No.71.
Mr. Seward
to Mr. Evarts.
United
States Legation,
Peking, May 12, 1877.
(Received June 29.)
No. 240]Sir: I have the honor to hand to you herewith a
letter which I have received from the consul at Amoy, in regard to the
establishment of a municipal body, for the control of roads, &c, in the
district occupied by foreigners at that port, and my response thereto.
I shall hereafter send to you the report of the case at Shanghai, referred to
in my dispatch, with such remarks on the general subject as may seem
pertinent.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 240.]
Mr. Henderson to
Mr. Seward.
United
States Consulate,
Amoy, March 12,
1877.
No. 46.]Sir: I beg to hand you under this cover a copy
of some proposed municipal regulations which were recently agreed to at
a public meeting of the foreign residents of Amoy, and transmitted to
the consular officers on yesterday, with the request that we obtain for
them, if possible, the sanction necessary to give them the force of law.
The consular officers accordingly agreed, yesterday, to forward the
regulations to their respective ministers and recommend their adoption,
at the same time requesting the ministers, should they approve the
rules, to obtain for them the approval of theTsung-li Yamên.
In compliance with the request of the community and the agreement of the
consuls referred to, I now have the honor to submit these regulations
for your consideration,
[Page 102]
and
respectfully request that, if they meet your approval, such action be
taken on them as may be necessary to make them binding on citizens of
the United States at this port.
I may further remark that, owing to the absence of the regular Tao-t’ai
at this time, the assent of the native local authorities has been
neither solicited nor obtained for the rules.
But I am not sure that their assent would be at all necessary, even for
the information of Tsung-li Yamên. I will forward for your use a Chinese
translation of the rules by next opportunity.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 240.]
Mr. Seward to Mr.
Henderson.
Peking, May 1,
1877.
No. 25.]Sir: I have the honor to recur to your dispatch
No. 46, and to say that I have considered the matter therein dealt with,
in concert with my colleagues, the ministers for Russia, Germany, Japan,
Spain, France, and England, and that we are of opinion that if it be
desirable to establish a municipal organization for the control of
roads, &c, upon the island of Koolangsoo, at your port, it will be
better to secure, if possible, their acceptance by the local authorities
before sending them to us to be submitted to the foreign office. We are
also of opinion that the rules which have been proposed are unduly
complicated, and that simpler ones should be agreed upon.
In this connection I may inform you that a revised code of rules for
Shanghai was presented to the land-renters there in the spring of 1875,
which might well be taken by you as a guide in preparing those for your
port.
The principles to be observed in the framing of rules which shall be
binding upon our people will be clear to you upon perusal of the case of
the Shanghai Municipal Council vs. Fogg, which
was heard in the consular court at Shanghai two or three years ago, and
which was fully reported at the time in the North China Herald. You will
find some interesting dispatches on the same subject in the book of
diplomatic correspondence for last year, in reference to municipal
matters at Nagasaki.
I am, &c.,
