Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1886

No. 73.
Mr. Foulk to Mr. Bayard.

Legation of the United States,
Seôul, Corea, November 25, 1885. (Received January 15, 1886.)

No. 256.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that the telegraph line reported in my No. 231, dated September 25 last, as being built to connect Seoul with Peking, was completed on the 20th instant, by the joining of the Chinese and Corean sections at Wichu (Ichow), a Corean town on the Amnok (Yahe) River. Thus by this line, and via Peking and Tientsin, Corea is in telegraphic communication with the outer world. Messages are received at the offices in Seoul and Chemulpho for all parts of the world.

The objections made by the Japanese representative to the Corean foreign office respecting the manner in which the construction of the telegraph line by China in Corea was arranged for, referred to in my dispatch No. 231, have taken the form of negotiations with Corea for the erection by Japan of a land telegraph line to connect Seoul with Pusan and Japan. These are progressing very slowly, however.

I am, &c.,

GEORGE C. FOULK,
Ensign, U. S. Navy, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.