The following is the petition of the San Francisco guild, addressed to the Ministers of. the Tsungli' Yamen on behalf of the Chinese in the United Sta Whereas the U.S. Government has enacted an tan just law to exclude the Chinese, we beg your Exerllencies tu invite Minister Denby into counsel with you, and to renionstrate with him on the injustice of the new law, and at the same time to present " formal protest to the U.S. Government. In the middle part of the second moun of the current your Congress introduced " bill for the absolute exclusion of the Chinese. The various authorities who have at heart the well-being of their people across the sens, informed us of the goodwill of our government towards us, and at the same time gave repeated instructions to the Minister at Washington to strongly protest against the Act. And it was by the p teats then made, that the intimidate clamour of the people, and their boisterous councils on the subject were stopped, and finally the bill declared null, All' this was effected through the graciousness of our authorities, to whom we feel deeply and sincerely grateful. The old restriction bill was then again put into force, with the sertion of the registration provision in it, Our Minister, regarding this as being violation of the treaty, and at the same time " humiliating law for the Chinexe to be pliced under, protested to the Foreign Office. But his remonstrances were not heeded by the latter, and no reply was given to his repeated addresses, Since the Ast of September this Jaw has been in force. The U.S. authorities everywhere put out proclamations ordering us to get certificates, and notifying that should we refuse to obey this law, and fail to provide ourselves with the certificates before the expiration of the time allowed, we should be imprisoned for one year, and after sereing this sentence be deported back to China. 'The peu is inadequate to describe the innumerable harms this law will inflict upon us, We beg to only pick out some of the worst, and we present them to your Excellencies' notice
affects especially the coolies, as the coolies <1.—Though the registration provision and merchants wear the same kind of clothing the authorities have no way of distinguishing the one from the other. The latter not being provided with the! there are many debateable points; and we certificate, w be cast into prison. The law requires that American citizens must be obtained witnesses, before the merchant can be released. But should he fail to get the witnesses, he will not only be imprisoned hut also be deported. This certainly will be most hurtful to merchants, -—Merchants are often required by th business to go about from place to} place, und sometimes to go from one State to another; and while ina strange State, should they be encountered by the American officials, they being strangers there would not be able to get any one to testify for them, and the result would be that they would go to prison.
"3.—In recent years the police and others have made a practice of entering our houses or stopping us on the streets, under pretext of waking examinations. If they discover any one to have done anything in the least out of the way, then such persons are punished. In sume cases the offenders are imprisoned, while others guilt; of slight offences are fined. Now that this registration law is being put into operation we fear the coollys will not escape @ good deal of harsh persecution. It is necessary to carry the certificate everywhere one goes, but as time wears on, it is quite likely that the document may become destroyed or be lost. Now to replace it would bea matter of the greatest difficulty; but should thie again be lost, suspicion would be roused, and there could be of no hope replacing it. In the event of not obtaining another certi ficate, the coolie would be put in gud and then be deported "4,—According to the registration provi sions each Chinaman getting himself re tered must get two respectable be witnesses for him. Chinese being held untrustworthy, they cannot be witnesses, hence it is amongst the Americans that we have to look for our witnesses. Eh Jabourers do not understand English or have acquaintances among the Americans it is therefore " matter of serious difficulty for them to get peuple to be their witness "5,—The law only recognises those who have shares in the business houses as merchants, all others being regarded to belonging to the category of ce this is to apply to agents, salesmen, and of the firms, it is certainly too would be i are usually tov hypercritical. Under the pretext of examining certificates, Chinese merchants, as well as coolies, would be subject to tyrannical persecution Even if one docs hot ouffer in other ways, by bringing such cases into court large stuns of money would have to be spent in paying Inwyers and defraying court fees, According to the U.S. I nly the authors of the most serious criminal cases are not allowed to be released on bail; all others can avail themselves of this privilege. ides that Chinese detained for examination shall not be released on bail, Recently travelling merchants have been detained and treated most cruelly. This country has never before had any law denying the people the right of bail; even in grand criminal he offender can obtain release by gi ug bail; that innocent peuple should be denied this right is certainly a piece of gross injustice. Ofticeseekers make it their policy tu oppress the Chinese in order to catch the votes of the Inbouring classes, and by this means they get their posts, consequently the talk of oppressing Chinese is becoming more and more general. But just and upright statesmen pronounce this bill as being unconstirational. That this Act is only passed against the Chinese alone, and not for other people, is most unjust, and contrary to treaty agreements. We are told. that encountered, will of course will engage lawyers to: go to W: ington and argue the case in the Supreme Court of the United Statee, which has the power of nullifying the Act.
"The Chinese are willing to take puuishment out murmur im order to resist this unjust Act. It is to be hoped that your Excellencies will represent the case to Minister Denby, and protest to the U.S. Government. At the opening of the of Congress next December, we beg that Minister Tsai be instructed to convey the protest to the Foreign Department, and ask the swine to transmit the protest to the two Houses, saying that China will not consent to have this bill passed upon her in direct violation of the treaty between the two countries,"
Hupao.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.