The legislation of last year known as the Geary law, requiring the
registration of all Chinese laborers entitled to residence in the United
States and the deportation of all not complying with the provisions
of the act within the time prescribed, met with much opposition from
Chinamen in this country. Acting upon the advice of eminent counsel
that the law was unconstitutional, the great mass of Chinese laborers,
pending judicial inquiry as to its validity, in good faith declined to
apply for the certificates required by its provisions. A test case upon
proceeding by _habeas corpus_ was brought before the Supreme Court,
and on May 15, 1893, a decision was made by that tribunal sustaining
the law.

It is believed that under the recent amendment of the act extending the
time for registration the Chinese laborers thereto entitled who desire
to reside in this country will now avail themselves of the renewed
privilege thus afforded of establishing by lawful procedure their right
to remain, and that thereby the necessity of enforced deportation may
to a great degree be avoided.

It has devolved upon the United States minister at Peking, as dean of
the diplomatic body, and in the absence of a representative of Sweden
and Norway, to press upon the Chinese Government reparation for the
recent murder of Swedish missionaries at Sung-pu. This question is of
vital interest to all countries whose citizens engage in missionary work
in the interior.

By Article XII of the general act of Brussels, signed July 2, 1890,
for the suppression of the slave trade and the restriction of certain
injurious commerce in the Independent State of the Kongo and in the
adjacent zone of central Africa, the United States and the other