34
The Convention of 1904 (see Machaurray Vol I
page 479) states "the said Flenipotentaries have agreed
that on each occasion when indentured emigrants are
required for a particular British Colon or “rotectorate
beyond the ages, His Majesty's Minister shall notify
the Chinese Government, stating the name of the
particular colony for which the emigrante are required
the name of the treaty port at which it is intended to
embark then and the teras and conditions on which they
are to be engaged",
It is diffiext to see how the emigrants in
question can be sonsidered not to fall within the
definition underlined above, They are certainly
"emigrants required for a particular British Colony
or Protectorate" and as before proceeding to Samoa
they have presumably signed some sort of contract
of employment they are "indentured emigrants".
It
is true they are embarked from Hongkong and not from
Government of
a treaty port but this would appear rather to absolve
His Majesty's Minister from "notifying the Chinese
the name of the treaty port at
which it is intended to embark the" than to nullify
the whole convention, as might perhaps be arguable if
the phrase "treaty port" occurred somewhere in the
sentence underlined above instead of after it 1.9. if
that sentence had, for example, been "on each occasion
when indentured emigrants, embarking from a treaty
port are required eto, etc,"
The phrase "the open ports of Chine" to which
His cellendy The Governor of Hongkong refers does not
appear