THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5457, 23 September 1878, Page 3

THE UNITED STATES AND CHINA.

(From t he San Francisco Bulletin, August 1.) George F. Seward, U.S. Minister to China, arrived on Friday in the City of Toldo, and ■ will leave for Washington in obedience to instructions from the Department of State. On behalf of the Bulletin , his views were solicited on topics relating to emigration from China to the United States. Mr. Seward expresses gratification that our Government has decided to open negotiations with the Government at Peking for a modification of the'treaty. He la clearly convinced what the result of the negotiation on some points will be, but as his information in this regard belongs to the State Department, ho asks to be excused from expressing it for publication at this time. He does not hesitate to say, however, that he has argued to the department, with all the force of language he could command, against proceeding by legislation to abrogate any. provision of the Durlinghame treaty, and at every step has suggested negotiation. The whole strength of Caucasian influence in China has been secured by foreign Governments standing together in support of treaty principles, and if any Government should, without negotiation, disregard the treaty, that Government would be stigmatised by all other Powers as a nation unworthy of confidence and respect. It is a position that the -United States could not afford to take. He says that the Government,at Peking is apathetic, „and neither encourages nor discourages emigration. In the event of negotiations to modify the treaty to prevent the Chinese from coming to this country in large numbers, he thinks the Chinese statesmen at Peking would be mainly governed by their own individual Interests. If each a step would excite public criticism, they would not take it. If it would ensure their popularity and support they would modify the treaty. The Chinese statesman is a timeserver who studies bla ©wn good without going into the merits of a national policy. - Mr, Seward appears to comprehend the serious nature of the Chinese question in California, and perceives that moral pressure alone has prevented actual violence to the Chinese population in this city ; but he says it is the most difficult thing in the world to make the Chinese Government understand why the Government of Washington cannot set everything right. The only Government they appreciate is one of centralisation. That the people of California should have a policy in dealing with the Chinese different from the policy at Washington is a mystery of republican institutions that they- cannot fathom. So whenever reports of outrages committed on the Chinese are transmitted to Peking, the Government at Washington is held responsible. Mr, Seward, upon being asked if the Chinese Government would, in view of the large emigration of Mongolians to this country and the small emigration of Americans .to China, consent to a policy of limitation, replied that that was the forbidden topic, as it would be the main point of approaching negotiation. He says our people do not go to China in great numbers, but they go in great strength. If wo should tell the Government at Peking that there were so many Chinese hero that our republican institutions were in danger of destruction, they would reply that “you have driven our commerce from the coast with steamships which we cannot build or navigate; you have imposed free trade regulations, and enforced your own jurisdiction in our country; you have sent your missionaries all through oqr land, and they teach doctrines of religion J which we think tend to undermine our inatitufciona.” Mr. Seward says there is no real danger of a Chinese immigration large enough to become dominant in this country. Tho Chinese are not a dominating people. If they were, they would overrun Asia. They have no ambition to acquire possessions by conquest, and to gain footholds in new countries. In dealings with Cuba and Peru the Government at Pekin sent out commissions to ascertain how the Chinese in those'countries had been treated. When the commission reported that the coolies had not been properly treated, the Chinese Government stipulated in tho treaty or contracts of emigration that the Chinese should bo returned. These countries, however, wiere soliciting Immigration. In Queensland, the Colonial Government imposed a tax on Chinese immigrants landing there/ but her Majesty’s Government refused to sustain it. The colony then required every Chinaman landing there to deposit 50 dollars, which should be given back to him on his return to China. This restriction amounts to prohibition. In regard to the famine accounts from the interior of China, Mr. Seward says they have not been exaggerated. Probably sixty people have suffered and are still Buffering. _ It ia estimated that more than five,

million people have peri>hed. To sustain life th - survivors have eatou the flesh of the dead. In many instances mothers have eaten their babies. -