Aaron S. Daggett to Rollin M. Daggett , United States, December 21, 1883

No. 197. Mr. Daggett to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Sir: Agreeably to the instruction embraced in your dispatch of November 15, 1883 (No. 38), on the 7th instant (No. 242) I addressed a communication to His Hawaiian Majesty’s minister of foreign affairs, briefly referring to the exclusive permission for the transportation of Chinese laborers to these islands accorded by the Hawaiian Government to the Pacific Mail and Occidental and Oriental Steamship Companies some time in July last; to the transfer of that permission, about three months thereafter, to the Oceanic Steamship Company; of the alleged proffer by the latter to assign the concession, first, to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, for a consideration, and subsequently to the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Great Britain; and claiming that provisions of the treaty of 1849 between the United States and Hawaii forbidding discrimination against the vessels or commerce of the United States had thereby been contravened, and asking the Hawaiian Government to take such measures as would repair and in the future prevent such discrimination.

Replying under date of the 10th instant, his excellency the minister of foreign affairs expresses surprise that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company should have appealed to the United States Government for relief. He refers to the many favors accorded that company by the Hawaiian Government; claims that no contract or agreement with that corporation has been violated; that the privilege of transporting Chinese laborers to these islands was transferred to the Oceanic Steamship Company for sanitary and industrial reasons; that the agreement with the Oceanic Steamship Company carried with it no right or warrant of transfer, nor is the Hawaiian Government aware that any such transfer has been proffered; and that he fails to perceive that any discrimination against vessels of the United States has been made by the Hawaiian Government, or that any of the provisions of the treaty of 1849 have been contravened.

To bring the matter to a more direct issue, I addressed a second communication to his excellency the minister of foreign affairs, on the 13th instant (No. 243), in which, without regarding as essential the facts and circumstances connected with these exclusive contracts, I felt warranted by my instructions in assuming that the substantial cause of complaint was not so much that the agreement had been taken from one company and given to another, either with or without cause, as that it had been made at all; that the making and enforcement of such a contract by the Hawaiian Government with any company owning a particular line of vessels, whether American, Hawaiian, or foreign to both countries,” would be, in the estimation of my Government, repugnant to the covenants of the treaty of 1849, and a hope was expressed that all such discriminating concessions by the Hawaiian Government would be set aside as unauthorized.

In reply to this, under date of the 19th instant, his excellency the minister of foreign affairs incloses a copy of the agreement between the Hawaiian Government and the Oceanic Steamship Company, showing that it is not transferable; asserts that the authority for the admission of further Chinese laborers into the Hawaiian Kingdom limits the number to 600 in every three months, and for social, sanitary, and industrial reasons such immigration should be selected by capable and interested agents and transported under Government control; that the Hawaiian Government claims “the right to regulate measures taken for the re-population and industrial development of the Kingdom,” and is not convinced that in so doing it has violated any treaty stipulation with the United States.

I inclose a copy of this correspondence, together with the inclosures referred to therein—or, rather, such inclosures as may not already be in your possession.

As the Hawaiian Government has placed itself in an attitude where further correspondence with me on the subject, under existing instructions, would be profitless, the attitude of declining to admit that any of the provisions of the treaty of 1849 have been violated, and claiming the right to make special contracts for the transportation of Chinese laborers to these islands, I respectfully submit the matter to you for further instruction.

I am, &c.,