Prince Kung to F. F. Low, July 6, 1873

Prince Kung to Mr. Low.

Prince Kung, chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, herewith replies:

I had the honor of receiving your excellency’s communication of yesterday, in which you inform me that you had been honored with a dispatch from your Government, stating that a Peruvian envoy was already on his way to negotiate treaties of commerce with Japan and China, and directing you to assist him as far as lay in your power whenever he reached Peking, adding that you had just received a letter from the envoy himself intimating his speedy departure from Japan, and requesting you so to inform the Chinese government, &c.

I may here observe that, during the ten and more years which have passed since China has made treaties with other countries, that mutual good-will has been shown by all parties; and now that Peru proposes to enter into treaty relations also, and has applied for the good offices of your excellency to aid her, it is reasonable to admit her proposal without demur.

But the manner in which that country has acted toward China is so different from the conduct of other nations, that she cannot be regarded in the same light, and I am obliged to enter into some details to explain it to your excellency.

The only traffic which Peru has heretofore carried on is getting coolies and carrying them away, so that there are now several myriads of Chinese in that land. These people are treated with such injustice and cruelty, and suffer such extreme misery, that it cannot be adequately made known.

In June, 1869, Mr. Ross Browne, the United States minister, informed me that the Chinese laborers in Peru numbered more than thirty thousand, and that they had presented a remonstrance against the harsh treatment of their Peruvian masters to the resident American minister then at Lima, in which they complained of the unbearable nature of their wrongs, and he (Mr. Browne) expressed his willingness to aid in whatever way he could to relieve them.

Again, in July, 1871, Mr. Williams made a communication upon this subject, and proposed that stringent orders should be sent to the provincial authorities in Kwangtung to issue a proclamation restraining the people from accepting contracts for labor in Peru. This government has also heard from other sources of the harsh treatment of Chinese laborers by the Peruvians, who never stop their oppression till death ends it, and whose plan is just to sell human flesh for money. The evidence of their barbarous dealings with the coolies is plain and explicit, and this government has no desire to make a treaty with that country.

But seeing that your excellency has been asked to act in this matter between us, this government considers that it will not be meet to repel the Peruvians too harshly or finally, but they ought to be plainly informed that until they return all the coolies to their own country and agree not to hire any more, no treaty can be made with them. If they decline this, it will be impossible to enter into any arrangement with them.

I have ever found that your excellency clearly understands the relations of things, and I am therefore confident that in this decision I have not overpassed the rules of propriety, and you will also agree with me.