, or prohibit,
the first is a general expression referring to the others. * * * We
are entirely ready to negotiate with your excellencies to the end that
a limitation either in point of time or of numbers may be fixed upon
the emigration of Chinese laborers to the United States.

At a subsequent interview they said that "by limitation in number they
meant, for example, that the United States, having, as they supposed,
a record of the number of immigrants in each year, as well as the total
number of Chinese now there, that no more should be allowed to go in any
one year in future than either the greatest number which had gone in any
year in the past, or that the total number should never be allowed to
exceed the number now there. As to limitation of time they meant, for
example, that Chinese should be allowed to go in alternate years, or
every third year, or, for example, that they should not be allowed to
go for two, three, or five years."

At a subsequent conference the Americans said:

The Chinese commissioners have in their project explicitly recognized
the right of the United States to use some discretion, and have
proposed a limitation as to time and number. This _is_ the right to
regulate, limit, or suspend.

In one of the conferences the Chinese asked the Americans whether they
could give them any idea of the laws which would be passed to carry the
powers into execution. The Americans answered that this could hardly be
done; that the United States Government might never deem it necessary
to exercise this power. It would depend upon circumstances. If Chinese
immigration concentrated in cities where it threatened public order,
or if it confined itself to localities where it was an injury to the
interests of the American people, the Government of the United States
would undoubtedly take steps to prevent such accumulations of Chinese.
If, on the contrary, there was no large immigration, or if there were
sections of the country where such immigration was clearly beneficial,
then the legislation of the United States under this power would be
adapted to such circumstances. For example, there might be a demand for
Chinese labor in the South and a surplus of such labor in California,
and Congress might legislate in accordance with these facts. In general
the legislation would be in view of and depend upon the circumstances
of the situation at the moment such legislation became necessary. The
Chines