No. 157.
Mr. Avery
to Mr. Fish.
Peking, May 14, 1875. (Received July 9.)
Sir: Referring to your No. 18, in which you approve my action in aiding the effort to secure effective measures of protection for the Danish telegraph cables on the coast of China, while you express the opinion that the aid and assistance to be furnished to this end should not be [Page 329] limited to a demand for the protection of any particular lines, or for advantages to be extended to any one corporation,” I beg leave to make this reply:
So far as my own action in supporting the Danish minister was concerned, it was not intended to secure for the enterprise of his nationals any invidious protection, and I was particular to explain that, with the approval of my Government, which I had no doubt would be accorded, I should as cheerfully lend my support to the legitimate efforts of any other parties or nationalities to introduce the telegraph into China, my sole object being to promote the general interests of commerce and civilization.
As a matter of fact, however, the Danish cables are the only ones in existence along this coast which required recognition and protection from the Chinese government, nor is there any other than the Danish company in the empire offering to construct either water or land lines.
It is true, also, as you conjecture, that a demand for general measures for the protection of all similar enterprises, which might hereafter be attempted, would have alarmed the Chinese government, and have defeated the only practical end in view. It is fortunate that the initial experiments at telegraphy in China have been made by an unaggressive state, which has no territorial possessions in Asia, and whose presence here on a purely commercial errand excites not the least apprehension.
As to the utility of the common action taken by the representatives of Great Britian, Russia, the United States, Germany, France, and Denmark, in behalf of the Danish cables, I am gratified to be able to say, that while the rather vague promise of the Tsungli Yamen seemed to mean little, it has accomplished much.
All the high officers of the sea-board provinces ‘have either issued friendly proclamations on the subject, or have quietly directed their subordinates to give it their attention. In several instances, offenses against the cable have been punished, What is, perhaps, of equal importance, the instructions of the Tsungli Yamen have been construed to mean that the central government is not unfriendly to telegraph enterprise. As illustrating the effect in this direction, I would call attention to the inclosed dispatch from our consul at Foo-chow, M. M. De Lano, covering copy of an official communication.
All of our consuls addressed by me on the action bad at Peking have, as opportunity offered, approached the local authorities and found them well disposed. In the case of the governor-general of the Fuhkien province, in which Foo-chow is situated, it will be seen that the changed attitude of the central government toward telegraphy is distinctly recognized.
Concerning the land-line between Foo-chow and Amoy, which naturally connects itself with the foregoing remarks, I have now the extreme satisfaction of being able to inform you of the consummation of the negotiations alluded to in my No. 33, for its purchase and completion on account of the Chinese government.
The Danish minister sent his secretary and interpreter, Lieut. Schultz, to Foo-chow to meet Shen Pao Chen, who was instructed by the Tsung liYamen to carry out the arrangement agreed to at Peking. As Shen was absent in Formosa, whither he had gone to direct operations against the savages, the Danish secretary could not meet him. About the middle of April, however, the matter was turned over to the foreign trade committee, and negotiations were begun directly between that body and the Great Northern Telegraph Company, aided by Mr. De Lano.
[Page 330]In the absence of details I can only say that the agreement, since concluded, as I hear from a brief dispatch to General Raasloff and an earlier note from Mr. De Lano, includes the payment to the company of $150,000, for which sum they are to go on and complete the line upwards Of one hundred and sixty miles in length, and work it for the authorities a given length of time.
The amount of money named covers any claim urged for indemnity. The work of construction is to be re-commenced at an early day.
This settlement decides two important points—that land-lines of telegraph are to be erected in China, and that they are to be the property of the government, both circumstances of marked significance in the history of China. If the Foo-chow-Amoy line works well and profitably, it is certain to be followed by others, and we may reasonably anticipate that before many years pass a line will be stretched from Shanghai to Tientsin, the port of Peking, if not to the capital itself, now the most isolated great capital in the world.
On a recent occasion Captain Hoskiar, engineer of the Great Northern Telegraph Company, being in Peking on a visit, met some of the Tsungli Yamun at the Tung Wen College, through the good offices of Dr. Martin, its president, and exhibited to the ministers the workings of the telegraph-instrument and short wire put up for the purpose. Chung How, who went to France in connection with the Tientsin massacre some years ago, sent as a message the words, “The telegraph is a good thing.” I shall take occasion to congratulate the Yamen on their new departure, and to hope they will authorize a northern line at an early day.
I ought to add that the course pursued by the Danish minister in regard to the cables and land line has been eminently judicious and prudent. It has been my pleasant duty to support him throughout to the best of my ability, and his success can be hailed as a gain for peaceful progress in a land where the advance toward modern ideas and uses is often discouragingly slow.
I have, &c.,