[Inclosure 2-Translation.] The Prince of Ch'ing to Mr. Rockhill. FOREIGN OFFICE, May 17, 1906. YOUR EXCELLENCY: On the 15th instant I had the honor to receive a dispatch from your excellency stating that on May 9 the following imperial edict was published: "Tieh-liang, president of the board of revenue, is hereby appointed, etc." Your excellency then stated that on the same day you telegraphed an English translation of this edict to your Government, and later received instructions to inquire whether or not there was contemplated in the issue of this edict any change whatsoever in any department of the imperial maritime customs. Would I therefore inform you at as early a date as possible whether or not any such change was contemplated? In reply I have the honor to state that Their Excellencies T'ieh-liang and T'ang Shao-i have been appointed by their imperial majesties ministers of customs affairs; that these ministers, T'ieh and Tang, have already received the inspector-general of customs, and in a personal interview have told him that the customs affairs would be managed as usual. It becomes my duty, therefore, to inform your excellency of the facts, and request that you transmit the information to your Government. [Inclosure 3-Translation.] Mr. Carnegie to M. Baroli. PRINCE OF CH'ING. Monsieur LE DOYEN: PEKING, June 6, 1906. The question of the administration of the imperial maritime customs being one of special interest to the representatives of the powers at Peking, I have the honor to send you herewith a note, with an English translation, which I have just received from His Highness Prince Ch'ing, with regard to the recent edict. I have been authorized by my Government to declare that it is satisfied with the assurance contained in this note. Begging that you will kindly circulate this letter with its inclosures among our honorable colleagues, I have the honor to renew, Monsieur le Doyen, the assurance, etc., LANCELOT D. CARNEGIE. [Subinclosure to inclosure 3.] The Prince of Ch'ing to Mr. Carnegie. FOREIGN OFFICE, June 1, 1906. SIR: I had the honor to inform you in a note of May 27 that the special appointment by China of high commissioners for the exclusive control (or management) of the maritime customs made no change in the mode of administration laid down in the loan agreements. At an interview at the Wai-wu Pu on May 28 you intimated that the terms of this note were not sufficiently explicit as to China's intentions and requested a further statement in the matter. In the seventh article of the loan agreement of 1896 and in the sixth article of the loan agreement of 1898 it is stipulated "that the administration of the Chinese imperial customs shall remain as at present constituted during the currency of this loan," and I have the honor to state that the imperial decree of May 9, specially appointing high commissioners to control (or manage) revenue affairs, does not make any change in the method of administration laid down in the loan agreement. While communicating the above for your information, I avail, etc., PRINCE OF CH'ING. No. 359.] Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State. [Extracts.] AMERICAN LEGATION, SIR: The high commissioners of customs affairs opened on Saturday last, the 22d instant, the "Council of customs affairs" (Shin-wuCh'u), with a staff of twenty yamen clerks. An additional number is to be sent up from the customs establishments. The first high commissioner is to receive taels 4,000 a month, and the second taels 3,000. The inspector-general of maritime customs has been informed that henceforth the council of customs affairs will have sole charge of all customs matters except those in which foreign interests are directly involved. The council's authority is nevertheless felt at once in the maritime customs service by orders it has given shifting employees of the staff and directing that all publications of the maritime customs shall be submitted to it for approval before being published. These changes may have far-reaching consequences and are in direct contradiction with even the qualified explanations given the British chargé d'affaires, as they interfere directly with the present "constitution" of the maritime customs service. Unfortunately the expression "present constitution of the customs" has never been defined, and it is likely to occasion much trouble hereafter according to the interpretation put on it by the Chinese or the bondholders. I have the honor to be, etc., W. W. ROCKHILL. No. 365.] Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN LEGATION, Peking, July 31, 1906. SIR: In my dispatch No. 362 of this date I had the honor to transmit to you copies of the recently published returns of trade for 1905 of the maritime customs, relating to the central, southern, and frontier ports of China. I have now to call your particular attention to the interesting special report contained in the southern coast reports on the Santuao native customs, which shows native methods of administration in the native customs of Santauo (near Foochow) and the result of honest foreign management of the same. I have, etc., W. W. ROCKHILL. [Inclosure.] [The North China Daily News-Impartial, not neutral.] SHANGHAI, July 21, 1906. THE FOREIGNER IN CHINA. We published yesterday an interesting report by Mr. F. W. Carey, acting commissioner of customs at Santiago, reproduced from the I. M. C. returns of trade. The description therein given of native methods would have been extremely interesting and valuable at any time, but it comes with peculiar fitness at the present juncture, critical to an extent which few foreigners realize, in the development of what is commonly called the national movement in China. We earnestly commend Mr. Carey's report to the careful attention of the diplomatic and consular authorities who have to deal with the peculiar difficulties of the existing situation; we commend it also to the chamber of commerce, the China association, and all local bodies whose duty it is to maintain the foreigner's political and commercial rights in the country. Our readers will remember that lately we reproduced, from a native paper published in Tientsin, the arguments put forward by the young China party in favor of replacing the foreign staff of the imperial maritime customs by suitably educated Chinese. The writer, after giving details of the numbers and salaries of foreigners employed in the collection of the Chinese revenue, and naively comparing the salary of the inspector-general with that of viceroy or governor, expressed the opinion that no good reason exists for debarring Chinese from filling the highest posts in the service, and that only education is required to make thousands eligible for these posts. The essential qualification of administrative honesty was entirely overlooked in this document, the writer apparently taking it for granted and confining himself to the claim, undeniable in theory, that Chinese should be employed, rather than foreigners, in the service of their country. But it is just in this matter of administrative honestly that lies the crux of the whole question which the “patriotic" Chinese are now raising. Mr. Carey's report proves conclusively the fact, which those most in sympathy with the national movement are unable to deny, namely, that the corruption of the official class in China shows no signs of diminution. We might go further and say with truth that all experience up to the present shows that education on western methods rather aggravates than diminishes the peculiar disposition of Chinese officials to enrich themselves at the expense of the state they profess to serve. Any discussion of the question of China's sovereign rights which overlooks this central truth is, therefore, certain to lead China into further difficulties and to preclude any reasonable hope of maintaining the authority and credit of the central government. Competent observers see in the present movement an appeal, on the one hand, by the mandarin class to those patriotic instincts which have undoubtedly been organized by the spread of western literature and the energies of the native press; on the other hand, an equally evident intention to use the results of this movement for the immediate benefit of the mandarins and of the agitators at their back. The attempts persistently made by Chinese officials during the past year to obtain control of the administration of this settlement at and through the mixed court have precisely the same ultimate object as the attempt to obtain a footing in the imperial maritime customs; that object is, undoubtedly, in the first instance, an aggressive policy on the part of China and the suppression of the foreigner. Those who advocate this policy are quite prepared to see both the maritime customs and the foreign settlement revert to that state of things which existed in the native customs at Santuao until 1901, which Mr. Carey has so graphically described. It is nothing to them that 600 officials should be required for the collection of revenue which yields the sum of $11,000 per annum to the imperial exchequer; it is nothing that the collection should be accompanied by every form of corruption and hindrance to trade. Similarly, it would be nothing to those who hope to batten on the wealth of this settlement that the administration of the mixed court should be accompanied by native yamen abuses. It were well that we should clearly recognize this essential fact. Those who are now urging railway construction throughout the country by provincial bureaus are attempting to persuade the gentry and people of the excellence of their own motives and the wealth that lies before all concerned. It does not require, however, any deep knowledge of Chinese affairs to realize that the state is not likely to profit greatly by railway construction in the hands of officials of the type already appointed to take charge of certain bureaus. The first results are even now apparent-provision of sinecures for thousands of hungry officials, levying of taxes and subscriptions from the people, of which money not one-tenth will ever go into railway work. Those who wish to see the system of native administration working out its effect should take a trip on the railway from Canton to Sanshui; even the British-financed northern railway under the practical control of the Cantonese party (which has obtained a free hand under Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai) is showing unmistakable signs of that swift descent from efficient administration to native chaos, which is the inevitable end of management by mandarins. The immediate remedy for these things is not apparent, inasmuch as western education appears to be of no effect. Pending discovery of a solution, Mr. Carey's report should give pause to those who are inclined to place implicit reliance upon the eloquent protestations of the young China party. CITIZENSHIP AND RIGHT OF ADMISSION TO THE UNITED STATES OF A CHINESE ADOPTED BY AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. No. 389.] Minister Rockhill to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN LEGATION, Peking, September 6, 1906. SIR: I have the honor to inclose herewith copies of my correspondence with the American consul-general at Hankow regarding the adoption by an American of a Chinese baby girl. My opinion is asked as to whether the child may, through adoption, become an American citizen, and be taken to the United States and brought up as any ordinary adopted child of American extraction. I have expressed my belief that under the present laws a Chinese infant can not thus become an American citizen, but that possibly the child could be taken to the United States and there educated under the privileges pertaining to the exempt classes of Chinese persons. I have the honor to beg that the department will express its opinion as to my course of action. I have, etc., W. W. ROCKHILL. [Inclosure 1.1 Mr. Martin to Mr. Rockhill. HANKOW, August 21, 1906. SIR: I have the honor to inclose herein the copy of a letter just received from Miss Carrie M. Ericksen, together with a copy of my answer thereto. Will you be so kind as to express your opinion on the subject, through me, to her, that she may be the better satisfied. [Subinclosure 1.] Miss Ericksen to Mr. Martin. WM. MARTIN. AUGUST 15, 1906. We DEAR MR. MARTIN: I am writing these few lines to ask a favor of you. have under our care a Chinese baby girl who was thrown out to die by her parents and we want to know if it is possible to take her with us to the United States next spring. If so, under what conditions. I wish to adopt her and have her brought up in my home as an American citizen. Will you let me hear from you at your earliest convenience, and oblige, CARRIE M. ERICKSEN, [Subinclosure 2.] Mr. Martin to Miss Ericksen. Miss CARRIE M. ERICKSEN, Sin Tsai Hsien, Honan: I am in receipt of your letter dated August 15, 1906, and in reply would say, that as to your asking whether you can take a baby Chinese girl into the United States, you having adopted her, as far as I know it would not be permitted. I will, however, communicate with the American minister at Peking on the subject, and on receiving his answer will forward it to you. WILLIAM MARTIN. [Inclosure 2.] Mr. Rockhill to Mr. Martin. PEKING, September 6, 1906. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 218 of August 21, inclosing copies of your correspondence with Miss Carrie M. Ericksen regarding her proposed adoption of a Chinese baby girl as an American citizen and asking my opinion on the subject. In reply I beg to say that I can find no record in this legation of a similar case, but I am of the opinion that under the present laws the child could not be declared a citizen of the United States through adoption. It might be possible, however, for her to be brought to America for the purpose of education under the laws governing persons of exempt classes, but that is not the point upon which Miss Ericksen desires information. I have submitted the case to the Department of State, and on receiving a reply therefrom will immediately inform you of its contents. W. W. ROCKHILL. No. 209.] The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Rockhill. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 2, 1906. SIR: In answer to your dispatch, No. 389, of September 6 last, asking whether a Chinese child adopted by an American citizen in China may be admitted to the United States for the purpose of being educated, I inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a letter from the Acting Secretary of Commerce and Labor, stating that a child born of Chinese parents in China can not be permitted to enter the United States as an American citizen because of its adoption by a temporary resident of China who is a citizen of the United States, and that you are correct in holding that the persons interested in the child should adopt the usual procedure to insure its admission to this country, namely, the procurement of a certificate under the provisions of section 6 of the act of July 5, 1884. I am, etc., ROBERT BACON. [Inclosure.] The Acting Secretary of Commerce and Labor to the Secretary of State. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE AND LABOR, OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant, No. 1584, with which you inclose a copy of a dispatch from the Ameri 59605-FR 1906-19 |