黄遵宪（前驻旧金山领事）回复维多利亚中华会馆的信: 与英外交部交涉在加华人被抽人头税一事的情况
A letter from Huang Zunxian to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in Victoria discussing the discriminatory laws against Chinese people in British Columbia and commonwealth countries. . 6 August [1891?] （[光绪十七年？]七月初二）
- In Collection:
- 4 pages
- Detailed account of diplomatic protests.
- 48.4359, -123.35155
- 53.99983, -125.0032
- 1884 to 1891?
- Chinese Canadian Collection
- Donor: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (Victoria, B.C.)
- Acc. No.: 1977-084, 1.2, 1.2.05
- Finding aid for archival fonds: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/chinese-consolidated-benevolent-association-fonds
- July 30, 2007
- July 2, Dear Directors, I read your letter, knowing that the Parliament of British Columbia passed a new law to increase the rate of head tax on every Chinese, new comers or current residents, merchants or workers. I reported it to the Honorable Minister, who addressed a protesting note to the Foreign Ministry of England last month. Please find attached a copy of this note. It reminds me of the time when I was Consul General in San Francisco in 1884, the Parliament of British Columbia had passed a very harsh discriminating law against Chinese. You sent four representatives to San Francisco to require for help, I instructed you to unite all the Chinese in Victoria, and hire lawyers to bring in a lawsuit. Meanwhile I explained all the matters to the envoy of the Canadian Foreign Ministry, who happened to be in San Francisco on duty. It was fortunate that this law was abolished later, and the interests of Chinese were not inflicted. Anyway I forwarded your case to the Honorable Zeng. He told me that it was difficult to argue in London, because, firstly, there are no terms in Sino-British treaties that Chinese who reside in the British dependencies enjoy rights to most-favored-nation; secondly, unlike the Chinese central government governing the 18 provinces, the British dependencies like Australia, Canada have semi-sovereign rights, the British Government can not abolish their laws. It was, therefore, more effective to argue against it in British Columbia by the Chinese who reside there. I was off my position in 1886 and left San Francisco. The law that forbade Chinese to enter British Columbia was passed and came into force till now. This year there was debate in the Canadian Parliament whether to increase the rate of head tax to $100 on each Chinese. It was not passed fortunately. The Honorable Xie cares a lot of the Chinese in British Columbia, he knows that there are not too many business opportunities except gold mining and fishery, especially after the completion of the railway, many Chinese workers would be jobless, they can not bear the heavy taxes on them. Consequently, he addressed a note to the British Government, in which the Australian case was mentioned as well, intending for the abolition of the bad laws. His Honor particularly instructs me to forward a copy of this note to you for your knowledge. If in future there are more discriminating laws against Chinese, please first hire lawyers to enter a lawsuit, and write to me in details, advising me what really happens. Do remember to attach the original English documents. Please send my best regards to all of you Yours sincerely Huang Zun Xian
- 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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