THE TELEPHONE IN CHINA.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR."' Sin,—In your impression of last week you say, referring to the introduction of the telephone in China, "the telegraph being useless, as they have no alphabet." Allow me to inform you that this is not so, as the natives telegraph very freely on the Company's lines in China. A dictionary has been prepared by the Company, giving code-words for the principal radicals of the Chinese language, and by means of the same, the Chinese have very little difficulty, assisted by the Company's clerks, in com- piling and deciphering their messages. As already mentioned, much business is done in this manner.—I am, Sir, &c., H. G. ERICHSEN. Great Northern Telegraph Company, 7 Great Winchester-Street Buildings, P. C., March 14.
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