PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference -
TPLLC.O. 885
hdmhluíla
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Inet. 2 in No. 17.
44
MY LORD,
CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO
Enclosure 2 in No. 17.
Hong Kong, October 1, 1852. THE knowledge which Mr. Interpreter Parkes possesses of the Chinese people is very considerable, and as I deemed that knowledge likely to be useful in reference to the question of coolie emigration, I requested him to state his opinions on the subject; and I have now the honour to enclose to your Lordship his report, which is valuable and interesting in many respects.
In order to turn the migratory disposition of the Chinese labourer to the best account, the closest attention should be paid to his habits of thought and feeling, his domestic and social usages, and the amount of our success and of our security will depend upon the adaptation of our-arrangements to Chinese customs and education.
I have lately had the advantage of much personal intercourse with the Chinese hend- man, who is one of the principal instruments by which the Chinese settlers in Java are governed. He has amassed a large fortune during a residence of more than thirty years in that colony, and has lately returned to China with a view, he tells me, of narrying again, and continuing his race this former wife being dead). He comes from the neigh- bourhood of Anoy, where his family is still located. He said he had made up his mind to a squeeze by the mandarins to the extent of two laes of dollars (40,0007. sterling), by which your Lordship will judge of his opulence. I recommended him to abandon his intention of hiring stentners and going ostentatiously either to Canton or Amoy; and he has returned from Canton (not having been squeezed), thanking me for my counsels, and has now quietly proceeded to Anoy, Ilis name is Beh Ingtjoe, and he bears in the official almanack of the Netherland Indies the title of the Samarang Titular Mujer of the Chinese. He inhabits Samarang, in which place he tells me there are 10,000 Chinese settlers.
Immediately under him is an officer hearing the rank of Captain of the Chinese, named Jan Tjong wai, and there are five Chinese Lieutenants, subordinate to the major and the captain. The whole of these officers, with the addition of a Chinese secretary and an adjunet secretary, form a sort of municipal Board, to which magisterial and police authority is entrusted, and who are thus made responsible for the conduct of the Chinese settlers whom they govern, as far as possible, according to the laws and usages of China.
In all the towns or districts of Java in which there are any considerable number of Chinese settlers, as, for example, in Batavia, Buitenzorg, Cheribon, Tagal, Pehalongan, Japara. Kembong, Surabaya, &e, a similar bly is appointed, consisting of a greater or less number of Chinese officers, and of higher or lower grades according to the extent of their duties; and to these bodies or boards the Government looks for the administration of justice and the preservation of the public peace among the Chinamen.
The frequent and easy intercourse between China and the Indian Archipelago no doubt gives to the latter great facilities for obtaining the best class of Chinese settlers, and for supplying the most appropriate instruments for their proper guidance and governance. Family associations are not broken by the emigration. Parents, wives, children, and relatives still attach the emigrant to his native soil, the hope of a return to which is invariably present to his mind, and habitually impelling his exertions.
The main difficulty as regards the permanent location of respectable Chinese in regions so remote as the West Indies, is the impracticability of inducing their wives, or any of the female branches of their family, to necompany them. So intensely strong, and so universal, is the sentiment, that no female with any sense of propriety or modesty could consent to quit her native home, that it would be impossible to induce any but women of low and lost character to emigrate. A few females have indeed left China, both for England and the United States; but they have been generally slaves purchased by adventurers in the brothels of Canton or Amay, or furnished by the professional procuresses of those places, and have been clandestinely conveyed on board the foreign ships. The less respectable portion of the Chinese emigrants in the Indian Archipelago no doubt colabit, and sometimes intermarry with native Malay women; but such connexions would scarcely be avowed by Chinamen who wish to preserve the higher degrees of respecta- bility. It is impossible to over-estimate the extent to which the family relations influence the whole organization of Chinese society. They are the cement of the entire social and political edifice, and their ramifications are carried out into wide fields of detail.
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Two invaluable elements for the good government of the Chinese will be invariably found among them, the habit of association, and respect for authority; at these associations will be invariably connected with their national habits; and the only authority they will really respect must also have its foundation in their system of education anÏ ethics, which invariably tenches reverence for old age, and for the parental relations, with which will be always linked great respect for literary acquirement and knowledge of their classical books, I have myself witnessed examples where a turbulent mol, wholly regardless of the presence of armed military mandarius and their accompanying soldiers, have listened to and dispersed at the suggestions of a solitary literary mandarin, appearing only with his tan, and quoting to them some aphorism from the books of their sages. A race more docile under proper discipline, and more likely
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EMIGRATION OF CHINESE COOLIES.
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to become unmanageable, if misunderstood and misgoverned, than the Chinese, is certainly nowhere to be found. Amalgamation with the races among whom they fix themselves, if ever to be accomplished, must be the work of ages; for mean and poor though he be, it will not be easy to eradicate from the mind of a Chinaman his exalted notions of the greatness of his country, and the superiority of his country's learning, literature, and institutions to those of any portion of the outer world.
I have, &c., (Signed)
Lord Malmesbury,
Sze. Ázu.
GENERAL REMARKS ON CHINESE EMIGRATION.
JOHN BOWRING.
Chinese emigration from Fulkeen and Kwangtung. EMIGRATION from this province and the adjoining one of Fuhkeen dates from a very early period, and it is these two provinces alone that have sent forth the myriads which have reclaimed the islands of Formosa and Haenan, introduced industry and various of the most useful arts into the countries of Cochin China, Camboja, and Siam, settled many of the islands of the Judian Archipelago, and contributed more than any other race to the rise and prosperity of the European settlements in Java, the Philippines, and the Malayan Peninsula.
Rensons for its being confined to these two provinces.
Various circumstances, among the most obvious of which are the redundant population and the poverty of the districts from whence this emigration has chiefly proceeded, have contributed to this result. But as several provinces of China are more densely peopled than either Kwangtung or Fulkeen (portions of which remain uncleared at the present day, and yet find means to support their population, it is evident that this tide of. emigration is partly attributable to other causes than those quoted. It is to be accounted for by the different character of the southern Chinese to that of their countrymen of the centre and worth. The restless and refractory disposition inherited by the former, and so condemned by the Chinese of the other provinces, is coupled with a spirit of enterprise which the latter do not possess; and hence their eagerniss to avail themselves of the field for speculation and remunerative labour which the luxuriant but thinly-peopled countries of the Archipelago atford them,
Localities from whence emigration proceels.
The districts, or rather departments, which have furnished the largest amount of emigration are those of Chaotichow and Kenying, in Kwangtung and Changelow, and Tsemenchow in Fulkeen. Their relative positions are shown in the accompanying outline, and a few remarks on the several clíaracteristics of their population may serve to illustrate the subject.
1. Chungchore-Chungchow, or, in the local dialect, Tie-chin, has supplied more emi- grants than any other of the departments named. The "Tie-chin,men" are known to pre- ponderate in the Straits, and in Formosa they equal in number the Fulkcenese. Owing to the clan strifes, which run high among them, they form, under a weak government, ä combative and unruly class; but it is these very qualities which induce the Chinese Government to accord them the preference as volunteers to serve against the insurgents in these provinces. At the same tine, however, they are excellent agriculturists, and their native talent as growers of sugar and indigo, which are largely produced in Chaouchow, particularly adapts them for plantation labour, the occupation they generally prefer to follow.
2. Keaying. The Keaying-chow is a very poor department, with a dense agricultural population, parties of which are to be met with all over the province, and are known here by the name of Kehkhats or Akhas. They leave their own Jones in search of employment, and are engaged by the month or year as labourers, or for a longer period as cultivators, on the owner's account, of small farms, for which service they are paid by a per-centage on the produce. Being noted as skilful clearers of jungle, their services are sure to be called into requisition whenever new ground has to be broken up, or a hill to be stripped of its cover. They are accompanied by their wives and families, who work with them in the fields. The ordinary knowledge of mining, which they have acquires in the mines of their native districts, stands them in good stead in those of the Straits: and they are also reputed to be skilful blacksmiths.
3. Changchow-Changehow, or, in the local dialect, Teongchin, resembles Chaouchow in its fertility and production, and the people of the two departments are much alike in disposition. The men of Changehow are more subordinate perhaps than their neighbours of Chaouchow.
4. Toenenchow-Tsenenchow, or "Chinchew," compared with the others, is a very barren department, to which circumstance may be attributed the essentially maritime and commercial character of its population, who look to the sea in a great measure for the means of livelihood. Portions of the soil are, however, productive, and on such spots tobacco of a quality much valued by the Chinese is reared in considerable quantities F 3