No. 131.
Mr. Seward
to Mr. Evarts.
Peking, November 3, 1879. (Received January 7.)
Sir: I beg leave to recall your attention to the fact that the last Congress reduced the salaries of the two commissioned interpreters whom we employ in the consulates at Tientsin and Foo-Chow from $2,000 to $1,500 each, and to advise that a representation be made to the present Congress that it is desirable to review this action, and to increase their pay, with that of the interpreter at Shanghai, to $2,500 each.
It may be possible, I think, to secure the continuous services of competent men at the rate of pay mentioned$ it is a low compensation for qualified interpreters, but persons may be found occasionally who have scholarly learnings, and who would serve as interpreters, if so paid, in order to secure a certain stipend while making researches in the literature of China, or prosecuting other literary work. It is far less, however, than interpreters are paid in any other service, and less indeed, than ordinary book and corresponding clerks in mercantile houses receive.
At the present moment, the interpreter at Tientsin, very much to my regret, is serving as interpreter to the Chinese authorities at this port. As the pay he receives from us is inadequate, and as he would leave us rather than give up his Chinese employment, I have been obliged to acquiesce in the arrangement, although it is discreditable to us.
The officer at Shanghai ekes out his salary by translating deeds, contracts, &c. The work there is so great that he should give all his time to it, but no interpreter has done so for the last twenty years.
The officer at Foo-Chow has been able to continue in the service because he has been recently in charge of the consulate for a considerable period, and is now in charge at Canton.
In addition to paying the three interpreters named at the rate of $2,500 a year, we should add one more to the list at the same rate of pay, and assign him to duty at Canton. That office is an important one for many reasons, and is likely to become more so, if we are to take the steps necessary for an adequate examination of intending emigrants.
In this connection, I may suggest to you that we allow now $750 a year for cost of interpretation at the con sulfates at Amoy, Ningpo. Chinkiang and Hankow; Swatow may soon be added to the list of salaried consulates. At these five ports the cost of interpretation would come to $3,750. The work in each of these offices, however, both the consular work proper and the interpreter’s work, could easily be done by one officer. If, therefore, the interpreters employed in the more important consulates at Shanghai, Tientsin, Foo-Chow, and Canton should be promoted, as opportunities occur, to be consuls at the other ports, the amounts now allowed in the latter could be discontinued. The efficiency [Page 145] of the whole consular establishment would be greatly promoted is this way, and the expense of the establishment not sensibly increased.
Our consular establishment in China is gradually falling behind those of other leading powers, notably those of England, France, and Germany, for the reason that the governments indicated have educated at Peking, in the Chinese language, a large number of young men, distributed them for service in the various consulates, and gradually promoted them to full consulships. The result is that their consulates are efficient establishments, while ours are but little better than they were twenty years ago.
Something to remedy this condition of things could be done by adopting the proposals of this letter: 1st. By increasing the number of interpreters to four; and, 2d, by promoting the interpreters to the minor consulates. As it would cost the Executive only a slight degree of carefulness in the matter of appointments, and Congress no abandonment of economical considerations, not even in dollars and cents, for the one and the other to accept these suggestions, and as the results to be obtained are so manifestly desirable, I trust that my suggestions will not prove fruitless.
I have, &c.,