James Burrill Angell to Prince Kung, July 16, 1881

Mr. Angell to Prince Kung.

Your Imperial Highness: A few weeks ago I received a copy of an agreement which the Northern Telegraph Company ask His Imperial Majesty’s Government to make, forbidding any person or corporation, except the northern company, to land a telegraph cable anywhere in the empire for a period of twenty years.

I have had three interviews with the ministers of the foreign office on the subject, and have received from them one communication embodying certain statements of the viceroy Li with whom the company seem to have carried on their negotiations. The ministers have now asked me to state in writing my objections to the proposed scheme, and I therefore submit this paper in compliance with their request. The first two articles of the agreement in my copy read as follows:

“1st. The Chinese Government guarantees to the Great Northern Telegraph Company exclusive monopoly of their submarine cables already landed in Chinese territory. Should the company desire to land other cables in China, the permission of the Chinese Government must first be asked and obtained. Within a period of twenty years from date the Chinese Government will not allow any other person to land telegraph cables in the entire empire, including all foreign settlements and Formosa.

“2d. Within the same period of twenty years the Chinese Government will not construct, or permit others to construct, submarine cables or telegraph lines by land in opposition to any of the company’s cables in China. Where there is no competition with the interests of the company the Chinese Government will build lines at their pleasure.” Now, in regard to these articles pemit me to say:

I. I trust I shall not be deemed obtrusive if I express the opinion that the proposed arrangement is of very doubtful expediency for China herself, and for three reasons:

• Although the United States have made earnest efforts to have ocean cables “neutralized” in case of war so that they shall not be disturbed, the efforts have not been successful. In case of war between some western nation and Denmark or China, the northern company’s lines might be destroyed, and China would lose telegraphic connection with the world. But if other lines are laid, China might through some one of them be able to keep up communication with her ministers abroad and with all nations.
• By the second article China cuts herself off from constructing land lines to Foo Chow, Canton, and other points in the south which she may very much need, especially if the northern cable is injured in war. China thus pays too high a price for the trifling advantage she gains of sending dispatches free to her ministers and consuls.
• All experience has shown that monopolies for long periods are subject to great abuses, and tend to create much ill-feeling.

It is only in exceptional cases that it is found wise to grant them. I respectfully submit that the cases mentioned in the extracts from the viceroy’s letter are so different from this that they ought not to be considered as precedents for a request like that now made. The submarine line from France to Denmark cannot be practically a monopoly, because the countries are connected through Germany by land lines. The Russian concession was for a line in a very remote region where the risk of loss was great, and where no company perhaps would venture to build a line without a guarantee for a reasonable period that it should have an exclusive privilege.

But surely the case is very different here where it is proposed to cut off the United States and even China herself from building lines, which may be in the highest degree important to China in order to guarantee returns to a company which is understood to be already very richly remunerated by its business.

II. But speaking especially on behalf of the United States, I am certain that I cannot use too strong language to express the disappointment and regret, I had almost said the sense of injustice which my government will feel if His Imperial Majesty’s Government shall bind itself in such terms that no American company can lay a cable within twenty years from our country to your shores, when a Danish company is allowed an unrestricted privilege of telegraphic communication with Europe.

Fifteen years ago, in 1866, Mr. Burlingame, has recorded in our archives, the ministers gave him a verbal permission for an American company to lay a cable along the coast. I cannot think that His Majesty’s Government will now be less liberal in its policy.

Even if the government thinks it wise to give the northern company the monopoly for the connection with Europe, there seems no reason for forbidding a line from America, which can in no proper sense be considered as a competing line with the European. The messages to America do indeed have to be sent now by the northern line. But the expense of sending by that line is so great that the business is only a small part of the entire business of the line, and only a small part of what should be given to a direct line to America.

His Majesty’s Government surely cannot forget that a considerable number of his subjects are now resident in the Sandwich Islands, and many more in America. Moreover, enterprising Chinese merchants are beginning to send steamships to America and to enlarge their business. Every year the commercial relations of the two nations are becoming more important. It is of the greatest consequence to the fostering of this commerce so useful to both nations that the largest facilities be afforded for postal and telegraphic intercourse, both for individuals and for the governments.

It must be known to your imperial highness that the United States have long been engaged in making, soundings to determine the best line for a telegraph across the Pacific Ocean. A great deal has already been expended in making the necessary investigations. It has never so much as occurred to our government that His Majesty’s Government would refuse to us the privilege granted to the Danish company of landing the cable, if an American company should, to the great advantage of both countries, incur the enormous expense of laying a line of probably more than 22,000 li, for such would be the length of a line laid from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands, Japan, and Shanghai.

I must, therefore, most respectfully urge that no plan be adopted by His Imperial Majesty’s Government which will prevent an American company from landing a cable at Shanghai. I cannot too earnestly and too emphatically make known to you in advance the force with which, in my opinion, my government will remonstrate against so marked a discrimination in favor of the Danish company to the exclusion of an American company which may propose to lay a line where the Danish company has never proposed to lay one, namely, between America and China. I trust, therefore, that whatever concessions are made to the Northern Telegraph Company, His Imperial Majesty’s Government will not, in any way, bind itself to forbid the landing of a cable from America or the transmission of messages from such a cable over any of the inland lines which may be constructed in China.

I am, &c.,