirpating the abuse referred to; and in addition to this it presents the advantage of enabling the Superintendent more efficiently to get at the truth and to use vigilance towards obtaining a knowledge of any abuses of which the emigrants might, perhaps, have been the victims; for it may be believed that the emigrants, when finding themselves beyond the influence of the brokers, and becoming practically aware that the Government protects them and watches over their safety, would not hesitate to declare any complaint they might have to make against the brokers, and would at length let the truth become known with greater freedom from reserve, and thus whatever illicit machinations might have taken place on the part of the brokers or others, as well as misleading influences of any description, would be at once unmasked and frustrated. Thus the genuine emigrants would be sifted
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to speak, and separated from those who are not emigrants,--from those who do not wish to emigrate, and those who did not come to Macao for the purpose of emigrating.
28. Should this expedient be adopted, I foresee that attempts will not be wanting to defeat its usefulness and to frustrate the object that it has in view, but I believe that indefatigable vigilance and vigorous measures of repression will succeed in realizing the good results it offers.
29.--Were it possible to dispense with the service of the brokers, all or nearly all the abuses would at once cease. But experience has not yet demonstrated that this is in any degree possible. Wherever the emigration of Chinese under contract has been carried on upon a large scale, whether at Macao, Hongkong, Canton, Amoy, Swatow, or any other port, it has not yet been possible to avoid the employment of brokers.
30.--The reason of this is obvious, inasmuch as it is not in the populous cities of the seaboard that Chinese abound who are disposed to emigrate. They come almost altogether from the interior of China, and are wanting both in pecuniary means and in persons to guide them for the purpose of proceeding from their villages to a maritime port. It is the brokers who furnish them with means and who act as their guides.
31.--The existence of brokers, therefore, if it be an evil, is assuredly a necessary one.
32. In view of this fact, two alternatives alone present themselves. The first is to prohibit Chinese emigration in toto, in order to avoid the crimes of which the brokers may be guilty. The second alternative is to put forth a new code of regulations for emigration, simple but clear, and conceived in such manner as to provide a base upon which energetic and efficacious measures may be founded, that shall tend to check abuses and to counterbalance the influence of the brokers, and shall be capable of inducing the brokers to be more honest for their own sake.
33. The first alternative is easy of execution, but Y. E. will see clearly that such a prohibition signifies a violation of a natural right, the right of emigration. Such an extreme measure might perhaps justify itself by the impossibility of repressing the abuses of emigration, were this impossibility brought to demonstration, after every experiment not yet attempted had been tried. Above all, it being recognized as a positive fact that there exists in China a superabundance of labourers and a deficiency of employment, and such action tending to diminish the means of obtaining subsistence for a multitude of persons, it would be unjust and even absurd to prevent such persons, whom their own country cannot maintain, from being transported to other countries where labour abounds, where an assured and decent maintenance is offered to them, and where they are promised the protection of civilized and Catholic Governments who will not fail to watch over the well-being and the liberty of immigrants.
34.--The other alternative is in the present case the only one that can be recommended. It appears to me, however, that the basis of any new regulation whatsoever should be the creation of a house or of a special establishment under the direction of the Government, as has already been said, where the emigrants should be collected after registration, where they might enjoy full liberty for reflection without either physical or moral coercion, before signing the contract, where they might be entirely free from the influence of the brokers, where they might acquire confidence in themselves and in the Government that protects them, where they may disclose without reserve any frauds whatsoever of which they may perchance have been the victims, and where at length one may succeed in getting at the truth from the Chinese by giving them every guarantee for freedom and security.
35.--When such precautions shall have been accompanied by the most rigorous repressive enactments, when brokers guilty of criminal acts shall be prosecuted without mercy, not alone at Macao but in their own country through the medium of the Chinese authorities, when an unremitting vigilance shall grant immunity to no offence whatever on the part of the brokers, then the brokers themselves, perceiving that their illicit machinations cannot prove successful, that their falsehoods are unmasked and that their interests, far from being advanced by illegal measures, are on the contrary prejudiced thereby, and that all their victims are converted into their prosecutors not alone here but even in the interior of China also at such a time, it may be hoped, the brokers themselves, in their own interest and in dread of severe punishment, will be induced to recruit no others than genuine emigrants, Chinese who are disposed to go abroad and who hope to benefit themselves by doing so, a class of which there exist not a few in this populous Empire.
36.--Not to protract this Report to too great a length, I will not at present descend to the details relative to the best method of administering the emigration of Chinese from Macao, but I shall have the honour of submitting them to Y. E.'s consideration at a more convenient opportunity. In the meantime, however, I deem it my duty to call Y. E.'s attention to some clauses in the contract into which the Chinese emigrant proceeding to Peru or Havana is accustomed to enter with the agent who engages him.
37.--This document, as is obvious, is the basis of emigration of hired labourers, and I consequently am of opinion that of all that I have said with respect to emigration there is nothing that deserves the attention of Government in a higher degree than the contract. It is the guarantee of the emigrant's future, and the source whence the emigrant hopes that amelioration in his condition will accrue, the attraction that leads him to make the sacrifice of quitting his family and his native land.
38.--As this contract has to be legalized here by the local authorities, it is incontestable, therefore, that the Government has the right of exercising vigilance to ensure that the compact be expressed within the limits of justice and equity.
39.--In the contract of the emigrants who proceed to Havana there exists a
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clause, in which it is said that after the expiry of the eight years for which it endures, sixty days are allowed the emigrant for return to my country (China) at my own expense if this should suit me, or for the purpose of seeking an engagement with such a master as may be most useful to myself." Hence it follows that even after the expiry of the eight years the labourer is not at liberty to devote himself to any occupation that may suit his wishes except under the guardianship of a master. From this Y. E. will see how desirable it is that the contract should be made more liberal, the agent renouncing this clause, a clause which, besides, does not exist in the contract of the emigrants who go to Peru.
40.--As regards the return of the emigrants to China, it is impossible to hope, save in the rarest exceptional cases, that they will be in a position to defray for themselves the cost of passage, immediately after the expiry of the eight years. Whatever little savings they may perchance have made during this period out of their wages would not in the majority of cases be sufficient for the purpose.
41.--In view of the fact that the principal object of this emigration is not so much colonization as the supply of labour, it appears to be just and equitable that the emigrants after having completed the term of their contract, and having laboured remote from their country and their relatives during eight long years, should have a free passage for their return to their homes if they wish it, to be paid by those who profit by their toil during so many years. If the contract could guarantee this advantage to the emigrants, Chinese Emigration would assume a far more humane aspect, and many advantages would result therefrom to the agent himself, who would with greater ease find emigrants in increased numbers and of a better description. Many expedients might be named for obtaining this end, but I refrain from citing them in this place, as it may not possibly be opportune in the present Report.
42.--I also deem it excessive to require 12 hours of labour per diem from the emigrants in a climate such as that of Havana and Peru, and, in accordance with the information in my possession, the coolies themselves do not, as a general rule in these countries, labour more than ten hours per diem, so that there would be no difficulty in modifying this clause for the greater security of the emigrants, expunging at the same time the exception inserted in the contract in the words "saving always service within-doors in houses in the country."
43. According to the contract, eight dollars ($8.00) are advanced to the emigrant under the head of outfit, immediately after the signature of the contract, on condition of their being subsequently deducted from his monthly wages at the port to which he is destined. This advance, I am of opinion, should be considered as a simple bonus, the amount of which should not be deducted from the wages.
44.--In the present Report I have limited myself solely to the consideration of two essential points, viz: the precautions necessary for ascertaining the spontaneous consent of the Emigrants, and the modification of the contract, as I am of opinion that nothing more would remain to be wished for if it could be ensured that all the Chinese who emigrate from Macao for any country whatsoever are voluntary emigrants making up their minds to emigrate free from all pressure of any description, and who go from hence protected by a just and reasonable contract.
45.--Respectfully submitting to Your Excellency's consideration the reflections I have set forth above, I entreat Your Excellency's indulgence for the same, in consideration of the sincere intentions by which they are dictated.
46.--Glad as I should feel to be able to continue in the discharge of the functions