CO885-(1-2) — Page 343

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

No. 7.

Colonial Office.

18

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO

No. 7.

Cory of a LETTER from the Earl of DESART to the COLONIAL LAND and EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS.

GENTLEMEN,

Downing Street, October 6, 1852.

In reply to your letter of the 4th August, I am directed by Secretary Sir John Pakington to transmit to you, for your information and guidance, copies August 30, 1852. of the correspondence between this and the Foreign Department respecting Foreign Office,

the appointment of Mr. White, as emigration agent in China for the West September 7, 1852. India Colonies.

No. 8

I am to request that you will prepare and submit to Sir John Pakington a draft of the instructions you would propose to address to Mr. White.

It is Sir John Pakington's desire, that in addition to the instructions which you may prepare for governing Mr. White's conduct in matters of detail, you should issue a separate instruction, apprising Mr. White that Her Majesty's Government have undertaken to authorize the expenditure of public money, and the employment of public agency, in promoting emigration from China, under the impression that the law of the Chinese empire against the emigration of its subjects, which is said to have once existed, has fallen into desuetude; but that if the fact should prove to be otherwise, and if the Chinese Govern- ment or public authorities should insist upon this law as a law having present force and effect, and should consequently oppose the emigration, it will be the duty of the agent at once to desist from any operations within the territory of China (if any shall have been there carried on either by the agent or by any persons acting under his authority and direction), which may involve a contra- vention of the law.

You will be pleased to transmit a copy of this separate instruction to Mr. Macgregor, for the information of the West India merchants and. planters interested in the emigration.

The Colonial Land and Emigration

Sin,

Commissioners.

No. 8.

I have, &c. (Signed)

DESART.

COPY of a LETTER from the COLONIAL LAND AND EMIGRATION COMMISSIONERS to HERMAN Merivale Esq.

Colonial Land and Emigration Office, October 9, 1852.

1. We beg to acknowledge your letter of the 6th instant, desiring us to prepare and submit to Sir John Pakington a draft of the instructions which we should propose to address to Mr. White, whom it is intended to appoint emigration agent for the West Indies and China.

2. We enclose accordingly a draft of these instructions. We would suggest, however, that Mr. White should, in the first instance, be appointed emigration agent at Port Victoria only, and at such other ports in or near China as the Governor of Hong Kong may hereafter designate. We suggest this because (as will be seen by the 3d paragraph of the annexed instructions) the Ordinances of British Guiana impose certain duties on the emigration agent which could scarcely be performed by the same person in distant ports, and it may be con- venient that Mr. White should be left to decide in respect of which of these ports he should be made responsible for these duties.

3. We are not aware that those instructions require any further comment; but we may, perhaps, be allowed to take this opportunity of stating the position of Chinese emigration at the present moment.

4. On the 14th of October 1851, the Court of Policy resolved that 50,000/. of the guaranteed loan should be applied to Chinese emigration, a bounty of

100 dollars per adult having been already proclaimed on such immigrants,

EMIGRATION OF CHINESE COOLIES.

19

5. It is believed that a gentleman named Booker has sent two small ships to China, in order to introduce immigrants under this bounty; and Messrs. Hyde, Hodge, and Co. inform us that they have given orders to their correspondents at Amoy to ship 1,200 adults under the same bounty. We cannot ascertain that any other orders have been sent out. Nor is it probable that they have been so, as it is impossible to perform literally the terms on which bounty is promised; and we should imagine that no person who was not well acquainted with the circum- stances of the case and the temper of the colonists would run the risk of im- porting emigrants without an unimpeachable claim to bounty on their introduction. Assuming, therefore, that about 1,700 adults are thus imported and bounties paid to the extent of 84,000l., 16,000l. will remain to be expended. This would probably pay for the introduction of two ship-loads of people; and we have, therefore, invited tenders for two ships to carry not more than 300 emigrants each, and to arrive at Hong Kong between the 15th of January and the 15th of February, and to proceed thence to such port as Mr. White shall indicate.

6. We have taken on ourselves to advertise at once, without requesting any further instructions, because the ships will lose the benefit of the monsoon it they fail to leave China before the end of March, and, consequently, there is no time to be lost in making the requisite arrangements. If we fail to procure shipping in England, or if the gentlemen who are endeavouring to send out Chinese on bounty fail in their object to any considerable extent, we should propose to authorize Mr. White to engage and fill emigrant ships to the extent of the unexpended balance of 50,000%

7. With regard to Trinidad, the case stands thus:-In December last we were informed that the Council of Trinidad had authorized the introduction of 1,000 Chinese emigrants, and, last July, we entered into an engagement with Messrs. Hyde, Hodge, and Co. that they should receive the same bounty which had been promised by the Legislature of British Guiana on three ship-loads of Chinese. It appears that these ships, one of which is of considerable size,- will convey the whole number of 1,000 adults required by that island. The first of these ships was at Calcutta on the 3d of July, and it is hoped will have shipped her emigrants at Amoy in September; a second, the "Australia," capable of carrying about 556 persons, is expected to arrive at Amoy early in November.

8. We hope, therefore, that this and the third ship, which is to be taken up on the spot, will fall under the superintendence of Mr. White. How much British Guiana bounty emigration may fall under his superintendence is, of course, wholly uncertain. We only accidentally know that one of Mr. Booker's ships, the Lord Elgin," had left Canton for Amoy on the 21st of June, and that on the 23d of the same month one of Mr. Hodge's ships, the "Glentanner," passed Singapore on her way to Canton.

9. In case Sir John Pakington should consider that this information should be forwarded to the colonies, we would suggest that it should be pointed out to the authorities that arrangements will now be made for embarking before the end of March all the emigrants who can be sent by the funds now appropriated to that purpose. If, therefore, the emigration is to be carried on, and we take for granted that the appointment of Mr. White would not have been pressed by the West Indian body unless this were intended, it will be necessary that a further expenditure should be authorized and funds raised to meet it.

We have, &c.,

Herman Merivale, Esq.,

&c.

&c.

(Signed)

C 2

T. W. C. MURDOCH. FREDERIC ROGERS.

Encl. in No. 8.

SIR,