COPY.
B.0.No. 12.
No. 6.
Sir,
C.O.
13901
REE?
IREE 21 APR 06!
His Majesty's Consulate,
Foochow, 19th. March, 1904.
420
!
I have the honour to acknowledge, with
many thanks, the receipt of your letter of the 18th. instant, enclosing a copy of the Chinese Emigration Ordinance, 1889, No. 1, and also of the telegrams which you were good enough to send me in reply to my enquiries regarding the right of British Ships to take contract labourers from this to foreign countries.
The question arose here in connection
with a British vessel, the S.S. "Powhatan", which Messrs. Dodwell and Company chartered to a French Company for the pur- -pose of taking coolies, under contract. to Mexico. As they now find that she cannot engage in this traffic in consequence of
the existing Ordinance orohibiting it, Messrs. Dodwell and Company and Monsieur Marchand, the representative of the Company in Paris, are, I understand, bringing the question to the notice of His Majesty's Government. The probable demand for coolies for Panama which they think will spring up in the near future, makes them anxious as a Shipping Firm to have the prohibition removed as otherwise British Vessels will lose a valuable trade which will inevitably fall into German hands, under less favourable conditions perhaps than if it were in
ours.
The Colonial Secretary,
Hongkong.
1 have etc.,
(Sd.) Herbert F. Brady,
H. M's. Consul.