the Chinese Government would not be called upon to make
any further concessions in the interests or at the demand of
the labor unions on the Pacific coast, but in this China was disappointed.
Within a period of less than ten years an urgent application was made
by the American Secretary of State for a new treaty amended so as to enable
the Congress of the United States to still further restrict
the privileges of Chinese laborers who had come to the United States.
And when the Chinese Government hesitated to consent
to the withdrawal of rights which the United States granted to the subjects
of other Governments, Congress passed the Scott Act of 1888
prohibiting any Chinese person from entering the United States
except Chinese officials, teachers, students, merchants
or travellers for pleasure or curiosity and forbidding also
Chinese laborers in the United States, after having left,
from returning thereto. This, in the words of Hon. J. W. Foster,
ex-Secretary of State and a distinguished international lawyer,
"was a deliberate violation of the Treaty of 1880 and was so declared
by the Supreme Court of the United States." In order to save
the Executive of the United States from embarrassment, the Chinese Government,
contrary to its own sense of justice, and of international comity,
for a third time yielded to the wishes of the United States,
and concluded the amended treaty of 1894 which gave Congress
additional power of legislation respecting Chinese laborers.
By Article I of this treaty it was agreed that for a term of ten years
the coming of Chinese laborers to the United States
should be absolutely prohibited. Article III distinctly provided
that "the provisions of this convention shall not affect the right
at present enjoyed of Chinese subjects, being officials, teachers,
students, merchants, or travellers for curiosity or pleasure,
but not laborers, of coming to the United States and residing therein."