These last statements appear precise.
Nevertheless, Emigration from Hongkong to the United States by the Mail Steamers to San Francisco has continued without interruption and the numbers carried have been very large.
The Government of Hongkong justify this principally on the expression in the Foreign Office Letter of 25 Aug 1862 that Emigrants should not be allowed to proceed to countries where their condition could not be followed throughout their whole servitude, and to the opinion in the report from this Board of 21 Apr. 1870, that there was no sufficient ground for interference with the Emigration to the United States. It seems clear, however, that whatever inference might be drawn from those expressions was overruled by Lord Granville's instructions of 30 May 1870.
The question now for decision is whether the Emigration from Hongkong to San Francisco should be allowed to continue. On the one hand, it may be said that it is impossible to stop it, that to prohibit it from Hongkong would only divert it to Macao or Canton; that if so diverted, it would not be as well conducted or supervised as at present - while the removal of the mail Steamers from Hongkong to Macao or Canton would be seriously inconvenient, and probably injurious, to the mercantile interests of Hongkong.
On the other hand, it may be answered that the Emigration from Hongkong to the United States is not really a free Emigration, that the bulk of Emigrants do not pay their own passages but are paid for either by their Employers or countrymen or by their friends in America under promises of repayment out of their earnings; that in this way, it is virtually an Emigration under Contract of service, and that if it is permitted to the United States, it would be difficult to prohibit it to other Countries where the Emigrants would not be well treated.
If the decision rested with me, I should be disposed to allow...
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