The Chinese Consul
An interview with Colonel F. A. Bee, the New Consul
F. A. Bee, the newly appointed Chinese Consul at this port, returned from his journey in the East with the Embassy last evening, and was called upon at his residence by a reporter of the Chronicle. "I'm tired out and hoarse with a very bad cold," said the Consul, in answer to a question, "and don't feel much like talking."
"Well, then, only two questions how about that Washington interview?"
THAT WASHINGTON INTERVIEW.
"As telegraphed out here," replied the Consul, "it was infatuously false and superlatively unjust to me. I made no such statements as those credited to me by the Associated Press dispatch. The Washington Post sent a reporter to me for an interview, a man whom they afterwards informed me was a beginner, whom they were employing during the session of Congress to do outside work. He interviewed me, and what I told him appeared in print in such a mixed up and twisted about shape that I lay back and laughed heartily about it. That was bad enough, but when the Associated Press clipped out from two or three places in that interview, and, running the extracts together, telegraphed the misrepresentations all over the country I lost my temper, and going to New York made complaint to Simonton. He replied that he would look into the matter, and that's the last I ever heard of it."
WHAT THE CONSUL DID SAY.
"What did you say to this reporter?"
"I said that all the disturbances raised here in San Francisco against the Chinese were caused by an element, which, as against the Chinese, if the question were put to a vote of those owning property to the extent of $200 and upwards, would result in declaring that this particular element, and not the Chinese, should go. It is absurd to say I meant mechanics and others who are bona-fide workingmen. My meaning was plain enough to every fair-minded man, and common sense would say that I referred to this element that you and I and every other decent citizen have been fighting for over a year, that class that knocks down and abuses Chinamen in the street – the hoodlum element. I also said that 95 percent of this element is made up of the lowest class of Catholic Irish. It was to the hoodlum quota of our population that I referred and none other, and yet you see how I have been misrepresented."
THE CHINESE CONSULATE
"What are your future plans as Consul?"
"Of them I am not prepared to speak at present. We shall get into the Consulate in a few days and enter upon our duties, but of course all legislative matters will be attended to by the Embassy in Washington. Yes, the Consul-General came with me, his jurisdiction extends over the entire country, and as occasion presents itself he will establish other Consuls, or rather commercial agents, wherever they are needed. My territory is not confined to this city. I have the entire Pacific Coast from British Columbia to Lower California. I don't know what our future plans are and so I can't give an answer to your query as to what will be done. I have a translation of a very elaborate set of instructions, but I haven't had time to read them and am entirely ignorant of their contents. No, I received no insults during my journey, particularly on my arrival here. Good night."