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the provision by the Chinese Authorities of the buildings forming the migration Agency was not in strict accord with Article III of the Convention which laid down that these should be erected or fitted up by the British Government, and he told me that this was a concession by the Viceroy who was anxious, for reasons that I will refer to later, that Wuchou rather than the more accessible Canton should be the Treaty Port notified. Mr. Campbell also explained that the collection of the emigrants from the Kuangsi Province at Wuchou by the Chinese Authorities was in accordance with the wish of those Authorities and would be carried out much more satisfactorily than if the Agents for the Mines attempted the collection themselves, while the examination by the British Consul would ensure that the emigration in each case was entirely voluntary and made with full knowledge of its conditions.
5.
The least satisfactory part of the arrangement is the time that will elapse - if the circumstances are favourable, probably about a month - before the first shipment of coolies is made under it. The Viceroy, who has not yet received the Chinese Translation of the Convention and the Indenture from Peking, but is at present acting on translations that have been furnished him from here, has sanctioned the issue of a satisfactory proclamation in accordance with the eleventh clause of the agreement, but before this proclamation will have any considerable effect, it will be necessary for him to send instructions to the Magistrates of the various localities whence emigrants are to be invited. In the meantime, he has recently gone to Kweilin, some days' journey from Canton, and communication with him, except by telegraph, is for the present slow and difficult. Apart from this, he is much occupied at Canton,