THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 7481, 27 March 1888, Page 4

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

AN IMPORTANT DESPATCH. A circular despatch has been received from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, enclosing a Note from the Chinese Minister at the British Court respecting the position of the Chinese subjects in the colonies. The Secretary of State desired to know what measures had been adopted affecting the Chinese, and what had been the result. The communication from the Chinese Ambassador runs as follows : Chinese Legation, December 12. Lew ta Jen to Lord Salisbury. My Lord,—The Chinese Commissioners who recently visited the Australian colonies for the purpose of inquiring into the condition of the Chinese subjects residing in these parts of H.B.M.'s dominions, report that in each of the colonies they visited a poll tax of LlO is imposed on Chinese subjects, from which the subjects o' other Powers are exempt. lam also informed that at the present moment a Bill which passed the Houtc ot Assembly of Tasmania in September last ia under the consideration of the Lt gislalive Council of that Colony, having for its object the imposition of a similar tax on all Chinese subjects who may hereafter visit the island for the purpose of trade. In my dp: spatch of July 13, 1880,1 had occasion to draw the attention of your Lordship's predecessor to the invidious position in which Chinese subjects were placed by the oneration of a peculiarly offensive Act', which had been passed by the Government of British Columbia. Having in that despatch very fully discussed the question of the injustice of making Chinese subjects who, on the faith of treaties and international usage, had entered the colony the objects of discriminative legislation, I need not here revert to the matter more osinc'ally as the Chinese Government are convinced that where colonial Legislatures have enacted regulations inimical to the Chinese, and which were incompatible with Eer Majesty's international engagements, the omis sion of the Crown to exercise its right of veto is not to be taken as showing that the central Government approved of them. In a Crown colony it has not been found necessary to treat Chinese subjects d'fferently from the subjects of other Powers, and it is difficult to understand why it should be otherwise in those colonies in which a certain amount of self-government has been conferred. 16 lias never been allfged that Chinese immigrants were unruly. Kot only in Hongkong and the Straits Settlements, but also in Australu, colonial Gover nors have repeatedly borne testimony to the orderly conduct of the Chinese population, end thoir value in developing colonial resources. Mieie docs not; therefore, appear to be sufficient reason'fo'r their J:eing deprived of the immunities accorded them by' £lic treaties of nations, or of their being treated differently from the subjects of other Powers residing in the same parts of H.B.M.'s dominions. The Imporial Government see with regret the continued existonee of exceptional and exceptionable laws which some colonial Legislatures in Australia and the Dominion of Canada have at different time 3 enacted against the Chinese subjects, and hope that, with a view to the oli.T.ination of any which may be found at variaciie with treaty obligations and internanational usage. Her Majesty's Government will bo pleased to institute an inquiry in£o their nature, and how far they are compatible with the increasing growth of friendly relations which now happily exist between tho two countries.— I have, etc., Lew,