No. 113.
Sir,
391 30101 BUY OR SEP 04.
Registrar-General's Office,
Hongkong, 28th July, 1904.
Honourable
Mr. Ku Fai Shan of the Po Lung Firm and Charterer of the S.S. "Kensington" has requested me to ask His Excellency to recommend the removal of the prohibition to free Chinese Emigration to Peru.
2.
Mr. Ku, who is well known to me as a leading Hongkong Merchant, tells me that the "Kensington" has been chartered for Peru on account of the difficulties he and his fellow-merchants have found in sending merchandise to that country by the usual trans-Pacific Steamship lines. No direct line of Steamers to Peru has hitherto been established owing to the difficulty in obtaining a return cargo, though one Steamer went direct from Canton to Peru between 10 and 20 years ago. Rice and other Chinese provisions are the principal exports from Hongkong to Peru, but there is no demand for the products of Peru on this side of the Pacific. Mr. Ku, however, hopes to secure a large number of passengers on the return voyage.
3.
Hitherto passengers to Central and South America have travelled via San Francisco, but the restrictions and hardships Chinese passengers are subjected to at that Port, and the prolonged delay they may have to endure, naturally lead them to prefer another route, and the "Kensington" has booked 400 passengers.
4.
These passengers consist mostly of men who are going out to take the places of employés of shops and mercantile firms.
The Colonial Secretary.