Prince Kung to To His Excellency Benjamin P. Avery , United States, January 12, 1875

Prince Kung to Mr. Avery.

Prince Kung, chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, herewith sends a reply in relation to the telegraph-cable, a thing which is not clearly mentioned in the treaties.

In the year 1861 the Russian minister, Colonel Balluzech, in a personal interview at the Yamen, first brought up the proposition to put up a telegraph-wire between Peking and Tientsin. He was informed at the time that this government could not insure its remaining untouched, and that it would be constantly liable to injuries; for which reasons and chances of failure the matter was accordingly dropped.

In 1862 the British minister, Sir Frederick Bruce, returned to the subject in a dispatch, stating that he had heard that the Russian minister wished to have an air-line put up, and desired to know whether the Chinese government was willing. If they could see their way to erect an air-line which would connect all the ports along the seaboard on the east and south, he was sure that they would derive great advantage therefrom. The foreign office replied to his note that there were so many difficulties in the way of allowing the erection of a telegraph that His Majesty’s government could not see their way clear to grant it.

In 1865 the Russian minister, General Vlangaly, wrote a note, accompanied by a paper showing the principal parts of a telegraph-instrument, and stating that if China would set up a telegraph on this plan she could manage it herself. The foreign office replied to the general that whatever advantages might accrue from its establishment, China had no wish to monopolize them; but that if anybody, no matter of what country, would show how it could be put up so that there would be no risk from injury or damage, she would very gladly accede to the proposal.

The truth is, in reference to setting up the telegraph, that, from the first, I (the Prince) have been particularly anxious in respect to the difficulty of preserving it from injury, and am still unable to see how it can be prevented.

In 1870 the British minister, Mr. Wade, represented the desirableness of laying a submarine cable. In his note he stated that during all the discussions in the previous years a land-line had alone been spoken off; but that in the plan he advocated the end of the cable alone would need to be brought ashore and worked in the foreign hongs or a room in them. The foreign office replied, that the dacoits and pirates along the coasts were so fugitive in their movements, that it was quite out of the question to devise means to effectually protect the cable; should any damage be done to it, therefore, by malicious fellows, it would involve its owners in great losses, for which the local authorities certainly could not be held responsible; and, in short, herein consisted the great difficulty of carrying out the enterprise.

Mr. Wade answered that he had carefully considered this point, and no difficulty need arise from it; for if China did not wish to permit the end of the cable to be brought ashore, it could easily be disposed of and worked where the land and water bordered on each other; and he would instruct the telegraph company so to manage it. A reply was made to this that after it went into operation His Majesty’s government would have still much difficulty in Overseeing it for them; but it must be understood that no Chinese local official would be held responsible for any damage done to the cable.

This danger of constant injury to it, and the difficulty of preventing it, were the points which caused me extreme anxiety; but as Mr. Wade only proposed to lay the line along the coast, I could not omit to clearly state beforehand that in no case would His Majesty’s government become responsible for any injury which might be done to it.

Your excellency’s dispatch, now before me, and those from the other ministers, all speak of the frequent injuries and cutting done to the cable, which is just what the dispatches from the foreign office long ago indicated. These various dispatches now received refer mainly to two kinds of injuries to which the cable is exposed, viz, one from accidental damages done by native vessels, the other from the thefts of designing rascals.

As the cable lies at the bottom of the sea, and cannot be seen, it is plainly impossible to forbid vessels going where they list, and anchoring where they please; injuries to it, suffered by casting anchor or putting down a pole, must be looked upon as wholly unintentional and cannot be punished as crimes. Yet they are just as difficult to be guarded against, and so are the thefts committed by piratical boats which skulk along the coasts, and dodge in and out of the inlets, so that it is well-nigh impossible to seize the fellows who steal the cable and bring them to justice.

Taking into consideration, however, the statements given in the various dispatches now received in relation to this thing, and in view of the friendly relations subsisting between all the parties, I have ordered copies of them to be sent to the governors-general and high ministers of the maritime provinces, that they may take into consideration what measures for protecting the cable can be devised, and give orders to the local authorities under them to constantly give it such an oversight as is, in their judgment, possible.