The mood in France was against compromise, and although negotiations continued throughout July, Admiral Amédée Courbet was ordered to take his Far East Squadron to Fuzhou (Foochow).
He entered the Newark Conference in 1896, and had several appointments (1890 in Strongsville, Ohio, 1891 and 1892 in Litchfield, Ohio and Whippany, New Jersey) before transferring to the Foochow Conference in China in 1896.
In April 1938, two float planes from the Kongō bombed the Chinese town of Foochow during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
His strong interest in Anne Boleyn began in 1917 during his missionary trip in Foochow, when he found in the Foochow British Community Library books related to Anne Boleyn's life.