To His Imperial Highness Prince Kung to The Captain-General of the Island of Cuba, February 15, 1875

Note from the Tsung li Yamen, submitting report of commission to Cuba.

A special note.

In the year 1865 a treaty was negotiated between China and Spain, one of whose articles reads as follows: “The imperial authorities will permit those China subjects, who may desire to go abroad as laborers in Spanish possessions, to enter into contracts with Spanish subjects, and to embark alone or with their families at the open ports of China; the local authorities, acting with the representative of Her Catholic Majesty, in each port, shall make the necessary rules for the protection of the said laborers. It is forbidden to take deserters and persons who have been taken against their will.” By this article it will be seen that this emigration was permitted, if the laborers should be willing to go; their complete protection was guaranteed, and all kidnaping was strictly forbidden.

Since the ratification of this treaty a report has been received from Suilin, the governor-general at Canton, written in 1871, stating that Mr. Villaneuva, the Spanish consul, had requested, on behalf of a merchant named José Tuton, to open an office at Canton to engage laborers; 510 coolies were obtained, after which he asked that it might be closed. This was the only instance at that city of opening an office, but in the year 1869 Mr. Faraldo, the Spanish consul-general at Amoy, made application on behalf of the merchant Priego to open an emigration-office to engage laborers to go to Cuba. A correspondence ensued between him and the local authorities at Fuhchau for their approval. The number engaged there was 690, making in all, in these two instances, 1,200 laborers taken away. Besides this last agency some non-treaty powers obtained coolies for the Spaniards, but the only bona-fide emigration agency opened was that at Canton, when 510 men were engaged.

This case of Mr. Priego has been reported in full by Ting Kiver, the governor-general at Fuhchau. Some of the laborers engaged by this agent jumped overboard on the passage. Mr. Pedder, the British consul at Amoy, learning that the Spanish, Portuguese, and Other nations, under the pretense of hiring workmen at Macao, had been kidnaping and carrying off Chinese beyond sea to sell them for slaves, but that this business, having recently been stopped at that settlement, he had heard that certain people intended to come to Amoy and make application to revive it, therefore informed the intendant at that port, that he might know what was going on and provide against it. Mr. Jones, the commissioner of customs, finding that the contracts drawn up for the coolies differed widely from the twenty-two articles in the emigration-regulations in force, requested that the ship’s papers should not be issued until a most careful examination had been made, and the United States consul-general, Le Gendre, stopped them entirely from going.

The foreign office, fearing that wrongs and irregularities might exist, directed the inspector-general of customs to send to Fuhkien province to ascertain the facts, and, in due course, copies of all the papers were received. The commissioner of customs, Mr. Jones, said that the contracts had omitted altogether the most important parts of the twenty-two articles in the emigration-regulations. It appeared, too, from his account, that a relative of one of the coolies, a man from Tungau district, went to the emigration-office at Amoy to make some inquiries of him, but was unable to get a sight of him or talk with him; he could only see people behind the iron bars of the windows, and learn from those who knew the circumstances that his friend had been kidnaped or inveigled away to be sold. The captain of an American man-of-war had reported, too, that on the 8th of April, 1869, a number of men, he knew not how many, had been seen leaping into the sea from a Macao trading-vessel, and he requested that in consequence of this all the coolies might be brought on shore, to investigate the facts. The master of this vessel, however, obstinately persisted in refusing the tide-waiters any opportunity to search it; and hence the inference is plain that the coolies, had been deceived and were not willing to go abroad. General Le Gendre then assured him (the commissioner of customs) that as this vessel belonged to a non-treaty power, he would advise that she be detained, and the matter attended to immediately, which would prevent her captain treating Chinese like beasts of burden.

Again, a widow woman from near Changchau city, named Chin-ho, had testified that her only son, Chin Kilin, whose life was bound up in her own, was beguiled by a man, named Hi Shing, to go to Amoy; on reaching the place he was surreptitiously sold to a Spaniard, and put into the barracoon.

Another woman, from Tungau district, named Shao Chin, had further reported that her father’s kindred had become so poor and scattered, that of four generations there only remained her own brother, Chin-Ching. A Spanish agent came to Amoy to hire laborers, and her brother was inveigled away by his companions and sold as a cooly, his name being changed to Hu-fuh.

An old man, named Chin Chi, stated that he was seventy years old, and his only son, Chin Chin, was all that remained of three generations; he had been kidnaped by crimps, and sold to the emigration-depot under the name of Sin Fuh, but managed afterward to get free from it. He informed some one that there were over two hundred men in the same ship, and they were all locked down below as soon as it came night.

From many articles which have appeared in the newspapers it is evident that the coolies who go to Cuba are regarded as slaves or cattle; and the cases of horrible cruelties which they suffer have been so numerous that they cannot be fully described. They, however, all tally exactly with the evidence already adduced of their bad treatment.

A letter was received in May, 1872, from the governor-general, Wanyuh, at Foo-chow, and in it was the following: “A Spanish merchant, named Abella, has requested permission to open an emigration-office at Amoy. The acting taotai there, named Pau, tells me that he has made some inquiries of returned coolies about these emigration-houses, and they all describe them as like so many prisons, in which everybody is indiscriminately huddled very close together, and no one is allowed to see his relatives or associates. After they have started on the voyage they are fastened below deck in the most crowded manner; the filth and stench are dreadfill, and not the least care or relief is granted to them; numbers of them die from hunger and thirst, whose bodies are thrown overboard without ceremony. When they reach the end of their voyage they are compelled to work from morning till night without any cessation; their food is very poor, and they are constantly whipped and beaten. When their contract-time has expired they are forcibly sold again, at a price varying from four to five hundred dollars. If they refuse to stay under these terms, they are chained and made to work in the hardest misery; and really, their sufferings follow them continually till death comes to release them from all. By this means the coolies never can fulfill their contract-time, and not one in a hundred ever lives to return home. Every article of their agreements is thus made void, and it is impossible fully to describe their miseries.

“The American consul at Amoy, Le Gendre, has told me [the taotai] in one of his dispatches that the climate of South America is very deleterious, especially in the islands that soldiers and others who go there are allowed, in order to avoid being infected with the malaria, to be changed every ten days; for, if not, they are struck and die. Foreigners dislike going to those regions to work as laborers. Therefore some unprincipled villains, greedy for gain, have bought foreign ships and have engaged Chinese crimps to go about and coax ignorant natives to go on board of them, when they are carried myriads of li across the seas to dig guano. They are pat at every kind of work which slaves do, and are used for all kinds of labor, just like cattle. It is quite impossible fully to describe the sufferings and miseries which they undergo. If steps are not taken to prevent the beginnings and continuance of such evils, ere long they will so increase that all classes of natives will be outraged by their wrongs, which cannot be redressed. Even now the case is very lamentable, and excites everybody’s indignation; and I hope that steps will be taken to put a stop to such atrocities, if only from reasons of common humanity.”

The consuls for Germany, Denmark, France, Holland, Great Britain, and Sweden, all united at this time with the American consul in this joint dispatch to Pau, the intendant at Amoy, setting forth that the evils which grew out of this traffic in men were every year intensified and increased till they had become unbearable. The Spanish consul, Don Juan Oliz, at Amoy, says, moreover, that he cannot control or restrain the treatment of the coolies after they reach Havana. The consul soon after made a request that further contracts for laborers might be suspended.

The foreign office has a dispatch from the American minister, (Mr. Low,) June 14, 1872, in relation to contracts for laborers to go abroad, in which he says:

“The largest part of these coolies have formerly gone from Macao by ships to Cuba and other islands under Spanish rule, and also to Peru. Full details of their sufferings have already been made known in reports written by themselves, and I have recently heard that the condition of those in Cuba is even much worse. There are no well-established regulations, which can be enforced, to prevent them being carried away from Macao to foreign lands. In former years the slave-trade was carried on from Africa under circumstances of great cruelty, and the United States have exerted themselves to the utmost to put a complete stop to it in every form.”

Since Mr. Otin, the Spanish chargé d’affaires, came to Peking in 1872, many communications upon this subject of emigration have passed between him and the foreign office, and the result of the discussion was to refer certain points to the joint arbitration of all the foreign representatives in Peking. In June, 1873, Mr. Otin wrote as follows: “Spain has the right to engage laborers to go abroad to her possessions, but

In consequence of this, the foreign office then wrote to each of the foreign ministers in relation to the emigration to Spanish colonies, stating that although it was no doubt contained in the treaty, it clearly stipulated too that the laborers should be protected; if they were cruelly treated, then this provision was violated.

The present intention of the foreign office to prohibit emigration to places notorious for the cruelties inflicted on the coolies, was not to be taken to mean that emigration was forbidden to countries where the Chinese coolies are not thus cruelly used; and it simply wished to ask whether, supposing it to be true that Chinese laborers in Cuba were cruelly used, as reported, the Chinese government ought quietly to submit to further emigration to that country?

Mr. Fergusvan, the Netherlands minister, replied: “Every country has the right to see that its subjects who emigrate to other lands are well treated there; and if China has undoubted proof that the laborers who have gone abroad have been cruelly treated, no matter in what country, she has the right to inform the high officials of that country that Chinese coolies can no longer be allowed to go there.”

Mr. Williams, chargé d’affaires of the United States, replied: “With regard to the bad treatment of the Chinese laborers now in Cuba, it is necessary for a man to be on the spot, and personally learn for himself the truth by seeing and hearing what is done. I am myself able to say that, since the year 1849, when the business of contracting for coolies to go from Canton to Cuba began, up to the present day, I have constantly heard of the cruel usage they have there received, and that very few of those who had worked out their term of service ever returned home. If the Chinese government now desires to learn their real condition, the best way will be to send a special commission there to carefully inquire and personally ascertain the facts, which will probably not be hard to do. As to the question whether, if the coolies are cruelly treated in Cuba, the Chinese government will be justified in forbidding further emigration there under contracts, I consider that it can do so, and has a right to forbid it.”

Mr. Wade, the British minister, replied, in substance, that if British merchants engaged laborers according to the regulations formerly agreed upon, and if China heard afterward that the men were cruelly treated, she could forbid any more coolies to be hired by them. He said, too, that if she still suspected that they were harshly used, the British minister would urge the Chinese government to send a special commission to carefully inquire into the facts on the spot, in order to determine the course of action to be taken.

At the conference held with all the foreign ministers, after full consultation, it was agreed that the proper course to take was to send a special commissioner to learn the facts in Cuba itself. Accordingly, on the 21st of September, 1873, the Yamen received orders, in answer to their memorial, to appoint a commission to go to the ports and towns in Cuba, and carefully inquire into the facts of the matter, and report. It consisted of Chin-Lan-pin, an officer of the fourth rank, and brevet secretary of the board of punishments, a titular prefect, with A. Macpherson and A. Huber, commissioners of customs, as his associates. This action was communicated to all the foreign representatives. The inspector-general, Mr. Hart, was also directed to give his attention to the matter, and drew up a series of inquiries proper to be made, under fifty-one heads, to which the commissioners were required to return the appropriate replies. From time to time Chin has sent the results of his inquiries, and informed the government of his progress. On the 6th of January a joint report was received from the three members of the commission, in which they remark: (See the inclosure for this quotation.)

The Yamen has the translation of a statement made by a Spanish gentleman at Havana, relating to the coolies, in which he says, “When the Chinese first came to Cuba,, the time mentioned in their contracts was eight years; when that period had expired they were regarded in the same light as foreigners from other countries. They were at the end, also, permitted to bind themselves for four years’ further service, and to swear obedience to the laws of Spain; and it was expressly agreed that at the expiration of the four years a naturalization-paper should be given them, showing that they were Spanish subjects, and allowing them to trade as they liked, just like other foreigners. This mode of dealing with them on the expiring of the last contract time was perfectly legal and fair, but at present, for some reason which I do not understand, everything has been changed, and every privilege formerly granted the coolies has been withdrawn. They are regarded as slaves, and the laws issued respecting their times and manner of work have been made still more onerous. Whenever a cooly now reaches Cuba, he is required to work out the eight years mentioned in the contract, which he brought with him, without a single holiday allowed him. His work is more severe, his wages are far less at present; and if he thinks that when his time is up he will be permitted, as before, to leave his employer and work for himself where he likes, he is now compelled to make a new contract. If he refuses straightway to sign his new contract, he is immediately sent to the public depot at Havana, to work for the government; he is treated just like a criminal, put in the stocks and made to suffer everything. Other classes of working-people in Cuba are treated according to law, and can employ their time as they choose; but the Chinese alone are regarded as slaves, and like slaves are sent to the Trocha, or military trench, where their situation is so very hazardous that the man’s life is put in imminent danger.”

A translation of a letter from the German consul at Havana, which he wrote for a paper in Berlin, has been furnished the Yamen, in which he says, “The commission sent by the Chinese government to inquire into the condition of their countrymen in Cuba and Peru has come, and the German government has directed its consuls at every place to assist it as far as possible. The British and Russian governments have, also, instructed their consuls in the same sense. It is to be hoped that the chief evils connected with the emigration of Chinese laborers abroad, such as their confinement in the prisons in Peru and Cuba, and the unjust and cruel treatment they receive, just as if they were slaves, may now all be removed. The testimony and depositions, oral and written, which the commission has collected, will form the best evidence of the facts; and when it is all printed, mankind will fully know the truth, and that the coolies should by right be their own masters. No crime is alleged against them except that they are Chinese. The sufferings they are subjected to in every place violates every law of humanity; and even the laws of Cuba declare that they are entirely different from the black slaves. I know very well that the people of Cuba, educated and uneducated, are alike sorry to see how these coolies are treated. It is only the few hundreds of sugar-planters and members of the police and patrol who wish to have them treated like slaves. These overseers only desire to get just as much work out of their coolies during the eight years as possible; when that time is over, their bodies are mostly destroyed or debilitated, their eye-sight is gone, they spit blood, and their legs are weakened. The overseers themselves do not comprehend that if they would only pay the coolies a fair and full wage for their work, they would willingly do more for the money, and then they, themselves, would be profited, for, in fact, if no Chinese laborers are to be had, the sugar-plantations will all go to ruin. As soon as the way in which the coolies are treated here is generally known in other lands, so unscrupulous and unjust in every way, some means will surely be devised to stop the emigration.”

Another extract has been translated from the statement furnished to the commission by the Portuguese consul at Havana, in which he gives the numbers of coolies, and some names of those who had been taken away from their country by violence; their testimony is given in full in the report of the commission. Among “these were three graduates of the rank of suitsai, or bachelors, from Kwangtung, named Chin Shao-yen, Sien Tso-pang, and Si Shao-chun; a man named Chang Lwan, from the same province, who had been acting captain in the garrison at Tingchou, in Fuhkien, and had obtained a feather; another from Kiangsu province, named Ching Tung-ling, who had filled the office of a subordinate justice in a district in Kwangsi; a fourth from Kwangtung, Moh Tung-hien, who was on the list for the first vacant captaincy, and another, an ensign, named Chin Hioh-Chau, with one more, Yeh Shing-tsu, an own nephew of Yeh Yen-lau, now a secretary in the board of revenue and general council at Peking. These parsons are all scholars, and holding official rank; they belong to respectable families, and could have no possible reason for going over the seas to get their living as day-laborers. They were all kidnaped and forcibly carried abroad to work as coolies; and if these men have suffered injustice and cruelty, it can fairly be inferred that others are also badly treated. One may well ask, where was the willingness on their part stipulated in the treaty, and the protection which is therein promised? The number of laborers engaged, as reported by the Spanish and Chinese authorities, in Fuhkien and Kwangtung provinces, include only about 1,200 names; but the total number who have arrived in Cuba is 140,000, of whom now 60,000 are still alive, and more than 30,000 have gone since the treaty with Spain was made. The places they came from, and what means were employed to engage them, can all be easily understood by everybody without further description.

We have had the depositions and statements and the replies to the fifty-one queries all printed for convenience of examination, and now send you a copy of each of them, together with a copy of the joint report of the three members of the commission, to which we invite your excellency’s attention. When the various depositions of the coolies have been printed, which is now rapidly going on, a copy will also be sent for your examination.

We avail ourselves of this opportunity to wish you daily happiness.

Cards of