–an aspect of Chinese immigration in 19th Century British Guiana

By Tota C. Mangar

INTRODUCTION
THE entry of Chinese indentured labourers into Latin America and the Caribbean in the 19th Century was only one segment of a wider movement of people from other parts of the world to this region. Chinese migration initially involved countries of South-East Asia, but as the years progressed, new destinations such as  Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands of Hawaii, Tahiti and Western Samoa, Mauritius, Reunion, the Seychelles and Madagascar in the Indian Ocean, and South Africa emerged. Movement in the New World covered North America, parts of Spanish America (mainly Cuba, Peru and Mexico), Portuguese Brazil and the French, Dutch and British Caribbean.

Where the British Caribbean is concerned, renewed problems of labour supply and labour organisation emerged in the immediate post-Emancipation era of “crisis, change and experimentation”. Planters’ fear, uncertainty and uneasiness during this critical period were hastened by the large-scale exodus of ex-slaves from the sugar plantations, especially after 1838, in so far as the larger territories were concerned. The situation was not surprising, as several decades of the despicable system of slavery had resulted in the plantation being viewed as a symbol of dehumanisation, degradation and demoralisation by the victims. They, quite naturally, were anxious to rid themselves of planter-class social, cultural and political domination, and at the same time they wanted to assert their economic independence. With great enthusiasm, and in the face of tremendous odds, they started the village movement and peasantry.

Immigrant labour was quickly seen as the answer to the much-feared labour problem of the powerful plantocracy and the sugar industry at large. It was this development which was responsible for the several immigration schemes which surfaced, including that of Chinese immigration. Of all the British colonies, the former British Guiana, now Guyana, received the highest number of Chinese immigrants. Based on statistical data between the period 1853-1879, some 14,002 contract immigrants arrived, while a further 1,718 came as free immigrants during the 1880-1913 period, resulting in a total of 15,720 Chinese immigrants. This figure comprised 13,485 males and 2,235 females.

CHINESE IMMIGRATION
Chinese immigration in the British Caribbean colonies dates back to 1806 when a batch of 200 Chinese men was brought to Trinidad from Penang in Malaya. This initial experiment proved to be a failure. Interest was, however, renewed in June 1811 when a Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to consider “the practicability and expediency of supplying a class of free people so distinguished by their orderly and industrious habits”. While it favoured such a scheme, no serious action was taken before the abolition of slavery.

It was not until May 1843 that the issue was revived when a British Guianese proprietor visited several British possessions, including Singapore, Malaya and Penang. He was so impressed by the Chinese that he wrote the West India Committee the following: “During the heat of the day, I have seen them cutting canes, digging canals, carrying canes… The men are strong and powerful, and are accustomed to toil, industrious and eager to acquire money.” While the West India Committee was favourably disposed to such a scheme, progress in this direction was extremely slow. For one, the East Indian immigration scheme which commenced in 1838 was suspended due to problems associated with the ‘Gladstone Experiment’, and the first batch, and, more significantly, the vigilance of the Anti-Slavery Society.

Following the Government of India Act in 1844, and a resumption of East Indian immigration, the colony was gripped with controversy surrounding the Civil List Dispute. With a resumption of some level of normalcy by 1850, the Emigration Agent of British Guiana at Calcutta, Mr. James T. White, went on a mission to China. He visited Hong Kong, Canton and Macao, and by the following year, he strongly recommended the use of Chinese immigrants in the British West Indies.

It was against this background that the first batch of Chinese arrived on January 12, 1853, to be followed quickly by two other batches. The period 1859-1867 was the peak of Chinese immigration, with a total of 11,985 arrivals. In general, once acclimatised, the Chinese immigrants proved well suited to plantation agriculture. This was particularly the view of many planters, particularly those on the West Coast of Demerara, where most of the immigrants from the early batches were assigned. For example, Manager Bascom of Plantation Windsor Forest stated, “The Chinese on the estate are some of my best labourers for strength and endurance.”  Such a view was supported by the Manager of Plantation La Jalousie, who described his labourers as “a very useful class of people; very willing, quite equal to any coolies we are receiving.”

ENSUING PROBLEMS
As was the case with other immigrant groups, a number of problems surfaced during the period of Chinese contractual labour in the colony. Initially, there was concern at the high mortality rate among immigrants, however, a tighter enforcement of medical supervision contributed to a reduction in the rate, and, by the end of 1860, it was averaging a mere three per cent of arrivals. There was a paucity of women. For some time, it was difficult to obtain women immigrants. Officials attempted to reverse this trend through several strategies, including the introduction of Ordinance No. 4 of 1864, which merely required Chinese females to sign a contract of residence.
They gradually became discontented with the level of wages they received, and, according to Immigration Agent, J.E. Austin, “In reality, the Chinese immigrant only received a quarter of their expectations in a day wage.”

Of added significance was the fact that they did not easily submit to estate discipline. They became increasingly more difficult to control, and there were a number of minor clashes involving Chinese labourers and overseers. There was also the question of praedial larceny. Villagers made frequent complaints in relation to the stealing of provisions, especially plantains, by Chinese immigrants. On this issue, Chief Justice Charles Beaumont gave a very interesting explanation. He opined that the Chinese were physically unable to subsist upon the slender diet provided them, and they were probably accustomed to a more varied diet than what the plantations offered, and hence they turned to stealing.

There was also grave concern as to morality. Chinese immigrants spent a lot of time gambling, drinking alcohol, and smoking opium. These leisurely pursuits were even blamed for their subsequent lack of interest and performance of agricultural labour on the sugar estates. Indeed, Governor Francis Hincks. at an early stage of his administration, revealed: “It is not uncommon to see many of them quite emaciated, and almost unfit for work, from excessive use of the drug [opium].”

BACKGROUND TO HOPETOWN
In early 1862, Francis Hincks assumed duty as governor of the colony of British Guiana, following a stint in St. Lucia. He promptly supported a continuation of Chinese immigration, even though some planters were showing a marked preference for the well-established scheme of East Indian immigration. The administrator had inherited a subsidised or State-aided immigration scheme which he set about to consolidate in earnest. He also adopted a more or less centralised policy of governmental control of village affairs. It was under his administration that a Central Village Board assumed responsibility for village affairs. According to Alan Young, it was Hincks who “caught up the separate thread of village administration, and wove them in a single comprehensive pattern. “Under the village policy, residents were compelled to pay rates for village maintenance and improvements. It was clear that at the zenith of Chinese immigration, very little attempt was made in the areas of spiritual and moral upliftment. While it was argued that the Chinese immigrants were less submissive than East Indians, a growing number of the former were addicted. Governor Hincks lamented the problem, and conceded that, “Chinese labourers were very valuable labourers, and, when properly managed, had given satisfaction. Moreover, the Colonist newspaper in an editorial noted that, “Chinese do not hoard up their little earnings as the Coolies do; they spend their money where they earn in the colony.”

The first person to express real concern on spiritual upliftment of the immigrants was a Chinese missionary, O’ Tye Kim. He was born on an island off Singapore, and he received his early education at the London Missionary Society School in Singapore. O’ Tye Kim was subsequently employed as a surveyor before he went to England in 1864. It was while in London he expressed a desire to work in the British West Indies, and the London Missionary Society promptly identified the colony of British Guiana as his destination. Perhaps it was not a difficult decision to make, since the colony was by then the largest recipient of Chinese immigrants in the British Caribbean.

O’ Tye Kim arrived on July 17, 1864, and he immediately set about to establish a Christian Church in the capital city of Georgetown for the Chinese community. Many, including Governor Hincks, were impressed by his sincerity and devotion to duty. The Church of Missionary Society was satisfied that Kim was “a man of undoubted piety, worthy of every assistance”.

Within months of his arrival, the missionary had a congregation of 120 persons, many from the outskirts of Georgetown, and with weekly church services. In addition to his Christianising zeal, he also visited sugar estates and acquainted himself with the problems and concerns of Chinese immigrants. There were complaints about poor wages, and some indicated they wanted to return home after their periods of industrial residence were over. O’ Tye Kim quickly emerged as their unofficial leader or spokesperson.

Not content with his missionary role, O’ Tye Kim petitioned the Court of Policy for the granting of Crown Lands to establish a permanent and exclusive Chinese settlement. Among the reasons he advanced for the scheme were the utilisation of a large amount of unused land, an inducement for Chinese immigrants to remain in the colony after the completion of their periods of industrial residence, the retention of valuable agricultural labourers in the colony, greater prospects of an alternative to plantation labour, increased emigration from China, enhanced opportunity to spread Christianity, thereby leading to moral and spiritual development and arresting the vices of gambling, alcohol drinking and opium smoking so prevalent in the colony.

Governor Hincks supported the scheme, since it was closely linked to his own idea of model villages. At the same time, there was initial objection by the elective section of the Court of Policy. These planter-class representatives were fearful that the Chinese immigrants would abandon the plantations without completing their periods of industrial residence. They also viewed the establishment of an exclusive settlement as a competitor for a valuable section of their available labour force.

In the end, largely through the Governor’s persistence, press criticism and private discussions with individual members of the Court of Policy on the part of Hincks, the scheme was approved, along with a loan of 1,500 pounds for the proposed settlement. On this matter, the Court was told: “It is expedient to establish a village of Chinese Christians on a suitable tract of Crown Land up the Demerara River; it is desirable that the villagers be entitled to participate in a village loan.”  Much support for this venture was also given by the then Stipendiary Magistrate, William Des Vouex.

The actual site identified for the establishment of an exclusive Chinese settlement was a tract of land on the left bank of the Kamuni Creek, some 30 miles up the Demerara River. Among the reasons advanced for the settlement location were land fertility, ideal water communication, natural drainage, and because of its remote location, there was very little perceived threat to the plantation. The powerful plantocracy would almost certainly have objected to the scheme, if it were located on the coastland, and in close proximity to the sugar estate. At the same time, both O’ Tye Kim and Governor Hincks felt such a settlement would lure Chinese immigrants from the drinking and gambling dens of the coastland, and from easy access to opium.

Following the approval of the scheme, Hincks appointed a Board of Trustees comprising the Government Secretary, Auditor-General, the senior elective member of the Combined Court, the Stipendiary Magistrate for the Demerara River District and the missionary, O’ Tye Kim. The title of the land was vested in the Board of Trustees, and settlers were initially to be regarded as tenants. As a long-term policy, settlers were to receive individual titles.