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Show THE CHINESE QUESTION. A Message From the President to the Senate on the Subject. Washington, April 6. The Chair laid before the Senate a message from the President relating to the subject of Chinese Chi-nese immigration. The President transmits trans-mits the correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Chinese Minister Minis-ter with regard to the treaty rights of the Chinese subjects, other than laborers, to go and come of their own free will and accord. The President says that cases of individual hardship beyond the power of the Executive to remedy have occurred in the application of the Chinese acts, which are due to the ambiguous and defective de-fective provisions of the acts of Congress. The hardship in some cases lias been remedied by the courts, but in others, where the phraseology has appeared to be conclusive against any discretion on the part of the officers, Chinese persons expressly entitled to free admission under un-der the treaty have been refused landing and have been sent back to the country whence they came, without being afforded afford-ed an opportunity to show their rights. The act of July 5, 1884, the President says, imposes an impossible condition in not providing for the admission under proper certificate, of Chinese tra voters of -the exempted class, in cases most . likely to arise in ordinary commercial intercourse. inter-course. The President here quotes the provisions of the treaty and of the immigration immi-gration act of 1884. Of the latter he says the statute is certainly most unusual, which, purporting to execute the provisions provis-ions of a treaty with China, enacts formalities form-alities as regards the subjects of other governments than that-of China. He calls the earnest attention of Congress to the circumstance that the statute makes no provision whatever for the somewhat numerous class of Chinese persons, per-sons, who, retaining Chinese subjection in some countries other than China, desire de-sire to come from such countries to the United States. Chinese merchants, he says, have trading trad-ing operations of magnitude throughout the world. They do not become citizens of the country where they may temporarily tempora-rily reside and trade. They continue to be subjects of China, and to them the explicit exemption of the treaty applies. Yet, if such a subject is the head of a mercantile house at Hong Kong or Yokohama Yoko-hama or Honolulu or Havana or Colon, i he is met with the requirement that he must produce a certificate in the prescribed pre-scribed form and the English tongue, issued is-sued by the Chinese government. If j there be at the place of his residence no representative of the Chinese government j competent to issue a certificate in the prescribed form, he can obtain none, and is under the provisions of the present law, unjustly debarred from entering the United States. The Secretary of the Treasury undertook to remedy this omission omis-sion by directing the revenue officers to recognize as lawful certificates those issued is-sued in favor of Chinese subjects by Chinese Chi-nese consular and diplomatic officers at the foreign port of departure, when advised ad-vised by the United States representative thereat. He, however, the President says, went beyond the limit of the act and the judicial decisions by providing in the circular cir-cular dated January 14, 1885, for the original orig-inal issuance of a certificate by the United States consular officer at the port of departure de-parture in the absence of a Chinese consular con-sular or diplomatic representative. This circular was amended on the 13th day of June following by striking out the clause prescribing an original certification of the status by the United States Consuls. The effect of thi3 amendment, the President savs, is to deprive any certificate the United States Consuls may issue of the value it purports to possess. The claim of the Chinese Minister is that Lay Sang, of the house of Xing, Lee & Co., of San Francisco, having arrived at San Francisco Fran-cisco from Hong Kon2 and exhibited a certificate of the United States Consul at Hong Kong as to his status as a merchant and the consequent exemption under the treaty, was refused permission to land and was sent back to Hong Kong by the steamer which brought him. It is to be remembered, the President, says, that there is at Hong Kong rid representative of the government of China competent or authorized to issue the certificate required by the statute. ' "The intent of Congress to legislate in ! execution of the treatv," the President i says, "is thus defeated by a prohibition directly contrary to the treaty, and the ! conditions are exactly, which, in the j words of the Supreme Court, it was j physically impossible to perform. This i anomalous feature should be reformed as j speedily as possible, in order that the oc-. currence of such cases may- be avoided, j and the imputation removed which would j otherwise reflect on the good faith of the ! United States in the execution of their j solemn treaty engagements." ! The message was read and referred to ; the Committee on Foreign Relations. |