It may be well to state what has occurred.
The consul at Chefoo in the autumn of 1895 called attention to the dangerous overcrowding on the passenger steamers carrying Chinese coolies between that port and Vladivostock. The emigration has been chiefly in March & April.
The Imperial Chinese Passenger ships Act of 1855 empowers the Hongkong government to make regulations for British ships flying from any Chinese port and specially safeguards voyages of eight days duration. Vladivostock was declared under the act to be one of eight days duration & therefore subject to special obligations. Jardine & Matheson protested against the proclamation as unfair to British trade and unnecessary, the voyage not taking as long as eight days, and the proclamation was withdrawn.
Meanwhile, correspondence between this office, the Foreign Office, and the Board of Trade on the subject took place, and in January 1897 a despatch was addressed to the governor directing him, after consultation with the consuls at the Treaty Ports, to have an ordinance drafted, which shall regulate Chinese passenger ships on voyages of not more than seven days duration, the draft to be sent home for approval. This despatch has not been answered, & the matter slept for a year, till the Foreign Office sent us a copy of a report on the subject from the consul at Canton, in which he deprecated any restrictions on the British ships carrying Chinese coolies by the British authorities as likely to hamper British trade.
The China merchants & the China Association are now protesting. This is mainly a Foreign Office matter, though the Hong Kong government has control over British ships. We have asked the governor to report what has occurred.