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5. For our ultimate aim is the entire suppression of this modern form of slavery, and the consequent extinction of the cruelties uninterruptedly carried on at its head-quarters. We do not desire to reflect upon the Government from whose waters are steadily despatched ships conveying crowds of ignorant Coolies to lives of unremitting toil, and in most instances, to miserable deaths. We will give that Government credit for thoroughly good intentions, and we are anxious to admit that the letter of their legislation in connection with "Coolies Emigration" is very near perfection, and is such as would make it appear to the distant reader that under its provisions, not only need no Chinaman quit his native land unless he be minded so to do, but that jealous care is taken by the Authorities in question that he be neither intimidated nor entrapped into a consent which he really did not mean to give. We, who dwell upon the spot, know too well how wide of the truth such an impression would be. We desire, however, to record our belief that the Authorities we refer to are deceived by formal compliance with their ordinances even as other governments might be similarly juggled; but we do not require to tell Your Excellency that these regulations, said to be designed to protect the Coolie against fraud and restraint, are, with detestable ingenuity, converted into meshes, whereby to entrap him more securely. These regulations are of no utility whatever they serve, but to cast dust in the eyes of the world; they afford no protection to the Coolie. On the contrary, they extend direct encouragement to the Man-Stealers who infest the coast of China from the gulf of Tongking to that of Pechili, because so soon as their letter is complied with, they shift the responsibility of the miserable Coolie's detention from the shoulders of his kidnappers to those of Official Authority. We use the designation "kidnappers" without reserve, and Your Excellency will not fail to consider us justified in doing so when you recall to mind the detestation in which all Chinese connected with the Coolie Trade are held by their own Authorities and countrymen, who hasten to destroy miscreants if detected in the pursuit of their infamous vocation. Nor in further justification of our language will Your Excellency fail to remember the cases, recently brought to light, of the Annamese, who were abducted by violence, and of the coolies on the banks of the Yangtsze who were seized into a piratical lorcha, were carried to the chief seat of the traffic, and there sold into slavery, or in other words, were compelled to enter into contracts for labour abroad when far from home and friends, starved, destitute, and surrounded by cruel men whose language even they did not understand. As soon as contracts had been rendered formal and irrevocable by governmental seal, the price of the miserable victims' persons was duly paid over to their villainous captors,
6. Your Excellency knows well that the horrible picture which we have just essayed to draw is under rather than over-coloured. You are fully aware that did we possess access to the prison-houses whose proximity to the shores of this colony we deplore, we should be enabled to disclose an aggregate of cruelty, wretchedness, and misery, possibly at the present day unequalled in the world. Your Excellency will sympathize with us when we proclaim aloud that we should lie to our conscience did we not protest in the strongest language against the maintenance of a traffic which is characterized by many of the worst features of that old slave trade so earnestly crushed by our country. We call upon the Imperial Government to render penal the conveyance under the British Flag of persons held to labour or service to such, first because that enactment would deal a heavy blow against an iniquitous system; and second, because England would thereby with clean hands be enabled to enlist the co-operation of all other civilized powers towards its suppression.
7. And it is of national importance that Great Britain, the queen-power of the East should not continue to witness the existence of a wicked wrong, within forty miles of one of her own colonies, without at least remonstrating against it. But for the footing for foreigners gained in China by British and French Arms, the Coolie Trade would never have arisen, and would at once be swept away by the Chinese Government. As Englishmen, therefore, we feel our country to be directly responsible for the continuance of this stain upon civilization, and we earnestly pray that Her Gracious Majesty's advisers will do their best to speedily free her subjects from such a reproach.
8. There exist yet other grounds to Englishmen upon which we desire to see participation in the conveyance of person held to service under contract rendered penal, no matter how good the accommodations or convenience provided. These grounds are the dangerous and degrading nature of the occupation, and the fact, as we believe, that all contracts for labour being voidable while one of the parties is within British jurisdiction, it is therefore false and wrong to place persons so situated in the custody and restraint of a British ship-master. The danger and degradation to which we have alluded, we are anxious to see British seamen no longer exposed to. That the employment is dangerous, is a fact to which a score of Coolie mutinies on board ship, accompanied by every circumstance of bloodshed and loss of life, bear dreadful testimony. That it is degrading cannot be denied, when it is known that the live cargo which never committed any crime, but which was only cruelly deceived, must be watched by armed men, as well for its own safety, as for that of those who are paid to conduct it into slavery. We ask that the British flag may be saved from further such dishonour.
9. From one point of view do we deeply regret that we should feel compelled to make this appeal to Her Majesty's Government. We are grieved that we should find ourselves taking a step inimical to the interests of our West Indian fellow-subjects, to whom we believe a supply of Chinese agricultural labour to be an unfixed benefit, and who, we also understand, have administered the trust thus devolved upon them, wisely, justly, and conscientiously. We sincerely deplore the misfortune which the deprivation of Chinese agricultural labour would prove to colonies which have already suffered so greatly in support of our common country's renown; but we dare not, upon that account, refrain from exposing and denouncing the evils and horrors of a traffic which, for one poor Chinese Coolie that it may send to possible happiness, consigns ten to a life of unspeakable wretchedness.
10. We have written strongly in deprecation of the afflictions to humanity which originate in and result from the conveyance abroad of Chinese hired emigrants, but it must not therefore be understood that we view in feelings other than those of unmingled approbation the encouragement of free emigration from this empire. Let voluntary emigration, pure and simple, be as uncontrolled from China as from Ireland, but let it be made criminal for British subjects to aid, abet, or in any way subserve, contracts of servitude for a term of years.
11. We conclude with an earnest expression of our hope that by means of Your Excellency's assistance and endeavours, the suppression of Chinese Coolie Emigration may be achieved.
It is an object which lies very close to your hearts, and should Your Excellency bring it about, it will hereafter be a source of extreme gratification to us, to remember that your name in connection with the administration of this colony has been associated with the overthrow of a system which is at once a disgrace to civilisation at large, to foreign and to British intercourse with China.
And your Memorialists will ever pray,
Hong-Kong, 27th June, 1867.
&c.,
JOHN SMALE---Chief-Justice.
JAS. WHITTALL.
APPENDIX No. 9,
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, 4TH JULY, 1867.
To THE HONORABLE CHIEF JUSTICE SMALE. THE HONORABLE JAMES WHITTALL, M.L.C.
GENTLEMEN,
1. I am instructed by His Excellency SIR RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, to acknowledge receipt, on the 28th ultimo, of your Memorial of the 27th ultimo, urging your objections to all Emigration from Hong-Kong under contracts for hire.
2. His Excellency is most ready to acknowledge the humane and honorable feelings which prompted that Memorial, and therefore willingly transmitted it to His Grace the Secretary of State when forwarding, by last Mail, the Emigration Ordinance passed on the 17th ultimo, from the discussion of which, your Memorial originated.
3. Yet, whilst fully appreciating your motives, His Excellency regrets that your Memorial should urge a request entirely beyond his power to grant. You "beseech" His "Excellency to enact that no Vessel whatever shall clear from Colonial Waters with Chinese "on board held to service or labor abroad by contract for a term of Years, and that no such "contracts no matter how or where entered into shall be valid in the Colonial Courts.” In reply, it is only necessary to point out that all Chinese Emigration from Hong-Kong is entirely regulated under authority of an Imperial Act (18 & 19 Vict. Cap. 114) which Act if not earlier proclaimed by the Governor of Hong-Kong was directed (Sec. 7) to come into force here on the 1st January 1856, That Act, moreover, though empowering the Hong-Kong Legislature to pass Regulations for Chinese Passengers subject to confirmation by Her Majesty's Government, was nevertheless launched complete with all necessary Regulations and Forms, and without any action on the part of this Legislature came into force by Imperial authority in January 1855.
4. Therefore His Excellency can only regard your request for a local enactment to terminate all Chinese Emigration from Hong Kong of whatsoever kind, if under contracts for service, as tantamount to requesting him to repeal an Act of the Imperial Parliament, which you will admit he has obviously no power to do.
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5. For our ultimate aim is the entire suppression of this modern form of slavery, and the consequent extinction of the cruelties uninterruptedly carried on at its head-quarters. We do not desire to reflect upon the Government from whose waters are steadily despatched ships conveying crowds of ignorant Coolics to lives of unremitting toil, and in most instances, to miserable deaths. We will give that Government credit for thoroughly good inten- tions, and we are anxious to admit that the letter of their legislation in connection with "Coolies Emigration" is very near perfection, and is such as would make it appear to the distant reader that under its provisions, not only need no Chinaman quit his native land unless he be minded so to do, but that jealous care is taken by the Authorities in question that he be neither intimidated nor entrapped into a consent which he really did not mean to give. We, who dwell upon the spot, know too well how wide of the truth such an impres- sion would be. We desire, however, to record our belief that the Authorities we refer to are deceived by formal compliance with their ordinances even as other governments might be similarly juggled; but we do not require to tell Your Excellency that these regulations, said to be designed to protect the Coolie against fraud and restraint, are, with detestable inge- nuity, converted into meshes, whereby to entrap him more securely. These regulations are of no utility whatever they serve, but to cast dust in the eyes of the world; they afford no protection to the Coolie. On the contrary, they extend direct encouragement to the Man- Stealers who iafest the coast of China from the gulf of Tongking to that of Pechili, because so soon as their letter is complied with, they shift the responsibility of the miserable Coolie's detention from the shoulders of his kidnappers to those of Official Authority. We use the designation "kidnappers" without reserve, and Your Excellency will not fail to consider us justified in doing so when you recall to mind the detestation in which all Chinese connected with the Coolie Trade are held by their own Authorities and countrymen, who hasten to destroy miscreants if detected in the pursuit of their infamous vocation. Nor in further justification of our language will Your Excellency fail to remember the cases, recently brought to light, of the Annamese, who were abducted by violence, and of the coolies on the banks of the Yangtsze who were spared into a piratical lorcha, were carried to the chief seat of the traffic, and there sold into slavery, or in other words, were compelled to enter into contracts for labour abroad when far from home and friends, starved, destitute, and surrounded by cruel men whose language even they did not understand. As soon as contracts had been rendered formal and irrevocable by governmental seal, the price of the miserable victims persons was duly paid over to their villainous captors,
6. Your Excellency knows well that the horrible picture which we have just essayed to draw is under rather than over-coloured. You are fully aware that did we possess access to the prison-houses whose proximity to the shores of this colony we deplore, we should be enabled to disclose an aggregate of cruelty, wretchedness, and misery, possibly at the present day unequalled in the world. Your Excellency will sympathize with us when we proclaim aloud that we should lie to our conscience did we not protest in the strongest language against the maintenance of a traffic which is characterized by many of the worst features of that old slave trade so earnestly crushed by our country. We call upon the Imperial Government to render penal the conveyance under the British Flag of persons held to labour or service to such, first because that enactment would deal a heavy blow against an iniquitous system; and second, because England would thereby with clean hands be enabled to enlist the co-ope- ration of all other civilized powers towards its suppression.
7. And it is of national importance that Great Britain, the queen-power of the East should not continue to witness the existence of a wicked wrong, within forty miles of one of her own colonies, without at least remonstrating against it. But for the footing for foreigners gained in China by British and French Arms, the Coolie Trade would never have arisen, and would at once be swept away by the Chinese Government. As Englishmen, therefore, we feel our country to be directly responsible for the continuance of this stain upon civilization, and we earnestly pray that Her Gracious Majesty's advisers will do their best to speedily free her subjects from such a reproach.
8. There exist yet other grounds to Englishmen upon which we desire to see-parti- cipation in the conveyance of person held to service under contract rendered penal, no matter how good the accommodations or convenience provided. These grounds are the dangerous and degrading nature of the occupation, and the fact, as we believe, that all contracts for labour being voidable while one of the parties is within British jurisdiction, it is therefore false and wrong to place persons so situated in the custody and restraint of a British ship- master. The danger and degradation to which we have alluded, we are anxious to see British seaman no longer exposed to. That the employment is dangerous, is a fact to which a score of Coolie mutinies on board ship, accompanied by every circumstance of bloodshed and loss of life, bear dreadful testimony. That it is degrading cannot be denied, when it is known that the live cargo which never committed any crime, but which was only cruelly deceived, must be watched by armed men, as well for its own safety, as for that of those who are paid to conduct it into slavery. We ask that the British flag may be saved from further such dishonour.
9. From one point of view do we deeply regret that we should feel compelled to make this appeal to Her Majesty's Government. We are grieved that we should find ourselves
taking a step inimical to the interests of our West Indian fellow-subjects, to whom we believe a supply of Chinese agricultural labor to be an unfixed benefit, and who, we also understand, have administered the trust thus devolved upon them, wisely, justly, and conscientiously. We sincerely deplore the misfortune which the deprivation of Chinese agricultural labor would prove to colonies which have already suffered so greatly in support of our common country's renown; but we dare not, upon that account, refrain from exposing and denoun- cing the evils and horrors of a traffic which, for one poor Chinese Coolie that it may send to possible happiness, consigns ten to a life of unspeakable wretchedness.
10. We have written strongly in deprecation of the afflictions to humanity which originate in and result from the conveyance abroad of Chinese hired emigrants, but it must not therefore be understood that we view in feelings other than those of unmingled approba. tion the encouragement of free emigration from this empire. Let voluntary emigration, pure and simple, be as uncontrolled from China as from Ireland, but let it be made criminal for British subjects to aid, abet, or in any way subserve, contracts of servitude for a term of years.
11. We conclude with an earnest expression of our hope that by means of Your Excelleney's assistance and endeavours, the suppression of Chinese Coolie Emigration may be achieved.
It is an object which lies very close to your hearts, and should Your Excellency bring it about, it will hereafter be a source of extreme gratification to us, to remember that your name in connection with the administration of this colony has been associated with the overthrow of a system which is at once a disgrace to civilisation at large, to foreign and to British intercourse with China.
And your Memorialists will ever pray,
Hong-Kong, 27th June, 1867.
&c.,
JOHN SMALE---Chief-Justice.
JAS. WHITTALL.
APPENDIX No. 9,
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE, 4TH JULY, 1867.
To THE HONORABLE CHIEF JUSTICE SMALE. THE HONORABLE JAMES WHITTALL, M.L.C.
GENTLEMEN,
1. I am instructed by His Excellency STE RICHARD GRAVES MACDONNELL, to acknow- ledge receipt, on the 28th ultimo, of your Memorial of the 27th ultimo, urging your objections to all Emigration from Hong-Kong under contracts for hire.
2. His Excellency is most ready to acknowledge the humane and honorable feelings which prompted that Memorial, and therefore willingly transmitted it to His Grace the Secretary of State when forwarding, by last Mail, the Emigration Ordinance passed on the 17th ultimo, from the discussion of which, your Memorial originated.
3. Yet, whilst fully appreciating your motives, His Excellency regrets that your Memorial should urge a request entirely beyond his power to grant. You "beseech "His "Excellency to enact that no Vessel whatever shall clear from Colonial Waters with Chinese "on board held to service or labor abroad by contract for a term of Years, and that no such " contracts no matter how or where entered into shall be valid in the Colonial Courts.” In reply, it is only necessary to point out that all Chinese Emigration from Hong-Kong is entirely regulated under authority of an Imperial Act (18 & 19 Vict. Cap. 114) which Act if not earlier proclaimed by the Governor of Hong-Kong was directed (Sec. 7) to come into force here on the 1st January 1856, That Act, moreover, though empowering the Hong-Kong Legislature to pass Regulations for Chinese Passengers subject to confirmation by Her Majesty's Government, was nevertheless launched complete with all necessary Regulations and Forms, and without any action on the part of this Legislature came into force by Imperial authority in January 1855.
4. Therefore His Excellency can only regard your request for a local enactment to terminate all Chinese Emigration from Hong Kong of whatsoever kind, if under contracts for service, as tautamount to requesting him to repeal an Act of the Imperial Parliament, which you will admit he has obviously no power to do.
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