De LANO, United States Consul to Benj. P. Avery , United States, January 25, 1875

Mr. De Lano to Mr. Avery.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of December 30 in which you ask me, in case it is consistent with my inclinations and with my other duties, to take temporary charge of the Danish vice-consulate at this port.

I have to say, in reply, that it does not seem to be consistent for me to do so, and for the following reasons: First, Mr. Young, when he left here, left the consulate in charge of Mr. Harton, one of his employés, who would not of course give over the charge, except on the order of Mr. Young or of the Danish legation at Peking. Second, I could not, consistently with my position, accept the post of ‘acting vice-consul.’ If the Danish government have a consulate here, the incumbent should be either consul or acting consul, and I would be willing, in case I was named with the knowledge and assent of Mr. Young, to accept charge as acting consul, at the request of the Danish minister and with your consent, pending the approval of the State Department, in which case the Tsung li Yamen would have to notify the provincial authorities here of my appointment.

There is no doubt that Danish interests are suffering greatly through their having no consul here, and I know by actual experience that the position at this moment would be an onerous one, for I have conducted most of the correspondence with the authorities for the incumbent since early in September, because Mr. Young, as a merchant, has not had the facilities for doing it. You will understand very readily that when the officials refuse to enter into official correspondence with a merchant-consul, he can have but little influence for the good of the nationals for whom he affects to act. I have done all I could do in the interest of the Danes, and shall continue to do so, though I am forced to use great care lest I damage my influence with the authorities for the good of my own countrymen. My action in connection with the telegraph projects has, as you will understand, been in the general interest of commerce, civilization, and progress; and, having first brought the subject conspicuously to the notice of the Chinese officials, and induced them to take the initiative in the matter, it has seemed to me to be proper that I should continue my efforts in furtherance of the project. This has involved me in controversies with the officials which have not always been pleasant, though in the main I have preserved friendly relations with all those who have behaved honorably in the matter.

You ask me to keep you advised as to the exact status of telegraphic affairs here, which I shall be glad to do. I have hitherto written freely to Mr. Seward on the subject, giving him particulars as to my action and the general tendency of things as far as time and opportunity have permitted; and Mr. Seward has, I presume, communicated all important points to you.

I shall try now to give you a résumé of what has been done here, and in as concise a manner as possible. I may premise by saying that since I arrived first in Foochow I have embraced every favorable opportunity to impress upon the officials with whom I have been brought in contact the importance of the telegraph, and often discussed with them the feasibility of erecting a line between the foreign settlement in the city and Pagoda anchorage. A means of quick communication between the two points has been often a matter of great moment to foreign interests, and the Chinese themselves not unfrequently feel the need of it. Being on the most friendly terms with the late chief of the Chinese committee of foreign trade, the Taotai Luh, and finding him favorably disposed toward the introduction of western sciences and improvements, I brought this subject of a telegraph to the anchorage conspicuously to his notice in March last. He received it with favor, but said, “While I am personally in favor of your project, I am only one man. I fear that my co-officials will not favor it; and, further, that the people will not allow the poles to be erected on their lands.”

Soon after this the Great Northern Telegraph Company, through their agent, Mr. Henningsen, applied to me to procure for them official sanction to the construction of this same line. Thinking it to be important to the success of the scheme that there should be co-operation on the part of the consuls, I requested the British consul, as the senior consul at the port, to move in the matter, and he accordingly united with the French consul and myself in a joint dispatch to the trade committee, basing our request, however, upon a memorial addressed to us by the Foo-chow Chamber of Commerce.

Much to our surprise, the permission was readily given; the line soon became an established fact; and I do not know that the right of the local officials to give this permission has even been questioned.

The Chinese officers often avail themselves of the privilege of using the line at pleasure, and readily admit its great utility.

I now come to the projected Foo-chow-Amoy line. On the 25th of July I addressed a letter to Luh, embracing propositions of the Great Northern Company to erect it, (inclosure 1.)

On the 28th July I received his reply, (inclosure 2.) On the 1st of August I received-a second communication, (inclosure 3,) in which permission to erect the line was un, derstood to be given, and, although it does not appear as clearly as could be desired the subsequent acts and admissions of the Chinese officials in connection with the matter clearly prove that they were at the moment acting in good faith, and desired to have the scheme consummated. As proof of this, I inclose copy of instructions (in Chinese) issued by the trade committee to the Taotai at Amoy, (inclosure 4.) Similar instructions, issued to the Min district magistrate, and his proclamation issued in obedience to said instructions, (inclosure 5.) I may add, that I am in possession of the copies of similar instructions and proclamations published by nearly all the district magistrates between Foo-chow and Amoy. A further proof of their earnestness in the matter is found in their promptness in appointing deputies to proceed with the company’s engineer to Amoy to locate the line, and in the fact they immediately sent several young men (Chinese) to the offices of the company in Foo-chow and at the anchorage to be instructed in the art of telegraphy.

On the 12th of August, I introduced the company’s engineer and the Foochow agent to the trade committee, and we, together, settled all the details of the scheme, as fully set forth in a draught of an agreement drawn up by myself, which document is, I believe, now in the hands of General Raasloff, and may be seen by you. It was agreed that this document should be put in proper form, and be signed at convenience, but as the details were fully understood by both parties, the work of survey should be commenced at once, and the company should take all the steps necessary to insure the early construction of the line, such as ordering the material, &c.

It was my purpose to have the agreement signed simultaneously with the movement of the surveying party, and to that end I put it in form as quickly as possible, sent it to the Chinese for signature August 15, when, much to my surprise, they began to raise objections to it, which immediately gave rise to suspicions in my mind that a spirit of opposition to the project was cropping up in some quarter unknown to me. Certain amendments to the agreement were proposed, which, as they did not change the tenor of the terms agreed upon, were accepted by the company, and the document rewritten.

About this time the surveying party started for Amoy, and I was also informed verbally, by a member of the trade committee, that instructions had been received from the imperial commissioner, Shan, then in Formosa, that telegraph-lines in China were to be built and owned by the Chinese; but the impression was distinctly conveyed to me that the governor-general did not concede to Shan the right to interfere in matters pertaining to the province (Fuhkien) on the main-land, and that the scheme under notice should be carried out. Nevertheless, the signing of the agreement was delayed, and I soon learned the cause, by being put in possession, through an underground channel, of certain instructions issued by the governor-general to the committee. (Inclosure 6.)

Matters remained in statu quo for a time, and finding that the committee would not be moved to sign the agreement, and hearing rumors of a division of sentiment amongst the Chinese officials, which might, perhaps, defeat the project, I wrote a letter to the governor-general, August 29, in which I made an earnest appeal to him to allow no obstacles to intervene to prevent the consummation. (Inclosure 7.) This letter was answered indirectly by the committee, and I was informed by Luh that the opposing power behind the scenes was the Tartar general. I thereupon solicited an interview with him and his two colleagues, the governor-general and governor, which was accorded to me early in September. At this interview the whole matter was discussed, and it was agreed that if the company would fix an approximate price at which they would convey the line to the provincial government when completed, the agreement should be signed, and the work might proceed.

This the company did, and the work was immediately commenced with the knowledge and assent of the trade committee. Soon after, about the middle of September, orders came from the Tsung li Yamen to the officials here to purchase the Foo-ebow-Pagoda line. (Inclosure 8.) Suddenly, Luh, the Taotai, was superseded by the present incumbent, Pan, a man notoriously anti-foreign, and opposed to all foreign innovations; and soon afterward the governor-general was called to Amoy. Then commenced a settled policy of resistance to all the demands of the company, made through the Danish vice-consul and myself upon the officials, to afford protection and carry out the terms of the concession as agreed upon.

The company went steadily on with the work of construction until about thirty miles of the line were completed, when, in obedience to positive orders from the authorities, they suspended operations, hoping thereby to come to some understanding with them by which protection might be secured. After a delay of three weeks, at great expense to the company, they found that no terms could be made; they therefore resumed work day before yesterday, but were attacked by a mob of about fifty men from a village near by, and driven from their ground.

Captain Haskin, being near the spot, went yesterday morning and had a consultation with the people of the village, who frankly told him that they had no objection to the telegraph being built, but had received orders from the mandarins at Foo-chow not so allow it to be done.

This brings me up to the present moment. The company’s agents believe that if the authorities would withdraw their opposition and say “Let the line be completed,” the work would proceed without any opposition which could not easily be overcome by them as they moved forward. I do not hope for any change for the better, unless the Tsung li Yamen can be induced to issue positive instructions to the Tartar general here to withdraw his opposition and give the project his moral and active support. You are perhaps advised as to whether such a step is likely to be taken by the Yamun.

I shall wait with deep anxiety for your reply to this, in which I beg you will tell me what may be hoped for from the Peking government.

I have the honor to be, your obedient servant,