CHINA.


247


they were all taken up inu -iaight4 bythe coUinty" people, with the
con-
nivance of the intendant, because they interfered with and injured the
good luck of the region.
   Moreover, as a good thing is always its own best argument and vin-
dicator, the native merchants at Shanghai have begun to employ the
telegraph to carry on their business with Hong-Kong and Canton and
Japan to such a degree that they desire no interruption to the line; and
this public opinion has its influence with the intendant.       We shall,
I
think, now that several months have passed, hear no more of the matter.

       I h ave c
                                                 S. WELLS WILLIAMS.



                          [Inclosure 1 in No. 19.-Translation.]

                          Prince Kung to Mr. Williams.
                                                                  a
                          TUNGCHI, 12th year, 8th moon, 19th day, (October
10, 1873.)
  Prince Kung, chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, herewith makes
a commu-
nication:
  I received a dispatch on the 2d instant from the superintendent of trade
of the southern
ports, inclosing the following report to him from Chhn, intendant of circuit
and col-
lector of customs at Shanghai:
   "It has lately come to my knowledge that a foreign telegraph-office
has been opened
at Woosung, and that telegraph-posts have been erected to connect with the
sub-
marine cable laid between Hong-Kong and Shanghai, the end of which has been
landed there for that purpose. The treaty makes no mention of the telegraph,
and I
therefore referred to the dispatch in which the Yamur communicated to the
superin-
tendent of trade the agreement they had come to respecting it in June, 1870,
with Mr.
Wade, the British minister. This was to the effect that the cable was to
be a sub-
marine cable, the end of which Was to be made fast to a hulk to be moored
ovutside of
the foreign anchorage. The opening of a telegraph-office at Wu-sung, and
the erec-
tion of telegraph-posts for the reception of a cable which has been brought
on shore
there, being nothing else but a rejection of a water in favor of a land line,
and, as
such, being distinctly at variance with the agreement providing that the
cable should
terminate in a hulk to be anchored outside of the port, I immediately wrote
to the
British consul and requested him to order their removal.
   " He replied that the office was the property of the Great Northern
Telegraph Com-
 pany, and that the way to proceed in the matter would be to communicate
officially
 with the board of foreign consuls through Mr. Seward, the United State,3
consul gen-
 eral, who, from length of residence at Shanghai, was at present the chairman
of the
 board.
   "In his reply, Mr. Seward, the.United States consul-general, stated
that the case
 against the Great Northern Telegraph Company had been referred by the board
of
 consuls to a committee composed of the British and Danish consuls and himself,
and
 that he would be glad if I would fix upon a day to meet and discuss the
case.
   "I met the British consul and the United States consul-general by
appointment on
 the 4th September last, and I pointed out to them that, in terms of the
rules laid
 down, the telegraph-office at Woosung must be closed, the line of telegraph-posts
re-
 moved, and the cable made to terminate in a hulk to be moored outside of
the lport of
 Woosung. I further showed that the Great Northern Telegraph Company, in
unau-
 thorizedly taking upon themselves to construct a line at Woosung, were1
acting in
 direct opposition to the rules agreed upon by Mr. Wade, the British minister,
and the
 foreign office; and I represented that, if the. consuls did not prevent
their doing so,
 it was to be feared that other mercantile communities would disobey the
instructions
 issued by their minister resident at Peking in a way calculated to lead
to constant
 breaches of the treaty and its regulations. I added that if the merchants
were to be
 allowed to do as they pleased in such matters, it would be very difficult
to conduct
 international questions between China and foreign powers.
   '-To this the British consul replied, that as the Danish consul was not
present it
 would be better to postpone for a time further discussion of the case. The
United
 States consul-general, who was present at this interview, did not dissent
from this
 suggestion. But although a considerable time has elapsed since the date
of that
 m1eeting, not a word fu rther has been heard on the subject; I therefore,"
adds the
 superintendent of trade, " now request instructions how to act in the
inatter°"