101
in
China wider Contract to work for a term of years. in the Chincha or Guano Islands in Peru and also in Cuba and elsewhere. A is notorious, and the fact is established: upon incontrovertible evidence in the possession of Her Majesty's Government (owning Abduct or at Hong Kong, and portions of which have been laid before Parliament), that the majority of these
cooled Chinese Emigrants were Kidnapped or deluded with signing Contracts framed expressly to deceive them,
and of the real nature of which they were utterly ignorant. The mortality
during
the
passage
were either
so
to their
final
destination and after their arrival there
frightful, and the survivors
were
severely
subjected to the most brutal treatment, at the hands of their Masters. Large numbers perished through insurrections
which
were
not unfrequently
and
often fatal to the slavers themselves;
suicides, both
on board and after landing,
caused by the cruel treatment of the
Parties
were
of
frequent occurrence. - Have
ever
always
been
illegal
by Chinese law; and the indignation occasioned in Portugal at the revelation of the atrocities committed in the Peruvian trade has within the last three years
caused that branch of it at least, to be prohibited at Manao. We are ashamed to say that it has therefore been transferred to Hong Kong.
It will also be known to your Lordship that in order to promote
voluntary emigration to British Colonies
and to protect the Emigrants
an
Act
entitled "The Chinese Passengers Act"
was passed in 1855, which, subsequently modified by local ordinance is now in force in the Colony of Hong Kong.
Your Memorialists believe that the regulations under which Emigrants are allowed to engage themselves in Hong Kong for service, in British Colonies, on the whole, are tolerably efficient, and render compulsory or fraudulent Contracts almost impossible. Moreover the Emigrants, once arrived at their destination, are protected by British Colonial Law, and are at full liberty.
B
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