Sewaed to George F. Seward, January 16, 1880

No. 144. Mr. Seward to Mr. Evarts.

Sir:Recurring to my various letters in regard to the Shanghai harbor rules, and more particularly to my dispatch No. 544, with which I sent to you a copy of a code of sixteen rules for that part of the harbor which is above the foreign anchorage, I have now the honor to hand to you a note which Prince Kung has addressed to the several foreign representatives, stating that the rules of 1878 will be put in operation at once for the district opposite the foreign settlements (the foreign anchorage) and the new rules for the district above the settlements (the native anchorage).

This adjustment of the matter appears to me entirely satisfactory, and I have no doubt that it will meet the views of other members of the diplomatic body.

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In the matter of the control of harbors our troubles arise, not because the authorities endanger our interests by discriminations in favor of their own people, nor by cutting off privileges necessary for the free use of their harbors, but because no adequate measures have been adopted for their conservancy. At Shanghai any one owning a front lot has been able to make a pier or wharf or to fill up the foreshore almost uncontrolled. The serious deterioration of the harbor has resulted as a matter of course.

It has been my object, in view of such facts, to impress upon the administration, both at Shanghai and here, the fact that it is their interests which are mainly involved, and that responsibility for the care of the harbor devolves properly upon them.

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I shall request the consul general to give the local authorities cordial support in the administration of the harbor rules, new and old, so soon as I learn that my colleagues will take the same course.

I have, &c.,