153
many as 43 arrived by one ship) are assumed to have embarked from Hongkong, and are shipped back to this port without any enquiry or proof that they did so embark. Although (as Mr. Consul-General Wilder observed) their exclusion *does not in it- -self carry any imputation of crime" it is highly probable that the exclusion law had been put into operation because the United States Authorities regarded them as very undesirable citizens. I submit that this Colony has just cause for protest- -ing against being made the dumping ground for all undesirable Chinese "found to be illegally in the United States of America" whether they came originally from Chinese Ports, and however long they may have resided in the United States of America. (b). It is admitted in the correspondence, and is evident from the facts, that though the large majority of the deportees may belong to one or other of the two classes named in my paragraph 2 there are also a certain number of criminals convicted of crimes in the United States of America. In the case of the 3 murderers referred to the issue was evaded because as the Secretary of the Department of Commerce stated "even those three were not deported because of criminal records they bore but because they were found to be unlawfully within the United States being labourers without the required certificate of residence". It is not stated that any one of them was proved to have embarked from Hongkong. In the case of the murderer refer-
-red to in paragraph 5 his parole is stated to be "subject to
deportation to China", but he has not been deported to China, and therefore the condition precedent to his parole has not
been validated, and he has been dumped in a British Colony. I
submit that in the case of deportees actually convicted of
crime in the United States of America it is incumbent on the State Authorities if the convict is deported to China to take him there, or (if they desire the assistance of this Colony) to bear the expenses involved in giving effect to the sentence of the American Courts, and to give this Government ample notice.
(0)