THE CHINESE QUESTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1721, 7 April 1888, Page 3

THE CHINESE QUESTION.

A circular despatch has been I received from the Secretary of State I for the Colonies, encloßingJa 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 £lO is imposed on Chinese subjects, from which the subjects of other Powers are exempt. I am also informed that at the present I moment a bill which passed the House [ of Assembly of Tasmania in September last is under the consideration of the Legislative 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 despatch of July 13th, 1886, I had occasion to draw the attention of your Lordship's predecessor to the invidious position in which Chinese subjects were placed by the operation of a peculiarly offensive Act which had been passed by the Government of British Columbia. Haviug 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 especially as the Chinese Government are convinced that where colonial Legislatures have enacted regulations mimical to the Chinese, and which wore incompatible with her Majesty's international engagements, the omission 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 differently from the subjects of other Powers, and it is difficult to understand why ife should be otherwise in those colonies in which a certain amount of self-government has been conferred. It has never been alleged that Chinese immigrants were unruly. Not only in Hongkong and Straits Settlements, but also in Australia, colonial Governors have repeatedly borne testimony to the orderly conduct of the Chinese population, and their value in developing colonial resources. There does not, therefore, appear to be sufficient reason for their being deprived of the immunities accorded them by the treaty of nations or of their being treated differently fron the subjects of other Powers residing in the same parts of H.B.M.'s dominions. The Imperial Government see with regret the continued existence of exceptional and exceptionable laws which some colonial Legislatures in Australia and the Dominion of Canada have at different times enacted against the Chinese subjects, and hope that, with a view to the elimination of any which may be found at variance with treaty obligations and international usage. | Her Majesty's Government wiU be pleased to institute an inquiry into their mature, and how far they are compatible with the increasing growth of friendly relations which now happily exist between the two countries. — I have, etc., Lew.