CO129-156 - Sir MacDonnell - 1872 [1-3] — Page 319

$18

and the ship in which the hired emigrants embark lies at Whampoa; the whole business is conducted under the Spanish Convention, which is, I understand, identical with that concluded by the French and English Ministers with Prince Kung in March 1866; the contract promises the Coolie a free passage back to China, equivalent (namely $50) at the end of five years, and in respect meets the requirements of the Convention.

The Spanish Consul in his letter, of which you inclose a Copy, very correctly describes the system of official surveillance

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which obtains in Canton; and he might have added that before the Ship sails the officer of the Customs musters the emigrants with a view to seeing that those who have not passed the Inspectorate in the department are not on the ship.

That this system is necessarily an effectual check to all abuses, I am not prepared to say: on the contrary, I believe that if the Agent be an unprincipled man, no official surveillance can afford such a check; but at the same time, with respect to the particular case to which the Consul refers, it seems to me impossible that the Coolie could have embarked without...