Chester Holcombe to Prince Kung, December 16, 1881

No. 70. Mr. Holcombe to Prince Kung

Your Imperial Highness: I have had the honor to receive Your Imperial Highness’s dispatch of the 14th instant in regard to the agreement entered into between his excellency Li, and the Great Northern Telegraph Company, in which your imperial highness says, “If hereafter the United States desire to lay a telegraph cable from Japan to China a satisfactory and suitable arrangement will be made, and one which shall not disappoint the hopes of the American company in the least degree; and that the propositions made by the Great Northern Telegraph Company had been approved by his excellency Li, but had not been laid before the Throne.”

I beg leave to thank your imperial highness, both for the promptness and the explicit language of this reply. It will be at once transmitted to my government.

I have, &c.,