NO O P I)
Enclosure 1.
0
36014
Proclamation issued by Viceroy Tsjen exhorting
the people of Kwangsi to enlist.
IN IS OCT C
533
Enclosure in Mr. Cannell's No.277 of 18th September, 1904.
The Wai Wu Pu have notified me that a Convention
has been concluded between China and Great Britain for the enlistment
in the provinces of China of from two to three hundred thousand labour-
ers to proceed to the Transvaal in South Africa for employment in the
mines there. It is my duty therefore to carry out the terms of this Con-
vention. British firms are now establishing emigration depôts at all ports
along the coast and are sending their agents to the treaty ports and other
ports in the interior to enlist labourers. A depot for this purpose has
also been established at Wuchow, and I have deputed Taotai Kuang Hsi-
chuan to superintend, in conjunction with the British Consul, the en-
gagement of labourers and to see that proper order is maintained. I
hereby issue instructions to all civil and military officials within my
jurisdiction to call upon the heads of the trainbands in the province to
exhort the people to enlist themselves as labourers, and I publish this
proclamation that all you people in Kwangsi, whether soldiers or civi-
lians, may know that the present enlistment of labourers for abroad is in
accordance with the Convention which has been concluded and that there
is nothing surreptitious about it, the terms of engagement being quite
just. It so happens however that though numbers of people have emi-
grated to foreign countries from the province of Kwangtung to the enrich-
ment of the inhabitants, Kwangsi is in so backward a state that the idea
of going abroad to make a living has not yet suggested itself to you.
The province abounds in mountains, but land for cultivation is scarce,
and your industries do not flourish. Constantly men amongst you in the
prime of life find that their strength is no use to them and are driven
by cold and hunger to become brigands. And yet it is not that your natu-
ral instincts are evil. I have the greatest compassion for misery like yours
which drives you from your homes. It is an evil fate which brings you into
conflict with the law. For years now the good amongst you as well as the
bad have suffered. Is it not for your good to seek
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