Henri Picard-Destelan

Henri Picard-Destelan
Born	Henri Ernest Félix Marie Picard-Destelan (1878-07-23)23 July 1878 Lyon, France
Died	25 October 1971(1971-10-25) (aged 93) Paris, France
Occupation	Co-director general of the Chinese postal service

Henri Picard-Destelan (Chinese name 鐵士蘭) (born 23 July 1878, Lyon; died 25 October 1971, Paris) was a co-director general of the Chinese postal service.

Biography

Family

The son of Ernest Picard-Destelan, he was injured twice when participating, in 1900, in the defense of the French legation in Beijing during the Boxer Rebellion. In May 1920, he organized the expedition from Beijing to Urga (Mongolia) of Saint-John Perse, Gustave-Charles Toussaint and Jean-Augustin Bussière, who hoped to find the burial place of Genghis Khan.

Career

As an employee of the Chinese Customs Service in 1896, Picard-Destelan first became Assistant in Charge at Sanshui Customs (1908–1910), then Acting Commissioner of Hangzhou Customs (1910–1912), and in 1913 transitioned to the Postal Service, succeeding A. Théophile Piry, who had served as postal secretary in the Imperial Chinese Post service and became the first postmaster general of China, helping with the integration of China into the Universal Postal Union (1917–1928).​

“Piry, a Frenchman, who had joined the Customs service in 1874, was appointed postal secretary in 1901 and continued as the general director of posts until 1917. The fact that he was French, just like his successor Henri Picard Destelan, reflected China's commitments to France in 1898, during the 'scramble for concessions', to consider French government recommendations regarding the selection of personnel for its postal service.”

— (Excerpt from Denis Twitchett, John King Fairbank, The Cambridge History of China, p. 189, 1978).

“The Nanjing censorship system was not completely powerless in regulating foreign press. Although it did not have the legal right to pre-censor or penalize disobedient newspapers as it did with national press, it was still able to limit the distribution of treaty port newspapers with its sovereign power—the postal control. Despite political turmoil, governments at various levels since 1896 had devoted relentless efforts to building a national postal network. The postal system, which reached every city and village in the country, as Lane J. Harris claimed, was essential to protecting the integrity of Chinese territory and the independence of the administration. The Chinese government partially restored postal rights at the Washington Conference, when powers agreed to withdraw control of post offices by the end of 1922, provided they maintained the operation of post offices in treaty ports and the position of co-director general of the postal system continued to be held by a foreigner. After the fall of the Beijing government following the northern expedition, the Nationalist government relocated the postal system headquarters and reduced Henri Picard d'Estelan's authority in February 1929, with the Nanjing government resuming postal control of the treaty ports.” [

— (Excerpt from Shuge Wei, News under Fire: China’s Propaganda against Japan in the English-Language Press, 1928–1941, Hong Kong University Press, 2017, p. 76)

In December 1921, Picard-Destelan, as co-director of the Post Office, had quietly ordered a return to Nanking syllabary “until such time as uniformity is possible.” Although the Soothill-Wade period was brief, it was a time when 13,000 offices were created, a rapid and unprecedented expansion. At the time the policy was reversed, one third of all postal establishments used Soothill-Wade spelling.

Recognition

Picard-Destelan had a former street in Shanghai and the Hengshan Picardie Hotel named after him. Upon returning to France, he participated in the construction of the UGC Normandie cinema with Léonard Rosenthal and became a shareholder in the Cinéac company.

He was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour at 22 and promoted to Officer in 1920 and received the Order of Wen Hu Medal.

Bibliography

• Cigale en Chine: Voyages excentriques, by Paul d'Ivoi, 1901
• The Thébaud Family: The Story of the Thébaud Family Since Its Founding in the United States in 1793, by Robert de Larosière, Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies (University of Michigan) Publications, 1962
• The Foreign Establishment in China in the Early Twentieth Century, by Albert Feuerwerker, 1976
• The Cambridge History of China - Volume 12, Part 1, by Denis Crispin Twitchett, John King Fairbank, 1978
• La guerre des Boxers (1900-1901): Tseu-Hi évite le pire, by Raymond Bourgerie, Pierre Lesoueff, 1997
• Diplomates écrivains: correspondances diplomatiques, by Saint-John Perse, Paul Morand, Katia Bogopolskaia, 2000
• Etrangers à Pékin: Européens et Américains et République de Pékin, by Li Shaobing, Qi Xiaolin, Cai Leiwei, 2016
• News under Fire: China’s Propaganda against Japan in the English Language Press 1928-1941, by Shuge Wei, 2017
• La France en Chine de Sun Yat-sen à Mao Zedong, 1918–1953, by Nicole Bensacq-Tixier, 2019