No. 364.]

CHINESE STUDENTS IN JAPANESE SCHOOLS.

Chargé Wilson to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,
Tokyo, January 3, 1906.

SIR: I have the honor to bring to your notice the education of Chinese in Japan, which is now on so large a scale as to promise to have some effect upon the relations of these two peoples, and also upon Chinese administration, now that the ancient official examinations have been abolished in China and men of modern education are beginning to be found in office.

During the past year Chinese students have come to this country in continually increasing numbers. Last summer the number was estimated at 5,000, of whom 2,000 had been sent at the expense of the Chinese Government. In November the number is said to have reached 8,000. In addition to the supervision of the Chinese legation the students are looked after by eight superintendents sent to reside here by their Government.

Until recently the Japanese authorities seem to have done nothing in this matter, but the magnitude of the number of Chinese students finally made a certain degree of supervision on their part seem wise. Accordingly, regulations for controlling schools open to the Chinese were promulgated by the minister for education on November 2, to go into effect from the 1st instant.

These regulations require each student to present with his application for admission to a school a letter of recommendation from the Chinese minister, consul, or other representative. The public and private schools which Chinese may attend are limited to those selected by the Japanese Government after an investigation of the teaching staff, curriculum, text-books, and buildings of each school. The regulations are not applicable to elementary (childrens') schools.

From among these schools allowed to admit Chinese, the Government will especially select certain ones and will report them to the Chinese Government as most suitable. The students of these chosen institutions will be required to live in lodging houses approved by the authorities; a careful detailed record of each student will be kept; students expelled from one school will not be allowed to become scholars at another; and an official of the ministry of education may be present at and supervise the examinations of the Chinese students. The publication of these regulations was greeted by a storm of protest. Bodies of Chinese students passed indignant resolutions, saying that their liberty was being assailed and seemed to find in the new rules an indignity to their nationality. The restriction in choosing schools and lodgings and the need of a letter of recommendation annoyed them most. The agitation was so great that over a thousand students returned to China; and no more have been coming since the trouble.

In the middle of December an official explanation from the department of education was given currency through the schools and published in the newspapers. The statement points out that the object of the regulations is merely to protect the students themselves against attending inferior schools, and to insure their living in respectable surroundings.

In view of the fact that the Chinese students in Japan are generally young men of a very good class, it is surprising that this misunderstanding went so far as it did. Apparently the trouble was stirred up by a small group of agitators. As a phenomenon, it is interesting as a minor manifestation of the new spirit that is now observable among the Chinese people.

Since the governmental explanation, the trouble has to all appearances ceased, and the education of Chinese in Japanese schools will doubtless continue on an important scale. Some prominent educators interested in the Chinese are now proposing to form an association of Chinese and Japanese students, with the object of bringing about better understanding.

I have the honor to inclose a translation of the regulations in question.

I have, etc.,

HUNTINGTON WILSON.

[Inclosure. Translation.]

REGULATIONS FOR CONTROLLING SCHOOLS OPEN TO THE CHINESE,

[Official Gazette, November 2, 1905.]

I. Public or private schools desiring to admit the Chinese shall require of the applicants to attach to their applications recommendations of any Chinese representative in Japan. (The phrase "Chinese representative" is a translation of the word "kokwan," which is intended by the authorities to mean the legation, consulate, and other authorized representative in Japan.)

II. Public or private schools having the Chinese may allow them to omit, at their own request, one or more courses in the prescribed curriculum.

III. Public or private schools open to the Chinese are required to keep in the office the books containing the names of the instructors and students, together with the record of the latters' attendance. Correspondence relating to the Chinese students shall also be kept. In the students' register mentioned above shall be entered every student's name, home address, age, present address, school record prior to admittance to the present school, the name of the Chinese representative recommending him, government or private student, punishment or reward, the date of admittance, transfer, or leaving, the date of graduation, etc.

IV. Public or private schools desiring to grant petitions of the Chinese students to have their credits transferred or to leave, shall require the petitioners to attach to their petitions recommendations of any Chinese representative in Japan.

V. Public or private schools open to the Chinese shall report to the minister of education twice a year, namely, in January and July, the number of the Chinese students admitted during the preceding half year.

VI. The Chinese students graduated or expelled shall be reported within one month to the Chinese representative in Japan who has recommended them. In case of dismissal the reason therefor shall also be stated.

VII. Those public or private schools open to the Chinese which the minister of education may deem suitable for the purpose will be specially selected and reported to the Chinese Government.

VIII. Those public or private schools which desire to be specially selected, as stated in the previous article, shall apply to the minister of education in the name of the principal or founder. The applicants are required to report on the following points:

1. The history of the education of the Chinese in their schools.

2. Regulations for educating the Chinese in their schools.

3. A brief account of the life of the principal or chief representative.

4. Names and qualifications of the instructors, together with the statements

of their preparation for teaching and of the subject now taught.

5. The maximum number of students that can be admitted, as well as the actual number of them.

59605-FR 1906---CS

6. The method of supervising the Chinese students outside of the school. 7. The conditions of the Chinese students after their graduation.

8. The maps and diagrams of ground, buildings, and dormitories used for the education of the Chinese.

9. The expenses for running the school, also stating how or by whom it is maintained.

10. The list of text-books, instruments, machinery, and scientific specimens used in the school.

IX. Public or private schools with the special license granted by the minister of education shall supervise the Chinese students by making them live in the dormitory or authorized boarding houses.

X. Public or private schools with the special license shall not admit those Chinese students who have been expelled from other schools on account of objectionable conduct.

XI. The minister of education may, whenever he deems it necessary, cause his subordinate official to be present at the examinations, or examine the questions and answers of the same. The official thus authorized may order alteration of the questions or of the method of examination in case he should find them unsuitable. The examination papers and students' records shall be kept in the office at least for five years.

XII. Public or private schools with the special license shall report to the minister of education on the work accomplished of educating the Chinese within one month from the end of each academic year.

XIII. The minister of education may annul the license whenever the licensed schools violate any of these regulations or whenever their work is unsatisfactory. XIV. The documents to be presented to the minister of education in accordance with these requirements shall be first filed in the office of the local governor.

XV. All these provisions do not apply to elementary schools or those resembling the same.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTICE.

These regulations shall go into effect on January 1, 1906.

AMERICAN PROPERTY IN PORT ARTHUR AND DALNY.

No. 340.]

Chargé Wilson to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION,

Tokyo, November 22, 1905. SIR: I have the honor to report herein the situation in regard to American property left at Port Arthur and Dalny at the beginning of the war.

Ever since the fall of Port Arthur this legation has been in correspondence with Americans seeking information as to their properties abandoned there and at Dalny at the outbreak of the RussoJapanese war.

The legation has brought each case to the attention of the Japanese foreign office, transmitting at the same time lists of the properties of the claimants and all obtainable data. As a result, the war department has caused the military authorities at those towns to make investigations, and their report on each case has later been transmitted to us. Owing to the confusion said to have existed at Port Arthur and Dalny and to this cumbrous method of attempting to locate the properties the military reports have necessarily failed to throw any sufficient light upon most of these cases.

The legation has therefore frequently urged upon the Japanese Government the necessity of providing means for more direct and

effective investigation. It was suggested that representatives or a representative of the American claimants should be permitted to go to Port Arthur to investigate in cooperation with some Japanese official authorized for the purpose. But this the authorities have steadily declined to do on the grounds of military reasons, while reiterating their promise of the fullest protection to all private property found at Port Arthur and Dalny at the time of the Japanese occupation.

It would seem that there can be no cogent reasons why, at this late date, the authorities should still decline to allow the interested parties to go and investigate their affairs on the spot. In the hope of obtaining permission to do so for the Americans affected, I had yesterday a long interview with Lieutenant-General Ishimoto, vice-minister for war, who has this subject in hand, and strongly represented the matter to him. In reply he said they were engaged in making the regulations and arrangements necessary to the investigations, and begged that we wait a little longer. Finally he agreed to expedite the matter as much as possible, and, when asked how much longer he thought the delay would be, gave me to understand that the interested parties might go to Port Arthur and Dalny in a fortnight.

The Americans concerned whose statements this legation has handed to the foreign office are: The American Trading Company; Clarkson & Co., of Vladivostok, Port Arthur, Dalny, Harbin, Shanghai, etc.; M. S. Friede & Co., of Shanghai and New York; W. Toritch; Henry Marco; the Boston Steamship Company (in re cargo of Pleiades landed at Port Arthur); Beatrice Bavanda; H. B. Campbell; Alberta Black; the American depositors in the Port Arthur branch of the Russo-Chinese Bank.

Not without reason those interested are becoming impatient at being still refused permission for the direct investigation of their affairs. The president of the American Trading Company called here a few days ago to renew the request that his agent be allowed to proceed to Port Arthur, and similar requests reach the legation from Shanghai, where most of the interested parties are represented.

As a result of my interview at the war department, I have to-day informed the American Trading Company and telegraphically requested our consul-general at Shanghai to inform the interested Americans there that I expect to secure within a fortnight permission for them to visit Port Arthur and Dalny to investigate their properties abandoned there.

I have, etc.,

No. 372.]

HUNTINGTON WILSON.

Chargé Wilson to the Secretary of State.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Tokyo, January 18, 1906. SIR: When I had the honor to report to you on November 22 the results of this legation's efforts to gain permission for Americans to investigate their properties temporarily abandoned at Port Arthur and Dalny at the outbreak of the war, there was ample ground for the expectation that the interested parties would be allowed to visit those places early in December.

At an interview which I had at that time with the vice-minister for war, he implied that an occasional traveler might be permitted to visit Port Arthur, but that the confusion there was still too great to admit of the coming of business men to look after their affairs. General Ishimoto finally gave permission, under date of November 25, for Mr. Dunn, the agent of the American Trading Company, to visit Port Arthur from December 1, but only in the quality of an ordinary traveler. In granting this permit the war office stipulated that no others of the sort would be allowed. Mr. Dunn's name was selected by me for the reason that his company's application was the one filed earliest at the legation. While the permit did not carry with it facilities for investigation, yet the opportunity for their agent at least to look over the ground was much valued by the American Trading Company.

Since the beginning of December the legation has frequently inquired as to when the Americans interested might proceed to Port Arthur, but on each occasion the date has been postponed, and the need of time for making regulations and arrangements has been put forward. On the 21st ultimo I represented the whole matter to Count Katsura, premier and acting minister for foreign affairs, with similar results. The same day I received an informal letter from the ministry of war asking for still more time, and wherein it was stated that a committee to take charge of the abandoned properties was about to be formed under the commanding general of the occupied districts, and that the owners of property would be allowed to go to Port Arthur before long.

No change having taken place in the situation, I verbally brought the matter to the attention of Mr. Kato on the 11th instant, and on the 13th instant addressed to his excellency a note on the subject, wherein the desired permits were specifically requested for Messrs. Nielson (representing Clarkson & Co.), Friede, and Toritch. I have the honor to inclose a copy of the above-mentioned note. Accompanying it will be found an informal memorandum of the communications on the question under discussion which passed between the legation and different officials of the Japanese Government during the past half year.

On the 17th instant I received an informal note from the minister for foreign affairs, a copy of which is herewith, whereby I was informed that it had been decided to give permission to visit Port Arthur and Dalny and that the restrictions would shortly be removed. The following morning I called at the foreign office and obtained these particulars: The military commander of the Kwantung would issue the new regulations in a day or two; he would then telegraph the war department, who would thereupon be ready to grant the long-sought permits, upon application made through the foreign office. The official whom I saw was of opinion that the permits would now be available within four days, and I am happy to be able to report that I am quite confident that the Americans interested may go to Port Arthur and Dalny next week. HUNTINGTON WILSON.

I have, etc.,