Mr. President. since the annexation of those islands by the United States there have been imported from China and Japan 30.000 contract laborers. The terms of the contracts may be for three or for ten years. Those made in Japan can last for ten years. Those made in Hawaii can only be for a term of five years. The old contracts were for terms of three years. I have no means of ascertaining the terms of these contracts. but immediately upon the annexation of the islands the sugar planters. who have controlled all that country and who produced the revolution which caused its annexation to the United States. began at once the importation of large numbers of contract laborers. Under thelaw of Hawaii they were required to import 10 per cent of Europeans or white people along with their Asiatic importations. They therefore sent agents to Europe. and they did import 300 people from Austria. who were held as slaves. whipped and imprisoned by their taskmasters if they refused to carry out these slave contracts. However. after this experiment. they finally abandoned the importation of Europeans and have confined their attention exclusively to the importation of slave labor from Asia.
Keywords matched
contract laborers Asiatic