The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-11

| "A "A There will be something 6
! w w of a fight before the rul-
| ing of the Secretary of
nese citizens of Hawaii is accepted by
them and the Chinese Government, ac-
cording to the, outlook here. During
the absence of the Chinese Minister
| from the city, Mr.. WI has become one
of the most sought-after men in the
| United States. An authoritative state
China through him cannot be had, but
| it has been intimated that there will
! be a vigorous protest made. As the
case now stands it has not reached
! final settlement by any means, being
| in that stage according to the utter
ances of one of the officials of the de-
partment as tstill under advisement."
This gives interest to the opinion of
the Treasury as set forth in the state
ment of the legal views prepared by
Assistant Solicitor F. A. Reeve during
the absence of Solicitor O'Connell
This opinion is long one, coming
dc tiiC idSt lldlI VI dII dHSWGT TO QuGS-
tions submitted by Commissioner Pow.
derly. After reciting the clause of the
organic laws of the Territory of Ha-
waii which delimit citizenship the
acting Solicitor says:
This language, standing alone, would
seem to confer upon Chinese persons
who had become citizens of Hawaii on
'or before August IL, 1898, the status of
Lie ar
would include not only the right to en-
ter and re-enter the Territory of Ha-
wall at will, but the right to enter the
United States proper and exercise here
all the rights of citizenship, including
the right to vote and to hold office. 1
am persuaded that it was not the in
tent of Congress TO make citizens Of
this class of Chinese persons and 1 as
sign the following reasons for this con-
clusion:
First-The convention of 1894 with the
Chinese Article 4, provides that Chi
nese in the United States shall not have
the right to become naturalized and
Section II of the act of May, 1882, pro-
vides that no state or federal court
; shall admit as citizens any Chinese
persons. It is hardly to be conceived
lidt SOuSICSS lhlCldCd " ohl iVii
citizenship to a class of Chinese in a
distant land, who. if domiciled in our
midst could, under no circumstances,
become citizens of the United States"
The second reason assigned is that
the naturalization laws of this country
were extended to Hawaii by the or
ganic act as whole, and consequently
it is not to be supposed that Congress
- lf,ra I,xr yDOln COLI a. q
citizens Chinese who subsequent to the
operation of this organic act could not
become citizens.
The third reason is that by the pro-
vision OF the organic act for the issu-
ance of certificates of residence to the
Chinese in the Territory of Hawaii. the
Congress meant to imply that all laws
governing Chinese in this country were
in force in Hawaii. and as the time for
the taking out of such certificates was
at an end it's extension for one year
from the date of the operation of the
organic law was necessary to prevent
hardship to the Chinese residents. In
celebrating this point the Solicitor goes
into the relations of this Government
with the Chinese within it's boundaries,
calling attention to the fact that this
race alone of all on the face of the
globe is denied the rights of citizenship
here, not only when the persons come
from their own land but in case they
come to this country from any other.
Attention is called to the apparent con-
fict of sections and 101 of the organic
act and the opinion given that it was
the intention of Congress to make the
exclusion laws of this country apply to
Chinese in Hawaii whether they had
obtained their citizenship during the
life of the republic or at an earlier
period.
1t is a safe prediction to make that
any action which may be found neces-
sary to take under this decision will
be watched here with more than ordin-
ary interest. The Geary exclusion law
will cease in its present operation June
s30th, 1902 Already there has been dis
cussion Of its working and of the
means which will be taken for its re-
enactment The bill in slightly modi-
fed form will be introduced at this
session of Congress by Kahn of Cali
fornia, but he knows that this matter
should go over until the Fifty-seventh
Doo