considered the scheme submitted for his opinion, he doubts whether there would be any chance of inducing the Chinese government to agree to a convention for carrying it out.
The Treaty between Peru and China, which is referred to in your letter as evidence of their readiness to entertain proposals and to join in arrangements for encouraging the emigration of surplus labouring population, does no more than "recognize the right of man to change his home", stipulates that the subjects of both countries shall only emigrate with voluntary consent, and other than an entirely free and voluntary emigration, reprobates any.
Sir D. Brooke Robertson, it is true, has expressed his opinion that emigration under conditions of securing repatriation at an early date upon the terms laid down in the convention of 1866, or by the better and cheaper plan of yearly despatching a vessel to China with returning emigrants, would obtain the support of the Chinese government, but his remarks must be taken as applying rather to the provincial government with which he comes in contact than to the Imperial government at Peking with whom a convention would have to be negotiated.
When Mr Wade was last in communication with the yamên on the subject with reference to the establishment of an Emigration Agency at Swatow, he found the ministers unwilling to do anything to facilitate