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CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO

It is true the Chinese do not enforce their own laws as to emigration, and it is quite intelligible that not doing so when they are able, we can hardly by blamed for conveying emigrants to our colonies, and taking steps for their protection and comfort; but as regards shipments of coolies from places where the Chinese authorities are wholly helpless, from places where we have pledged ourselves that Her Majesty's subjects shall not trade, and that British ships shall not load or discharge; shall we, ought we to extend the opium indulgence to another species of traffic, wholly unprotected by the guarantees which the wealth, position, and high character of the great opium houses offer? As regards British ships loading or discharging at unlawful places, it appears to me that Her Majesty's Government possesses ample and plenary power, should they see fit to exercise it.

Then comes the objection so loudly and constantly heard, "If you prohibit. British ships and British merchants, you merely transfer a valuable trade to foreign vessels and foreign adventurers." The argument would justify any profitable abominations permitted by the laws of one nation and prohibited by the laws of another; but if Her Majesty's Govern- ment, having treaties of amity and commerce with China, saw fit distinctly to prohibit all trading with illegal places, it would clearly have an absolute right to demand from the Chinese Government, that nations having no treaty whatever, should not be allowed to enjoy benefits from which we are excluded; and might it not be a question, whether the Chinese Government, in consideration of its own weakness, is not entitled to expect us to assist them in maintaining their authority in the assertion of the principle that no other nation shall be allowed to enjoy privileges in China which are denied to us? This, indeed, opens a vast question, as to whether the non-observance of the treaty on the part of the Chinese, be it from ill will or weakness, may not sanction our seeking other ports than those which are now legally accessible to us? The only governments in the same position with ourselves, as having treaties with China, are those of the United States and France. The United States want no coolies, and the Chinese emigration to California is now almost wholly confined to independent emigrants, who pay their own passage money, and are in a condition to look to their own arrangements. A French merchant ship is seldom seen in these seas, and I do not imagine the special interests of either the United States or of France would be any impediment to friendly arrangements in order to protect the cominon interests of peace, commerce, and humanity. As regards our own colonies, whether the importation of coolies ought to be permitted from places where it is illegal for Her Majesty's subjects to trade, may be a grave question for the consideration of Her Majesty's Government.

With respect to the legal ports, Amoy and Canton are at present the only two from whence any supply of coolies can be expected. There can be little doubt, if the same state of things had existed in Canton which led to the late disturbances at Amoy, if the people of Canton suspected that foreign merchants employed crimps to inveigle and seduce, or still worse, to kidnap the infiabitants, that the factories would be "Lurat down and foreigners exposed to extreme danger. I do not think the shipment of coolies by any menus safe from Whampoa, where a cargo has just left for Trinidad (of whose condi- tion the emigration agent reports very favourably); but the power of the Mandarins in Canton is great enough to be some security against abuse, and a prohibition would immediately follow any peril to the public peace.

While the premium paid on coolies continues at anything like its present rate, no consular authority, no interference of any emigration agent, will make the trade anything but one of great irregularity and abuses. Coolies will be seduced by falsehoods, kept by violence; ships will be exposed to great danger from the revolt of deceived coolies, who, unaccompanied by interpreters, for I am sorry to say there are few instances in which any person is to be found on board the emigrant ships who can state their wants or explain their grievances, have, in a great many instances, subscribed engagements under the pressure of extreme want, and often in ignorance of their meaning. One of the most common methods of obtaining coolies is to make them some small advance in fond, clothes, or money, which being unable to repay, they become pawned to the creditor, who is, probably, the crimp hitelf, or some of his agents. I do not believe the foreign coolie merchants are directly cognizant of, or would be willing to authorize, the inevitable iniquities of the system. They examine, or cause to be examined, the physical condition of the men whom the crimps and coolie brokers have gathered together. The profits are large, and no sagacious merelant would jeopardize them by directly sanctioning gross outrages against honour and honesty, but the instruments he is compelled to use are of the vilest character, they are almost wholly Cantonese men (among whom will be always found the vagabonds most notorious for insubordination and recklessness), uncon- trolled by the public opinion of the locality in which they are mostly strangers. An hour's successful hunt, for they are paid, I min told, at the rate of three dollars per mad. may give them more profit than they could obtain from a month of honester Inbour Even therefore as regards British ships bound to British colonies, and departing, from legal ports, it appears to me desirable that a rigorous investigation should take place, on the arrival of the emigrant ship, into the circumstances under which they have been engaged; and I mentioned in my Despatch No. 131, dated October 1, that the house of Turner and Co., who, I understand, has the Trinidad contract for coolies, had, in appre

EMIGRATION OF CHINESE COOLIES.

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hension of the revolt of the emigrants, applied to me for military force to be employed against them should any rising take place on board. Nothing is, without doubt, more likely to assist a voluntary future emigration than a knowledge in China of the fact that the emigrants are transferred to countries where justice is strictly administered, rights protected, and wrongs punished. And with a view to this, the return of some Chinese emigrants to their country, who should report favourably of the prospects of agricultural labourers in our colonies, would be of the highest importance. The exportation of Chinese women, unless absolutely bought as slaves, is out of the question; so that nothing but a succession of emigrants will keep up the supply of labour. If foreign ships convey emigrants to British colonies, it is clear no sufficient protection can be given to the coolies, either before their embarkation or during the outward passage. Interference is a matter of much delicacy and difficulty; for, though I have little doubt were the facts accessible, and the proofs at hand, that many of the proceedings in China come under the provisions, and would subject the real fesants to the penalties of the Slave Trade Acts, I cannot shut my eyes to the impracticability, the impossibility rather, of furnishing judicial proofs; and the embarrassments of the question would be greatly augmented by the general worthlessness of Chinese testimony, as my experience leads me to the sad conclusion, that the securities for veracity in any of the grades of society in Chins are weak and few. But the field where the amount of misery and mis- doing in connexion with Chinese emigration will be by far the widest, is, where foreign agents and foreign ships are employed in collecting and conveying Chinamen to foreign countries and colonies. There is every reason to fear, that iniquities scarcely exceeded by those practised on the African coast, and on the African middle passage, have not been wanting. The statements which have reached China of the condition of the coolies in the Guano Islands, the reported sale of coolies in the public market places in Peru, the deceits practised in order to obtain labourers for the railways of the Isthmus of Darien, are rather subjects of general conversation than of official cognizance. I cannot, however, but think that there may be serious, dangers not yet developed, in these incon- siderate transfers of such multitudes of Chinamen to distant lands. In a conversation with Mr. Wardrop, who has a contract for conveying 8,000 coolies to Cuba, I ventured to ask him, whether it had not occurred to the Spanish Government, that the settlement of so many thousands of Chinamen in that island, in its present condition, might be an element of no small peril, should the spirit of insurrection spread. I reported to your Lordship in my Despatch No. 132, of 1st October, some of the arrangements by which the Chinese are kept in a state of discipline and obedience in the island of Java; without such arrangement their presence would be a source of habitual anxiety and alarm to the authorities. I am told that Mr. Wardrop has returned to Europe with views somewhat changed as to the facilities with which vast supplies of labour are to be obtained from China; and I suspect Mr. White, now nominated the Government emigration agent, and whose primary duty I now conceive to be that of the protection of the coolies, perceives much more difficulty in the honest discharge of his mission than he had anticipated before the reckless rush of coolie collectors in China had so interfered with that over-supply of agricultural labourers, which might have been profitably, and even benevolently, turned to account.

Whether or when matters will revert to a state in which the superfluous labour in China can be safely and properly diverted to the demands of Her Majesty's colonies, must depend upon the development of events. I have thought it my duty to commu- nicute the facts within my knowledge to Her Majesty's Government, hoping that in the painful and often embarrassing position in which Her Majesty's servants are placed in this country, and, looking to the immense interests involved in the trade with China, we may be favoured with such instructions for our guidance as the circumstances of the case allow.

I understand from Mr. White, that he proposes to confine his action to the colony of Hong Kong, where, of course, more ample powers of inspection and control exist, than in any portion of the dominions of China.

Lord Malmesbury,

&c.

&c.

Enclosure 2 in No. 22.

I have, &c.,-

(Signed)

JOHN BOWRING.

EXTRACT of a DESPATCH from Dr. BowRING to the Earl of MALMESBURY, No. 4; dated Hong Kong, January 10, 1853.

" I BEG also to mention, that I hear from good authority that Mr. Tait, who is the largest shipper of coolies from Amoy, and the consul for several nationa, has erected bar- racoons on the Chinese continent at Twa-Fow, near Namoa, and that he is collecting coolies there, having come to an understanding with the local mandarins to allow them one tael, 68. 8d. per head, for every coolie shipped.

Encl. 2 10 No. 22.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

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1 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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