I desire, further, to direct your attention to the fact that the line of policy indicated is an unnecesary discrimination against the Chinese race. They are not the only Asiatic people who do, or are likely to, come to the territories of the American Union. Does the Congress of the United States intend to declare that the Chinese are more objectionable or dangerous as neighbors or residents than the Japanese, the Malays, the Siamese, or other of the Asiatic peoples? Will they close the doors of Hawaii to the Chinese and allow freely the latter to enter these islands? Such a policy is hardly justified by the history of the Chinese nation, nor by the friendly disposition which the Imperial Government has constantly exhibited toward the United States. I inclose you copies of a memorial' which the Chinese residents of Hawaii submitted to the United States Commission recently on a visit to those islands, and copies of a memorandum,' the former paper containing the statistics to which I have referred. In doing so I earnestly hope that Congress in its wisdom and sense of justice will see proper not to disturb the condition of the Chinese existing in the Hawaiian Islands at the time of the annexation, and that it will so legislate as to permit those of them who have there acquired citizenship and residential rights to enjoy those rights in all parts of the territory of the Union, and that Chinese will be allowed to enter those islands in the same way as other Asiatics. Accept, etc. WU TING-FANG. Mr. Hay to Mr. Wu. No. 77.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 13, 1899. SIR: Referring to our interview of the 23d ultimo, in which you set forth for the consideration of this Government certain complaints of ill treatment of Chinese subjects at the hands of the agent of the Treasury Department at Honolulu, I have the honor to inform you that I am in receipt of a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury, dated the 17th instant, in answer to mine of the 23d ultimo, bringing the matter to his attention. In his letter the Secretary of the Treasury says that the regulations. under which the agent of his Department at Honolulu has been operating were based on an opinion of the Attorney-General to the effect that the laws of the United States and the treaty with China relating to the exclusion of Chinese are under the provisions of paragraph 8 of the resolution adopted by Congress July 7, 1898, to be held applicable to Chinese persons applying for admission to the Hawaiian Islands. The Secretary of the Treasury adds that since the receipt of my letter his Department has been advised of the tenor of a decision recently made by the supreme court of Hawaii which may necessitate a further consideration of the subject; that a copy of the decision will be sent to the Attorney-General, and that a full reply to my communication will therefore be deferred until that officer can be consulted in the premises. Accept, etc.. JOHN HAY. 1 Not printed. No. 127.] Mr. Wu to Mr. Hay. CHINESE LEGATION, Washington, February 18, 1899. SIR: Referring to my note of the 12th of December last, in which I called your attention to the condition of Chinese residents of the Hawaiian Islands, and the great injury and injustice which would be done them by excluding them from those islands, I have the honor to add a few more observations on the subject in view of the proposed action of the American Congress to extend the present Chinese-exclusion laws to those islands. I have before me a copy of the report from the Senate Committee on Immigration amending the bill (H. R. 11247) to extend the anticontract labor laws of the United States to Hawaii, and recommending its passage, in which I find that the acts to prohibit the coming of Chinese persons into the United States, approved May 5, 1892, and November 3, 1893, are to be extended to and over the island of Hawaii and all adjacent islands and waters of the islands ceded to the United States by the Government of Hawaii and accepted by the joint resolution of Congress, approved July 7, 1898, so far as such laws may be applicable. It is well known that the above-mentioned acts require all Chinese laborers to take out certificates of residence or forfeit their right to remain in the United States. But the Chinese laborers in Hawaii could not take out the prescribed certification of residence at the time when those acts were passed, and there is no means provided for their taking out such certificates now. It seems unjust to make the enjoyment of the right to remain in those islands, to which the Chinese laborers now there are clearly entitled, dependent upon the fulfillment of a condition manifestly impossible. I am informed that there are about 200 Chinese who hold permits from the Hawaiian Government entitling them to return to the islands. To the validity of these permits the faith of the Hawaiian Government was pledged. As by the annexation of those islands the Government of the United States acquires all the rights and assumes all the obligations of the Hawaiian Government, it seems to me that the Government of the United States is at least morally bound to recognize the permits issued by the proper authorities of Hawaii. The extension of the exclusion laws to Hawaii would deprive those Chinese of their undoubted right to reenter those islands at a single stroke, and I hope that further consideration will deter the Government of the United States from a step that involves the faith of the nation. Before concluding these remarks, permit me to make a suggestion. The immigration and contract-labor laws of the United States now in force seem to me stringent enough to keep out the undesirable elements of every foreign community from the country. The extension of these laws to Hawaii, without the enforcement of the Chineseexclusion acts, would serve as an effectual bar to the further coming to those islands of the objectionable class of Chinese, as well as that of any other people, and if they should be found insufficient, more stringent provisions might be enacted provided they be made applicable to all foreigners. All that my Government asks is that the immigration of Chinese into the territory of the United States be placed on a common footing with other nations. To single out the Chinese alone for exclusion from the islands is to lower the whole nation in the eye of the world, particularly if there is no discriminating legislation against any other Asiatic people. I feel confident that the Government and Congress of the United States after due consideration will admit the justice of the position taken by my Government. I beg to lay these observations before you now with the request that you will kindly bring them to the attention of His Excellency the President and the Congress of the United States, to the end that the rights of the Chinese residents of the Hawaiian Islands may not be impaired by the adoption of any legislation affecting them. Accept, etc., Mr. Hay to Mr. Wu. WU TING-FANG. No. 88.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 24, 1899. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 18th instant, presenting additional observations on the subject of the proposed extension of the present Chinese-exclusion laws of the United States to the Hawaiian Islands. I have sent copies of your note to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives, for their information and consideration. Accept, etc., JOHN HAY. Mr. Hay to Mr. Wu. No. 92.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: Referring to your note of the 18th ultimo, presenting further observations on the condition of the Chinese residents in the Hawaiian Islands, and alleging that injury and injustice would be done them by the legislation proposed in the bill to extend the present Chineseexclusion laws to the islands, I have the honor to inform you that I am in receipt of a letter from Mr. Hitt, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, in reply to my letter of the 24th ultimo, sending him a copy of your note, wherein he says that the bill prepared by the Hawaiian Commission to provide a government for the Territory of Hawaii, and which he introduced into the House of Representatives on the 6th of December last, provides in the one hundred and fifth section (the one hundred and second as amended) that Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands may have one year in which to obtain certificates of residence. Mr. Hitt adds that the bill has not been acted on by the House, and that owing to the lateness of the session and the condition of the public business it is doubtful whether it will be enacted during this Congress. Accept, etc., JOHN HAY. No. 93.] Mr. Hay to Mr. Wu. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: Referring to your note of the 18th ultimo, and to previous correspondence, on the subject of the extension to the Hawaiian Islands of the Chinese exclusion laws of the United States, I have the honor to inform you that in a letter to this Department dated the 2d instant, inclosing a copy of a recent opinion on the subject given by the Attorney-General, the Secretary of the Treasury adopts the views held by that official that the provisions of the joint resolution providing for the annexation of the islands, to the effect that "there shall be no further immigration of Chinese into the Hawaiian Islands except upon such conditions as are now or may hereafter be allowed by the United States," should be construed so as to apply only to actual additional immigration, namely, the coming of Chinese into the islands for the first time after annexation, and not to the return thither of Chinese who have lawful residence there and are simply exercising the recognized right of returning to their business and their homes after a temporary absence. Under the opinion, it is also held that Chinese women and children presenting permits issued under the laws of Hawaii prior to the receipt by the Hawaiian Government of the Treasury regulations transmitted to it through the special agent of the United States on November 12 last may be admitted to those islands by virtue of such permits, and that other Chinese permits of the Hawaiian Government, issued in the same manner prior to the receipt by that Government of the regulation just mentioned, entitling them to sojourn for a temporary period in the islands, should also be admitted thereto. Instructions in harmony with these views were sent on the 27th ultimo by the Treasury Department to Chinese Inspector Brown at Honolulu, and the special agent of the United States at that place was instructed, on the 9th instant, to send to the Government of Hawaii a copy of the letter of the Secretary of the Treasury, together with a copy of the opinion of the Attorney-General, for the information and guidance of the customs officers of the islands, with the information that the Treasury regulations sent through him on November 12 last are modified in accordance with the opinion of the Attorney-General and the instructions of the 27th ultimo to Chinese Inspector Brown. Accept, etc., JOHN HAY. STATUS OF CHINESE IN PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. Mr. Wu to Mr. Hay. No. 122.] CHINESE LEGATION, Washington, February 3, 1899. SIR: Referring to the several conversations I have had with you upon the subject of Chinese residents in the Philippine Islands, now that the treaty of peace between the United States and Spain has been concluded ceding those islands to the United States, I beg to ask, for the information of my Government, what policy the United States Government intends or is likely to adopt in dealing with the question of Chinese immigration to the Philippines. I bear in mind that this treaty has not yet been put in full operation, awaiting a due exchange of ratifications, but the authority of Spain has been withdrawn from the islands, and the military authorities are now in actual possession of Manila, where the most numerous and important Chinese interests are located, and these authorities, as I understand, are preparing to occupy and control the rest of the territory. Hence my Government deems it a proper time to bring the question of the status of the Chinese resident in and doing business with these islands to your attention, with a view to securing a recognition of their just rights and interests during the military occupation and when the Government of the United States shall come to legislate upon the future administration of these islands. It is doubtless well known to you that for centuries very intimate and important relations have existed between China and the Philippine Islands, owing to their contiguity and the favorable trade and industrial conditions. The commercial intercourse between the cities of southern China and these islands has been and is now quite extensive, and the Chinese population resident there is very large, engaged in every walk of life. There are innumerable artisans, farmers, traders, merchants, bankers, and persons of large wealth, in fact, business men of every legitimate character. Many of these are native-born, of which a considerable portion are the offspring of marriage with the Philippine races, and the manners, customs, and characteristics of the people of the islands are so much in harmony with those of the Chinese that the latter for many ages have met with a hearty welcome and have fraternized readily with them. During this long period and up to the present there has existed free immigration and unrestricted commerce. For these reasons, and because of the deep interest the Imperial Chinese Government takes in the continuance of these relations, I am led to address you and to ask that nothing shall be done by the authorities of the United States to disturb these relations or to abridge the rights and privileges so long enjoyed by Chinese subjects in this territory recently acquired by your Government. The treaties of 1880 and 1894 clearly show that their object was to restrict and regulate the coming of Chinese subjects into the territory of the United States on the North American Continent because of the peculiar existing labor conditions. In any event the treaties could not be made to apply to the Philippines, and the cause which occasioned them not having existence in those islands, there would seem to be no occasion to enforce the policy there either by military or Congressional action. If a policy of exclusion is adopted there, should the United States in its wisdom extend the practice of territorial expansion, for instance, to Siam and Annam, the Chinese might also be excluded from those countries. Trusting that the foregoing views will meet with the approval of your Government and that the Chinese residents of the Philippines will not be made to suffer any abridgment of their rights and privileges because of the extension of American sovereignty over them, I avail, etc., WU TING-FANG. |