Wells Williams to William H. S eward, August 3, 1868

Mr. Williams to Mr. Seward

Sir: I have the honor to send you a correspondence with Prince Kung (inclosures A, B) relating to the existence of a gold mine near Chifu, in the province of Shautung; and his desire to prevent it being worked, and thereby becoming a source of disturbance to that region.

My reply opposes the views taken respecting the treatment of such a discovery, and, so far as I am aware, all the foreign ministers have, in one way or another, urged upon the Foreign Office the necessity of doing something to regulate an enterprise they cannot prevent, and exerting themselves to establish some kind of efficient control over the mines. The prospect is that before six months have passed there will be thousands of natives and foreigners gathered at these diggings, and their conflicting interests and rivalries will require to be controlled by a stronger hand than can now be found. The necessities of the case will soon compel the authorities to allow the mines to be worked, and then they must establish a joint supervision adequate to the preservation of life and property, if not to the collecting of some revenue.

The examination yet made of the mines is not very thorough, especially of the quartz veins; but the washings in a few localities have yielded enough to excite and reward the efforts of the natives who have flocked in there from the neighboring hamlets. Some of the washings are only 12 miles from Chifu. The Cantonese miners who have returned from California and Australia are likely to gather here in numbers as soon as they learn of the discoveries, and their skill and industry will soon show what is the value of the deposits.

The course of events in Shantung cannot fail to exert a great influence upon the court at Peking in its ideas relating to foreign relations growing out of these discoveries, and you shall be informed of any important change.

I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,