DE LANO, United States Consul , to Governor Li, August 29, 1874

Mr. De Lano to Governor Li.

Sir: The undersigned, consul for the United States, residing at Foo-chow, has the honor to submit to your excellency the following representation:

On the 25th of July last he presented to the foreign trade committee, for transmission to the high provincial officials, a communication in which he strongly recommended the construction of a telegraph-line from Foo-chow overland to the city of Amoy. He may here state that he had three separate reasons for recommending the construction of the telegraph, as above stated.

First. He believed that in view of the unsettled state of affairs between China and Japan, the line would .he of incalculable benefit to the provincial government by affording it facilities for quick communication with Formosa and all the Chinese coast ports, as well as with foreign countries. Second. It would be of great advantage to foreign commercial interests at the ports. And third, the Great Northern Telegraph Company desired to construct the line as a feeder to their submarine cable, which is now landed at Hong-kong, Amoy, Shanghai, Nagasaki, and Vladivostock, in Russia.

In this first communication to the committee, the undersigned submitted, for the consideration of the Chinese authorities, three separate propositions of the Great Northern Telegraph Company to erect this telegraph-line. One of them was to erect it on the company’s account, and give the Chinese government a separate wire, to be used by them for government purposes only, they agreeing to give the necessary protection to the line during its construction and after its completion, but reserving the light to purchase it at any time at its actual cost, adding such a rate of interest from the date of completion to that of sale as they and the company could agree upon.

The undersigned was advised, on the 28th of July, by the Taotai, that his communication, containing the proposals of the telegraph company, had been submitted to his superiors for their consideration; and again on the 1st August he received another letter, informing him that the provincial authorities had accepted the company’s proposal to erect the line, on the terms above stated, and that a deputy would be immediately appointed to confer with their agents, and make the necessary arrangements for a preliminary survey of the route to Amoy. The telegraph company, believing it to be important to the Chinese government that the line should be erected and put in operation at the earliest possible moment, immediately telegraphed to the directors in Denmark to ship the wire and other material needed for the line without delay, and send a corps of engineers and operators to construct and work it. Consequently, on the 15th instant, the wire and other material and a staff of engineers and operators started from London, in the steamer Hong-kong.

Six days after the undersigned had received the Taotai’s letter, acquainting him that permission had been given by your excellency to the company to erect the line. Mr. Hoffmeyer, their chief engineer in China, arrived here from Shanghai, prepared to commence the survey. On the 12th instant, the undersigned called with him and Mr. Henningsen, the Foo-chow agent, on the trade committee. At this interview all the stipulations to be observed by the company, as well as by the Chinese authorities, in regard to the construction and management of the line, were distinctly and separately stated and agreed upon, after which it was agreed that all the stipulations as orally stated should be clearly written down in the form of an agreement, and should be signed by the company’s agent (Mr. Henningsen) on its behalf, and by the trade committee on behalf of the provincial government.

Immediately after this visit to the committee the company’s agent entered into contracts for the telegraph-poles, to be delivered along the line, for laborers to dig the holes, carry the poles, and erect them, thereby involving an outlay of $30,000. He also arranged for the purchase of ground in Nantai for a telegraph-station and erection of buildings on it at a cost of about $12,000 more, while Mr. Hoffmeyer prepared for the journey to Amoy.

In the mean time the undersigned drew up the written agreement (as stated) in Chinese and English, which was signed by the company’s agent on the 15th of August, and the same day handed in for the seal of the trade-committee. The latter declined to stamp the document, and suggested alterations which were written down. It was then rewritten and embodied all the alterations which had been suggested by the committee agreeably to your excellency’s instructions.

On the 17th instant, the written agreement, as amended, was again submitted to the committee for approval, which again declined to sign it. The next day, Chu, the sub-director of the trade-committee, called at the consulate to introduce another deputy named Pan, who had also been appointed to superintend the first survey of the route to Amoy, and while he was there, Chu said that your excellency had received a letter from Shan-Pao-Chan, the imperial commissioner to Formosa, stating that this telegraph-line to Amoy should b’3 erected by the Chinese government, and advised that the survey should be delayed. Nevertheless, the surveying party was permitted to leave for Amoy on the following day to make the survey.

Inasmuch as the trade-committee still declines to sign the agreement so that all the terms shall be a matter of record, and now desires that the company’s agent shall first name a price at which the Chinese may buy the line when it is completed, the undersigned has been requested to write this letter to your excellency, stating all these particulars. He, at the same time, assures your excellency that this last request of the committee is unreasonable, for, never having erected a land-line in China, excepting the two short ones between Nantai and Mamoi, and between Shanghai and Woosung, it is impossible for the company to state howmuch the Foochow and Amoy line will cost.

The company, by their agent, Mr. Henningsen, assures the undersigned, and he is willing to make this promise a clause in the agreement, that they will, both in their own interest and that of the Chinese government, construct the line as cheaply as a good and serviceable line can possibly be constructed, and in case the latter wishes to purchase it the company will produce a correct statement, showing the exact cost of its construction, and will then hand it over to them accordingly, as is clearly stated in the article of the agreement. The company assert, and the undersigned believes them, that they can erect the line cheaper than any other company or person can possibly erect it, while, too, they will put up none but a substantial and first-class line, using only the best material.

In view, therefore, of the foregoing facts, and of the further fact, too, that the company are now ready to commence the construction of the line on the terms verbally agreed upon, and have already incurred heavy expenses in making the survey and the purchase of the materials, &c., the undersigned begs that your excellency will order the written agreement to be signed by the committee, so that the company can at once begin the work of erecting the line, and he ventures to remind your excellency that inasmuch as the agreement was verbally concluded previous to your excellency’s receipt of the letter from Commissioner Shan, the provincial officials ought, in good faith, to carry out their said agreement with the company.

The undersigned also assures your excellency that the Great Northern Telegraph Company is composed of high-minded and honorable men, who will in all things deal honorably and justly with your excellency in this matter. He, therefore, begs that your excellency will fairly consider it, and favor him with an early reply. The undersigned avails himself of this occasion to renew his respects.