K'ang Yu-wei, Sun Yat-sen, et al. and the Bureau of Immigration

- 1 K 'ANG YU-WEI, SUN YAT-SEN, ET AL. AND THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION By Robert L. Worden Dept. of History Georgetown University There is a block of little -used source material on a number of late Ch'ing, early Republican figures in the National Archives in Washington, D. C. within Record Group 85, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The particular nature of United States immigration laws in regard to the Chinese is well-known. For the Bureau of Immigration (as it was known from c. 1890-1913) the relatively large influx of illegal entries or residences of Chinese aliens in the United States caused the creation of a separate office within the Bureau to handle Chinese "problems". The files now in the Archives are listed as "The Suggested Chinese Files" and consist of several hundred document boxes and bound letter books containing information ranging from financial reports in the enforcement of the Chinese exclusion laws to the issuance of certificates to Chinese laborers wanting to go back to China but to return eventually to the United States, to files on specific individuals. The files date from the early 1890's and run through 1913 when there was a reorganization of the Bureau of Immigration under the new Depart- ment of Labor. In this latter group of files, those relating to specific individuals , there are such files as No. 14487 (Box 10, Red Series, Segregated Chinese Files, RG 85), which dealt with the visit of the "Chinese Imperial High Commission" to the United States in 1906; and No. 142 12 -2 -C (Ibid. , Box 4) which is concerned with bribery charges against two Chinese interpreters in the Boston office in the same year. But in addition to such mundane matters there is a number of files of greater interest to historians in providing new light on the activities and movements of various Chinese revolutionary or reformist figures in the United States in the late 1890's and early 1900's. While finding aids are generally obscure for the "Segregated Chinese Files" a small 3x5 file box roughly labelled "Chinese: ? reference to '50,000' files" provided the numbers of files on such figures as K'ang Yu-wei and Sun Yat-sen, and several of their followers. The K'ang Yu-wei files (Nos. 12264-78-C, Green Box 86 and 14735-89-C, Red Box 45) contain 100+ pages of letters, telegrams and notes involving K'ang's numerous attempts to enter the United States from 1899-1907. His particular case was difficult for the Immigration officials to handle as according to law he had to produce a certificate issues by the Chinese Government under the provisions of Section 6 of the Act of July 5, 1882 entitling him to "exempt" status (i.e., non -immigrant, non-laborer). The Ch'ing government, of course, was not about to issue any such certificate to K'ang as he was considered to be one of the leading outlaws of . ie empire for his involvement in the One Hundred Days of Reform in 1898. Documents over the following eight year period give evidence of his own personal attempts and those of such menas Charles R. Flint (1850-1934), the "Father of the Trusts" of Wall Street in his behalf, to gain entry to this country to pursue the interests of the Pao-huang hut (J\^\ -£^V )> or as it was called in English, the Chinese Empire Reform Association. Of particular interest in File No. 12264-78-C is a twentysix page letter (typewritten) from K'ang to "His Excellency, Theodore Roosevelt", dated Mexico City, Jan. 30, 1906. The letter, presumably translated by his interpreter, Chou Kuo-hsien (/«J &$} Vg ) was forwarded by the White House to the Department of Commerce and Labor, under whose jurisdiction came the function of the Bureau of Immigration. K'ang had met with Roosevelt on two The author is now using these documents in correlation with others from the National Archives as source material in his forthcoming doctoral dissertation: "A Chinese Reformer in Exile: The North American Phase of the Travels of K'ang Yu-wei, 18991909 . " - 4 occasions in Washington in June 1905, and sought...