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China under Contract to work for a number of years in the Chincha Guano Islands in Peru and also in Cuba and elsewhere. A.C. is notorious, and the fact is established upon incontrovertible evidence in the possession of H. Majesty's Government in Downing Street or at Hong Kong and portions of which have been laid before Parliament, that the majority of these Chinese Emigrants were either Kidnapped or deluded into signing Contracts framed expressly to deceive them, and of the real nature of which they were utterly ignorant.
The mortality on board during the passage to their destination and after their arrival was frightful, and the survivors were subjected to the most brutal treatment at the hands of their Masters. Many succumbed perished through insurrections on the voyages which were not infrequently fatal to the slavers themselves; cruel suicides both on board and after landing were caused by the cruel treatment of the coolies. Slave trading and Kidnapping were always illegal by Chinese law, and the indignation occasioned in Portugal at the revelation of the abominations committed in the Formosa trade has within the last three years caused that branch of it, at least, to be prohibited at Macao. We are constrained to say that it has therefore been transferred to Swatow and elsewhere.
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 was passed in 1855 entitled "The Chinese Passengers Act", which was subsequently modified by local law in the Colony of Hong Kong by Ordinance.
Your Memorialists believe that the regulations under which Emigrants are allowed to engage themselves in Hong Kong for service in British Colonies are, on the whole, tolerably efficient, and render compulsory or fraudulent contracts almost impossible. Emigrants, on arrival at their destination, are protected by British Colonial Law, and are at full liberty to return, if they please, to their native Country, when their Contract expires.
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