加拿大中华会馆致中国政府的信：要求中国政府与英国政府交涉在加华人人头税被增加一事
PublicA letter to Chinese government from the Victoria CCBA regarding the help the Chinese Ambassador to England gave previously when there was the possibility of the Canadian government raising the head tax placed on Chinese people and that they require help for this again as the issue as resurfaced due to an election year in Canada. March 1900 （光绪二十六年二月）
- In Collection:
- 3 pages
- Letter to the Chinese Government requesting diplomatic action to England
- 53.99983, -125.0032
- 48.4359, -123.35155
- 60.10867, -113.64258
- 1885 to 1900
- Chinese Canadian Collection
- Donor: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (Victoria, B.C.)
- Acc. No.: 1977-084, 1.2, 1.2.01
- Finding aid for archival fonds: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/chinese-consolidated-benevolent-association-fonds
- January 17, 2008
- March ,1900 Your Honor, We are Chinese merchants from Guangdong Province, and Directors of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. For the severe head tax levied on Chinese, we venture to ask Your Honor to send a telegram to help abolish it so that the Chinese merchants and workers here could continue to earn a living. We have been residing in British Columbia since the establishment of trade relations between China and England. We have been doing our business here according to terms of Sino-British treaties, benefiting each other, and living in peace with each other. However, in 1885 the British broke the agreement out of jealousy. They passed a law to compel every Chinese entering British Columbia to pay a $50 head tax. We were angry and astonished, we could do nothing but yielding. We thought it was accidental, and there would be no more such discriminating treatment. In 1896 the Parliament of British Columbia tried to pass a law to increase the rate of head tax to $500, ten times than the previous. We were fortunate to get help from the Chinese Ambassador to England, who delivered a protest to the British Government. It was eventually abolished. We could then live and work in peace and contentment. It is an election year in Canada this year. The Parliament is arguing about reviving the law to increase head tax rate. We assume that the Parliament would try to forbid Chinese workers from entering Canada. We understand that the relationship of merchants and workers is like that of lips and teeth. If workers are not coming, merchants will have no business to do. We can not imagine how it would be if the law comes into effect. We were told that the British Prime Minister has approved the law, and given it to the Parliament for debate. Our lifeline is in imminent danger. We are extremely worried. We requested help by telegram from the Chinese Ambassador to England. We are here begging Your Honor to send a telegram to the British Government to persuade them to abolish it. We are very grateful to Your Honor if we could avoid this disaster and continue our life in peace. We beg Your Honor to bestow favors Yours sincerely Dong Qian Tai, Li Meng Jiu, Chen Yun Xiu, Ye Si The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations in Victoria
- 600 dpi TIFF, no colour correction, archived in Cataloguing on DVD, digitized by CDW. Metadata by MH and KD.
- Rights
- Contact Special Collections and University Archives for access to the original manuscript and for reproduction requests (speccoll@uvic.ca). This material is made available on this site for research and private study only.
- DOI
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