温哥华和维多利亚中华会馆致中国驻英国大使关于加拿大增加华人人头税的信(草稿)
A draft letter from the CCBA with a detailed account of the diplomatic protests lodged by the Chinese Ambassador to England. August 1897 （光绪二十三年七月）
- In Collection:
- 1 leaf
- Letter to the Chinese Ambassador to England
- 53.99983, -125.0032
- 48.4359, -123.35155
- 1885 to 1897
- Chinese Canadian Collection
- Donor: Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (Victoria, B.C.)
- Acc. No.: 1977-084, 1.2, 1.2.06
- Finding aid for archival fonds: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/chinese-consolidated-benevolent-association-fonds
- July 30, 2007
- Report to the Honorable Zhang, the Chinese Ambassador to England August ,1897 The Honorable Zhang, We are Chinese merchants and Directors of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations in Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We report to Your Honor for protection against the discriminating laws which might be passed any time. Since the trade development between China and Canada, we have been residing in Victoria and other cities of British Columbia. There are now over 20,000 Chinese workers and merchants in this province. The local people had treated us well. However, in 1885 they passed a law that every Chinese entering British Columbia should pay a $50 head tax. In 1892 another new law regulated that Chinese who went back to China had to be back within six months, those overdue had to pay the head tax a second time. Last year they moved that the rate of the head tax be increased to $500. It was then the Chinese Premiere Li went to visit England and took the return route passing Canada. We submitted a report to His Honor, who delivered a diplomatic note to the Governor. The motion was suspended, and the head tax rate remains $50. But we are worried about the frequent changes of the laws. The suspended motion may be revived in the near future. Now there is news that the Parliament would pass a new law to forbid Chinese workers from entering British Columbia. If there are no workers the merchants would have no business to do. The relationship between them is as dependent on each other as the jowls and the jawbone. Our lifeline is then in imminent danger. We have long heard about Your Honor’s fame of great care for the overseas Chinese. We venture to ask for your protection at any time. Whenever we hear of any news about the increase of head tax rate, we shall report, by telegram, to the Chinese Foreign Office, and The Chinese Ambassador to England, Italy and Belgium, to deliver a diplomatic note to the British Government so as to abolish the bad law. Since there are no Chinese consulates in British Columbia, it takes a long time for our report to reach Your Honor. We are worried that before the report reaches Your Honor, the bad law has entered into effect. Therefore we have to take this precaution as to ask Your Honor to prepare for our request for this matter. Whenever Your Honor receive a telegram report concerning the increase of the head tax rate, please just protest to the British Government. We are hereby expressing our great gratitude to Your Honor. We beg Your Honor to bestow favors Yours sincerely The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations in Victoria and Vancouver
- 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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