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so discreditable to the community in which they have taken place, and outside of the punitive powers of the National Government, to make voluntary and generous provisions for those who have been made the innocent victims of lawless violence within our borders; and to that end, following the dictates of humanity, and, it may be added, the example of the Chinese Government in sundry cases where American citizens who were the subjects of mob-violence in China have been indemnified by tfftat Government, the present treaty provides for the payment of a sum of money, to be received as full indemnity for all such losses and injuries sustained by Chinese subjects in the United States, to be received and distributed by the Chinese Minister at this Capitol. This payment will, in a measure, remove the reproach to our civilisation caused by the crimes referred to, as well as redress the grievance so seriously complained of by the Chinese representative, and unquestionably will also reflect most beneficially upon the welfare of American residents in China. I submit herewith a list of the claims from time to time presented to this department through the Chinese Minister, in which the names of the claimants, the amount of the losses, and estimation and details of the injuries inflicted are set forth. Respectfully submitted. Department of State, Washington, 16th March, 1888. T. F. Bayard.

(New Zealand—Circular.) Sir,— Downing Street, 25th May, 1888. I have the honour to transmit to you, for communication to your Government, a copy of a letter which has been received at the Foreign Office from the Chinese Minister at this Court respecting the impediments thrown in the way of the immigration of Chinese subjects into Australia. I have requested the Marquis of Salisbury to draw the attention of Lew-ta-jen to the state of the case as regards the landing of Chinese, and other particulars shown in recent telegrams from New South Wales, and I have stated that it will be necessary to await further information on the general question. I have, &c., KNUTSEORD. Governor Sir W. E. D. Jervois, G.C.M.G., C.8., &c.

Enclosure. My Lord, — Chinese Legation, 16th May, 1888. In continuation of my despatch of the 7th instant, calling your Lordship's attention to the refusal of the authorities of Her Britannic Majesty's colonies of Victoria and New South Wales to allow the Chinese emigrants per "Afghan" to land, and requesting Her Britannic Majesty's Government to order the prohibition which had been placed on their landing to be removed, I have now the honour to inform you it has come to my knowledge that not only do the colonial authorities still persist hi their refusal to allow the emigrants to land, but they have taken the very grave course of ordering the captain of the " Afghan " to carry them back to Hongkong, the port where they were embarked. In some of my former communications I have discussed the question of the competence of the colonial authorities in Australia and elsewhere to make Chinese immigrants the subject of discriminative legislation, and I presume that, considered in its international and conventional aspects, Her Majesty's Government will not deny the illegality of the action of the colonial authorities in this matter. I shall not, therefore, in the present communication further insist on this, but will invite your Lordship's attention to the consideration of the question as to how far the action of the Colonial Executive with respect to Chinese immigrants now arriving in Australia is in conformity with the statutes enacted by the colonial Legislatures. And in thus appealing to these statutes I wish it to be understood that I do not recognise their validity excepting in so far as they may be in accordance with the treaties and law of nations. Having caused a study of the statutes to be made, I am advised that in none of them, bristling as they do with pains and penalties directed against Chinese subjects, is there a single provision empowering the Executive to prohibit the landing of immigrants who are prepared to pay the stipulated poll-tax. To this fact I would beg leave most particularly to call your Lordship's attention; for, however much the colonial Governments may desire to escape the responsibilities imposed upon them by the Anglo-Chinese treaties and. the laws of nations, they will scarcely venture to deny their obligation to respect the statutes which they themselves have enacted. Section 2of the amended Chinese Immigrant Act, passed by the Legislature of Victoria in 1881, and section 3 of an Act to restrict the Influx of Chinese into New South Wales, passed by the Legislature of that colony also in 1881, both impose a penalty on the captain of any ship having a greater of Chinese on board for the colony than one to every hundred tons of the vessel's burden ; but neither of them authorises the Executive to send back the. ship, or prohibit the landing of any immigrants whom the ship may have brought in excess of the statutory number, provided that they are able and willing t*pay the stipulated poll-tax. To have done so would have been an act of injustice such as even the colonial Legislatures, in other respects so hard on Chinese, were not prepared to sanction. The Acts referred to hold the captain responsible, and impose on him a very heavy fine for any excess of passengers he may have brought to the colony; but, very properly, they do not punish the

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