No. 83.
Mr. Seward
to Mr. Evarts.
United
States Legation,
Peking, March 4, 1878.
(Received May 3.)
No. 412.]Sir: Recurring to the representation made by the
Chamber of Commerce at Shanghai, in August of last year, to the foreign
ministers resident at this capital in regard to the dangers which are
threatening the port of Shanghai in consequence of changes which are taking
place in the approaches to the port, and at the port, and to my dispatches,
numbered 364, 371, 402, and 411, I have now to hand you a copy of a dispatch
which I am addressing to the consulate-general. Upon perusal of this letter,
you will observe that it gives to Mr. Stahel the result reached by the
diplomatic body in our discussion of the memorandum dated February 23, which
I transmitted to you in my last-mentioned dispatch. This was an agreement in
effect to request the consuls at Shanghai to report further on the matter of
the condition of the approaches
[Page 108]
to
Shanghai, after consultation with the harbor-master, and to send to the
respective governments data in regard to the same matter, with a request
that these be submitted to competent engineers for their opinions on the
question whether the apprehensions felt at Shanghai have a real basis.
I have instructed Mr. Stahel in the sense of this agreement, asking him at
the same time to transmit to you the report made by certain Dutch engineers
to the consular body about two years ago. This report, with charts and other
papers available to the Navy Department, or such other department as the
matter may be referred to, will enable the officers chosen for the duty to
give an intelligent opinion upon the question submitted.
I trust that you will be disposed to make the necessary reference of the
matter. The subject is one of great importance to commercial interests in
this part of the world, and I imagine that the engineers consulted will find
no difficulty in declaring that the situation calls for the prompt attention
of this government.
I trust also that in such case you will instruct me to proceed with my
colleagues to place the matter in its proper light before this
government.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 412.]
Mr. Seward to Mr.
Stahel.
Sir: I beg leave to hand to you herewith a
memorandum which I submitted to my colleagues a few days since. It had
reference to the letter transmitted to the several foreign
representatives here, on the 7th of last August, by the chairman of the
chamber of commerce at your port. Those parts of the letter which relate
more particularly to the condition of the harbor proper having already
received attention, I advanced the memorandum in order to bring forward
the questions regarding the approaches to Shanghai raised by the
chamber.
Since placing the memorandum in the hands of my colleagues, I have
discussed with them the situation at Shanghai, and have agreed to the
following propositions:
- 1st.
- That the consuls shall be reminded of the tenor of the seventh
rule of the code of harbor regulations recently sent to you, and
requested to concert measures with the harbor-master looking to
a representation to the high authorities here, of the danger
that is threatening the port in consequence of the deterioration
of the approaches to it.
- 2d.
- To transmit to our several governments all available data in
regard to the approaches to the port, in order that they may be
submitted for the opinion of competent engineers, with a view to
determine whether the condition of the river is such as to call
for a vigorous representation to this government.
I beg leave, therefore, to ask you to place yourself in communication
with your colleagues for the purpose indicated tinder the first head. I
may say to you, however, that I doubt whether any action can be taken in
this way, which will add much weight to the very full representations
heretofore sent up, and that, while expecting that you will give to the
subject your best attention, I shall be satisfied if I receive from you
a statement that after consultation with your colleagues and the
harbor-master, you agree in the opinion advanced by the chamber of
commerce, that there is danger “that the narrowing and shallowing of the
river is tending to render Shanghai inaccessible from the sea”; that the
questions involved properly concern this government, and that it should
appoint special functionaries, whose business it would be to decide upon
and provide the most efficient means of protecting the navigable
channels of the port, and maintaining free access to it for vessels of
all draughts.
I have to ask you, also, to procure and transmit to the Department,
making reference in doing so to the number of this dispatch, a copy of
Messrs. Escher and De Ryke’s “Report upon the Woosung Bar,” published at
the North China Herald Office, in 1876. Various charts and documents are
referred to in this report. I do not think it necessary to forward any
of these, but I shall feel obliged if you will examine the register of
my correspondence from Shanghai with the State Department, and give
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the numbers of all dispatches
which deal with questions of river conservation, the bar, &c. If,
however, an examination of these dispatches and of the subject
generally, leads you to think that any charts or papers necessary to an
intelligent examination of it are available to you which may not be
available at Washington, please be so good as to forward such.
I am, &c.,
