f
Hongkong.
No. 174.
SIR,
Ju 6058 70
DOWNING STREET,
19th October, 1869. 168
I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Despatches Nos. 727 of the 23rd June and 748 of the 19th July, inclosing with your observations thereon the Rules which you have framed, as it appears to me with much care and judgment, for the conduct of Emigration of Coolies under contract for service.
I transmit to you, for your information and with reference to that subject, copies of the letters from the Foreign Office and of reports from the Emigration Commissioners who have suggested a few modifications of detail which you will doubtless adopt.
I concur in the opinion which you will find expressed in the enclosed corre- spondence that Emigration from Hongkong should be confined to British Colonies, but that it will not be necessary to exclude Foreign Vessels from carrying Chinese Emigrants to those Colonies so long as the terms of the Chinese Passengers Act are complied with, and a certainty is obtained that the Emigrants will be delivered in the Colony for which they are professedly destined.
I have the honor to be,
Governor
Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
(Signed,)
SI RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, C.B.,
GRANVILLE.
He.,
St.,
gc.
(Copy.) SIR,
Mr. Otway to the Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office.
FOREIGN OFFICE, August 25th, 1869.
I have laid before the Earl of CLARENDON your letter of the 10th instant, inclosing a copy of a Despatch from the Governor of Hongkong, explaining the circumstances under which he had sanctioned the Emigration of a body of Coolies from Hongkong to Peru on board the Belgian Vessel Frederic, together with a copy of a Report on the subject furnished to Earl GRANVILLE by the Emigration Commissioners.
I am, in reply, to request that you will state to Earl GRANVILLE that Lord CLARENDON Conceives that the first point to be considered in dealing with this question is the nationality of persons of Chinese origin emigrating from Ilong- kong-If they are British subjects, Lord CLARENDON apprehends that the right of Emigration cannot be withheld from them, if, in other respects, the general conditions of the Chinese Passenger Act are complied with :--If they are subjects of China brought into the Colony in transitu for the purpose of being thence sent as Emigrants to Peru, Lord CLARENDON considers that, looking to the atrocities committed by Chinese Crimps in procuring Emigrants in the Chinese Dominions and also to the Reports which have been received of the treatment of Chinese Emigrants in Foreign Countries, and in Peru more particularly, Her Majesty's Government ought not to facilitate their Emigration by allowing Hongkong to be used by the parties concerned as a Dépôt for Chinese Emigrants.
It appears to Lord CLARENDON that the Emigration Commissioners have justly come to the conclusion that Chinese Emigration should not be allowed to take place from Hongkong except when the protection of Her Majesty's Government can follow the Emigrants throughout their whole servitude; and Lord CLARENDON