PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PELTIC.O.
885
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO
The inquiry was carried on for five consecutive days to the 17th. A Consular Court consequent on the inquiry was held on the 18th, and on the 19th we left Amoy; and after touching at Namoa on the 20th returned to Hong Kong on the 21st.
2. A great deal of evidence was taken, which will probably come before you by this or the following mail. The inquiry was in a great measure private, as no persons were present, except one or two of the officers of the "Salamander" and "Hermes” and myself; and the parties most interested in the results, and most likely to be injuriously affected, having been summoned as witnesses, were not allowed to attend. Mr. Back- house, the Acting Consul, presided, but took no part. Mr. Harvey was fully occupied in taking the minutes of evidence, and the case was conducted almost entirely by Captain Fishbourne, who put all the interrogatorics, and appeared to regulate the manner of proceeding.
3. Without wishing to impugn in the very slightest possible degree, the conduct or the motives of the parties engaged in this inquiry I confess it did appear to me that the inquiry, as conducted, bore somewhat of an ex-parte character, and that it led rather to the making out a case against the three different parties engaged in emigration, than to the placing upon record a clear and impartial statement of the merits of the question. In giving this opinion I trust that the Commissioners will exonerate me from the slightest. wish to attach blame to any of the gentlemen engaged in the inquiry. I refer merely to the course which the inquiry took, and that the parties involved, Messrs. Syme, Muir, and Co., Messrs. Tait and Co., and Mr. Robert Jackson, had not an opportunity of hearing the evidence adduced against them, or of confronting the witness.
4. The evidence, however, showed generally, and very clearly, that great abuses prevailed; that the persons employed as crimps to collect people for emigration were thorough blackguards, and had induced men to come to Amoy under false pretences, with the view of passing them off as emigrants, and that great laxity of system prevailed in the three houses engaged, in consequence of their not taking proper steps to inform the people of the conditions on which they were to emigrate, nor proper and necessary pre cautions to prevent the possibility of any men being shipped off as emigrants-agninst their will. It appeared also very clearly that some of the crimps having advanced money to persons who had come from the country to Amoy, considered that they had claims upon these persons, and had used restraint to prevent their running away before the vessel sailed, and that the agents, trusting too much to their crimps, ignorant of the Chinese language, and led away by lax notions in regard to emigration, had not taken steps to prevent this abuse-to which their position (the crimps being considered as their servants) had given an indirect sanction. The evidence showed that in every case where application had been made to the agents in reference to any person in the depôt, the request had been immediately complied with.
5. Of the existence of some of these abuses I had become aware on the occasion of my last visit to Amoy, and I was therefore anxious to remove the British emigration_from all connexion with the Cuban and other emigration. This I had resolved to do, by establishing it at Namon, or other place where emigrants could be procured readily, but after long consideration on the subject I have thought it most advisable, under present circumstances, to place it at Hong Kong.
6. The evidence brought out little to the prejudice of Mr. Robert Jackson or of Messrs. Tait and Co, but a good deal to the prejudice of Messra. Symne, Muir, and Co., of which Mr. Syme in the resident partner. The evidence given by several of the coolies, I am disposed to regard with suspicion; for the questions had to be translated first from English into the Mandarin, and next from the Mandarin into the Fokien dialect, which dialect was probably not well understood by the cooly, who had come from a place at some distance from Amoy. Their stories also tallied so closely that they had much the appear- ance of having been previously arranged.
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7. The immediate result of the inquiry was a charge against Mr. Syme and his clerk in the Consular Court for a breach of the Consular Ordinance in going to a Chinese authority (the police magistrate) to release a crimp who was under punishment, thereby causing a riot; and a charge against Mr. Conolly, of Tait and Co., for having kept under restraint seven coolies, with the view of shipping them off as emigrants against their will. This last charge was brought against Mr. Conolly, as Tait, the head of the firm and only really responsible partner, was alsent from Amoy. In the first case Mr. Syme was fined 200 dollars, and his clerk 20 dollars. The second case broke down from want of evidence, as the seven coolies, wluse statements before the Court of Inquiry were so similar as to make me suspect collusion, and who had been kept at the Consulate in order to be brought up as witnesses at the Consular Court, had made off early in the morning, and would not come forward to substantiate the charge. Of these men three engaged themselves as emigrants in the course of that day with Mr. Robert Jackson, so that I am inclined to consider the whole of their evidence as little worthy of credit.
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8. On a review of all the evidence, I am clearly of opinion that there was no inclisposi- tion on the part of the inhabitants or of the authorities to a moderate and well-regulated emigration, but that both parties were indignant (and naturally so) at the abuses per- petrated by the grimps. Previous to this, whenever crimp had been detected in any- thing wrong, he was seized by the authorities and punished; and as long as this went on without interference by the Europeans, the emigration went on smoothly. Latterly,
EMIGRATION OF CHINESE COOLIES.
93
however, the Europeans thought proper to interfere and to identify themselves with their crimps, and without going to the consul (the proper channel of communication with the Chinese authorities) interposed directly with the Chinese police authorities to prevent punishment. Mr. Syme's interference on the evening of Sunday the 21st November, and his attempt to release the crimp under punishment, led to a riot, in which the mate of the "Australia," who was accidentally ashore, but at some short distance from the police station, was severely injured. Some time after this, a body of marines and sailors was landed from the "Salamander" (steamer), and these men were marched (at night, after all was quiet, and as far as I can learn, without any definite object,) through the middle of the town and then back again. On Monday and Tuesday the 22d and 23d, the excite- ment directed at first specially against Mr. Syme (who had the crimp on his premises), and now generally against all parties engaged in emigration, went on increasing, until the crimp, under an order from the consul, had been given up by Mr. Syme to the Chinese authorities.
9. Here the matter would have ended, but excitement once roused is not easily allayed, and the rabble from the town and the people from the country continued to collect in numbers round the European hongs, the shed on Mr. Syme's premises in which the coolies lived previous to their embarkation, and also Mr. Syme's own house, being the particular objects of popular attraction and dislike.
10. On Wednesday morning, the 24th, it became quite evident that whatever cause might have induced the previous gathering of the people, the object of those now congre- gated in masses was riot and plunder, and that if one house were plundered by the mob the others would probably share the same fate. Marines and sailors were now landed from the "Salamander" to protect property and life, and gentle means were used to try and disperse the mob. The officer commanding the party was at length knocked down and several of the men severely hurt, and the mob increasing in fury in consequence of the quiet demeanour of the men, at last it became necessary to fire in self-defence. Eight or ten were killed, and ten or twelve wounded. The mob upon this instantly dispersed, and in a few minutes the front of the European hongs was perfectly clear.
Since then everything has been quiet, the few incidents which have occurred being of no moment. While the court of inquiry was sitting at Amoy, I found business going on as usual previous to the disturbances, and the three parties engaged in emigration were receiving emigrants as before. They will, no doubt, benefit by past experience, and be cautious for the future.
11. I am afraid that a good deal of irritable feeling still exists among the Chinese at Amoy, in consequence of the recent disturbances, particularly as it happened, unfortu- nately, that two or three of the persons killed were harmless spectators. But as Mr. Syme has been fined, and the authorities are now aware that the English Government disapprove of his conduct, I trust that this feeling of irritation will gradually wear off
12. I might relate many incidents, all bearing more or less upon the late disturbances, but
it would prolong this to an unnecessary length. I will merely add, that although I have no doubt many of the crimps were justly punished for the abuses and deceptions they prac- tised on unwary persons, it is also probable that many of them were punished on false pre- tences by the Mandarins in order to extort from theru a larger portion of the money they received from their employers for collecting emigrants than they were clisposed to give. The motives and the influences which guide the Chinese are so antagonistic to ours, and we know so little of their secret springs of action, that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to arrive at the truth where only Chinese evidence can be had. I have no doubt that the abuses perpetrated by some of the crimps, and that Mr. Syme's interference, and probably intem- perate manner, were the immediate cause of the late disturbances. The consul's residence and office is at the distance of a mile and a half from the European hongs.
12. My knowledge of China and of Chinese affairs is so recent and so superficial that I request the Commissioners to accept with hesitation the opinions I have expressed. I am probably in error, and perhaps ought not to have stated them; but as the disturbances at Amoy were in some degree connected with emigration, I have thought it my duty to state briefly the circumstances and the causes which, in my opinion, led to those disturbances.
I have, &c. S. Walcott, Esq.
JAMES T. WHITE
&c.
SIR,
&c.
No. 31.
(Signed)
Copy of a LETTER from the COLONIAL LAND AND EMIGRATION COM- MISSIONERS TO Herman Merivale Esq.
Colonial Land and Emigration Office,
March 8, 1858.
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No. 31.
1. WE beg to enclose, for the information of the Duke of Newcastle, No.6, Jan 8, 1953. copies of two letters addressed to the Secretary of this Board by Mr. White, the No-7, Jan. 11,1853. emigration agent in China.
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