447
Foreign Minister retorted by enclosing a Memorandum in which it is asserted that emigration from Macao is carried on "with greater legality" than from Hongkong or other place on the coast of China; that the precautions adopted in the Macao ships on long voyages (meaning, I presume, the imprisonment of the people in the between decks) are no more than the precautions adopted in American and English steamers between Hongkong, Macao, and Canton; and that revolts have taken place in Hongkong Harbour among unwilling emigrants, compelled to embark on the ground that they had signed contracts. It is further alleged that the Chinese who emigrate from Hongkong to California in American steamers are put into separate places and are watched by armed men; that they are not spontaneous emigrants but are collected by Californian agents, and are taken hold of by other agents on their arrival at their destination. Under these circumstances, the Earl of Kimberley desires us to furnish such observations as we have to offer in reply to the allegations of the Portuguese Government respecting emigration from Hongkong to America.
J.C.
The information in this office on Emigration from Hongkong to the United States is contained in Sir F. MacDonnell's despatches to the Colonial Office of February and April 1870. In those...