Sir,
Hongkong, 23rd August, 1906.
Emigration Ordinance No. 1 of 1889.
We beg to bring to your notice the disabilities under which passenger steamers now work with regard to the limitation placed by the above Ordinance on the carriage of passengers of Asiatic birth.
If 20 Asiatic passengers are carried by any one vessel, including first and second saloon, the steamer has to take out a Chinese passenger certificate and all deck Asiatic passengers have to be passed by the Emigration Officer and take out Contract passage tickets.
The Ordinance is now nearly twenty years old and when drawn up was based on an older ordinance, framed at a time when it was very necessary the Government should keep a close watch on all Asiatic passengers leaving the Colony in order to prevent abuses arising from the improper use of contract labour.
The conditions of life and trade in the Far East have since undergone great changes, and an increasing number of educated, well-to-do, passengers of Asiatic birth are now constantly moving backwards and forwards and there appears to be no reason why these people should be looked upon in any different light than that which first and second saloon passengers of Occidental birth are regarded, or that they should be included with Asiatic deck passengers in arriving at the limit fixed beyond which an Emigration certificate is required by Law.
Our proposal is that so far as First and Second Saloon passengers are concerned the Ordinance should take no notice of those of Asiatic birth.
With regard to steerage passengers, we consider that...