Denny to G. F. Seward, March 9, 1880

Mr. Denny to Mr. Seward.

Sir: In reply to your dispatch No. 78, I beg to state that the only educational establishment of any kind where Chinese may acquire foreign knowledge is the torpedo school connected with the imperial arsenal. Up to last autumn the school had been for three years under the care of Mr. Betts, an English telegrapher, and the class of fifteen young men who graduated last year and carried off the honors of feathers and buttons, plumed themselves upon their acquirement of the English alphabet, words of two syllables, the first four rules of arithmetic, and a few chapters in geography. They were at once told off to the several forts and telegraph stations in this neighborhood, and having acquired official employment it is not likely that they will give more attention to foreign studies. A new class of twenty-seven boys is now being grounded in the alphabet by Mr. Spencer Laisun, a Chinese, who has attended school in the United States. There is now no foreigner connected with the school, and as a measure of economy, there is no intention to engage another.

At Chefoo there is a missionary school, where boys are taught foreign arithmetic, geography, and the elements of natural science, through the medium of their own language.

Excepting the imperial college at Peking, these are the only organized efforts being made within this consular district to introduce foreign learning.

I have, &c.,