No. 244.
Mr. Gibbs
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
Lima,
Peru, May 11, 1877. (Received June
1.)
No. 147.]
Sir: In my dispatch No. 107, of November 13 last,
on the status of the Chinese in this country, I referred to a contract, then
in treaty, between
[Page 439]
the government
of this country and Mr. H. S. Geary, an American citizen and partner of the
house of Olyphant & Co., China.
After a great deal of discussion the contract was finally signed and approved
of by the President of the republic, April 20. I inclose copy of Mr. Geary’s
second proposition and the modifications proposed by the government, which
were accepted by him.
My opinion is that this proposed new immigration will be important and of
great advantage to this country. Many attempts have been made to induce
European immigration, but up to the present have failed, there being so many
other fields more favorable than Peru.
Here the Chinaman is an industrious, hard-working, patient laborer; the
climate all along the coast, where the great agricultural fields exist,
suits him 5 his wants are few, and he saves money, when other races live in
penury and misery under the same circumstances.
As this plan for Chinese immigration is altogether different from the old one
of coolie-labor, the immigrant arriving freely without any trammels,
choosing his own work, and earning good wages, at the least one sol per day,
with certain knowledge of employment, there will be a superior class of
emigrants to leave China for a country which they have some knowledge of,
through their countrymen, of whom many traffic up and down the coast from
San Francisco to Callao.
The standing of the old and well-known house of Olyphant & Co., of
Hong-Kong and New York, is quite a guarantee that they will not be a party,
nor lend their influence, to any system that will in any manner be the cause
of abuses, as were perpetrated under the name of coolie-labor of former
times, which was slavery.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 147.]
steam communication between peru and asia—chinese
immigration.
[From the South Pacific Times.]
The following is the amended proposition of Mr. H. Seymour Geary, of
Messrs. Olyphant & Co., on this subject, which, if agreed to, will
be allowed to take the place of the contract already made, and attached
to it is a decree of government issued consequent thereon. These
documents we comment on in our editorial columns:
[Translation.]
Your Excellency: I, H. Seymour Geary, a partner
and representative of Messrs Olyphant & Co., of China, Hong-Kong,
and New York, in the United States of America respectfully state: That
the Peruvian chargé d’affaires in China and Japan expressed in Hong-Kong
to the house which I represent, the great interest felt by your
excellency and Peru in the establishment of a steamship line between
Peru and Asia for the purpose of facilitating the immigration of free
Chinese laborers to Peru under the provisions of the treaties recently
ratified by this republic and the Celestial Empire, and as Messrs.
Olyphant & Co. believed that they could carry out the scheme which
at present interests so seriously the agricultural and other industries
of this country, I came to Peru some months ago, at the invitation of
and accompanying the representative of Peru in China and Japan, and I
placed before your excellency a proposition which, after due
consideration, led to the repeated discussion of the contract and the
observance of legal forms contained in the supreme decree of 2d
November, 1876, and published in No. 46 of the official paper, El
Peruano, issued on December 11 of last year.
Although the said decree is legally a definitive official act, as some
doubts have arisen as to the convenience of some of its clauses, and I
am desirous as a bonâ fide contractor that the
agreement should consult the interests of and be equally satisfactory to
both parties, I have determined to apply to your excellency and to
propose the new contract which follows, the acceptance of which by your
excellency will render the existing one null and void.
[Page 440]
- Article 1. Messrs Olyphant & Co.
will establish a line of steamers between Peru and Asia, and for
this purpose will form a company of which they will be the general
agents in Asia during the existence of this contract.
- Art. 2. Each steamer shall be capable of
carrying one thousand passengers, more or less, and shall be so
fitted as to comply with all the laws and regulations of the colony
of Hong-Kong.
- Art. 3. This contract shall remain in
force for five years from the day on which the first steamship
leaves China for Peru, and during this term the steamers shall make
twenty-eight round voyages, three of these being made during the
first year, four during the second, and seven during each of the
three succeeding years.
- Art. 4. The first steamer shall leave
China six months after this contract is signed, and the company will
appoint fixed dates for all subsequent departures.
- Art. 5. All the vessels of the company
will carry a doctor and a supply of all medicines which may be
required; and medical attendance and medicines will be supplied
gratis to the passengers during the voyage.
- Art. 6. The Government of Peru will
appoint Messrs. Olyphant & Co. special emigration agents of the
Republic of Peru in China and Hong-Kong during the term of this
contract, in order that they may facilitate emigration and exercise
the requisite supervision in regard to the quality of the emigrants
leaving China for Peru.
- Art. 7. The emigrants shall come to Peru
free and spontaneously, and all the stipulations contained in the
treaties between Peru and China shall be strictly observed.
- Art. 8. The government will provide a
place of residence in Callao in which the immigrants brought by the
company’s ships will be allowed to remain, without charge, for eight
days after their arrival.
- Art. 9. The vessels of the company will
be exempt from all fiscal taxes and municipal dues, in the ports of
the republic, and will enjoy the same rights and privileges now
granted to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, or which may be
granted to any other line.
- Art. 10. The mail-bags will be carried
free by the steamers between Peru and Asia, and without any expense
to the state. A reduction of 50 per cent, on tariff rates will also
be made on the passages of government employés.
- Art. 11. In accordance with the law of
June 16, 1875, the government will pay the company, during the five
years for which this contract is signed, a yearly subsidy of 160,000
soles Peruvian silver money. This subsidy shall be paid in coin, or
in nitrate should the government so desire. In the latter case the
nitrate will be delivered to the contractors at stated periods
during the year, and in such manner as to enable the contractors to
receive in China in proportion the proceeds of the sale of this
article on the departure from China or Hong-Kong of each steamer for
Peru. The nitrate will be sold to the company at the price which is
charged by the government at the port of shipment, in the province
of Tarapaca, in the epoch of exportation of each cargo. The
contractors may introduce and sell the nitrate in any part of the
world except Europe.
- Art. 12. Should the experience obtained
during the first year prove that, notwithstanding the subsidy
granted for each of the following years, during which a larger
number of voyages have to be made, the company could not effect
these without suffering a loss, then it will have the right to
suspend all traffic, and the reciprocal obligations imposed by this
contract will cease, unless the government, by authorization of
Congress, and in consequence of the importance of the enterprise,
the manner in which it is conducted, and the benefits derived by the
country from the arrival of immigrants, should determine to raise
the said subsidy proportionately to the larger number of voyages
required to be made during the subsequent four years.
- Art. 13. In the event of the company
failing to perform one or more trips, as provided by article 3, it
will then pay the government 5,000 soles by way of fine. The
company, however, will not pay this fine if the interruptions in its
voyages were caused by circumstances over which it had no
control.
- Art. 14. If, at the termination of the
five years for which this contract is made, the government should be
authorized by Congress to continue the subsidy for a new term, of
years, the company will obtain the preference in continuing to
maintain steam communication between Peru and Asia, and to receive
the new subsidy.
- Art. 15. The contractors undertake to
introduce as many immigrants as possible, so that at the end of each
year at least 500 shall have arrived, on an average, by each
vessel.
- Art. 16. As stipulated in the contract
of March 11, 1876, made by the government with Señor N. Tejerina,
the government will give the vessels of the company, should the
company so desire, a cargo of 1,000 tons of guano in sacs, for each
return voyage to China, but in no case will more than 6,000 tons,
yearly, he supplied. Freight on this guano will be paid at the rate
of £3 per English ton of 2,240 pounds.
- Art. 17. The steamers of the company
will be allowed to touch at Japan whenever it is necessary, in order
to receive passengers and cargo from that empire.
- Art. 18. All questions which may arise
between the government and the company
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shall be settled by the judges and tribunals
of the republic, in accordance with its laws, and in no case shall
they give origin to diplomatic intervention.
- Art. 19. The contractors will be exempt
from the payment of stamp-tax on the notary’s instrument to be drawn
up containing the present contract.
Lima, 17th March, 1877.
H. SEYMOUR GEARY.
