556
TIENTSIN
a break was made by floods in the East bank of the Pei Ho at Li Shu Chen (above Tungchow), which caused the deflection of the waters of the Pei Ho, the main tributary of the Hai Ho, to the Pei Tang River, which enters the Gulf further North. This was attended with grave consequences, and enormously increased the burden of the Hai Ho Conservancy Board, whose dredgers were thereafter employed ceaselessly in the endeavour to keep the river open for steamship navigation to Tientsin. There are five dredgers at work at the present time. The breach at Li Shu Chen was repaired by December, 1916, after which the condition of the river-bed progressively improved. The mud obtained from the river-bed has been usefully and remuneratively employed in the filling-in of the foreign Concessions, which work began in 1910. The whole of the ex-German Concession below the Canal has been filled in, and also portions of the French, Japanese and British Extra-Mural Concessions. The total dredged in 1915 was 235,406 fung, of which 193,371 fang was pumped ashore and 40,035 fang dumped. The revenue acquired in this manner by the Board amounted, in 1915, to Tls. 100,000, which was very useful in view of the great increase in expenditure occasioned by the extra work. The deepening of the Bar Channel has progressed satisfactorily, the powerful suction-dredger Chung Hua having been engaged per- manently on this work since 1914. The Bar dredging-plant was in 1915 improved by the addition of two hopper barges built especially for this work.
In the latter part of the Summer of 1917, in consequence of the torrential rains which succeeded an unusually prolonged period of complete drought in the interior, a vast tract of territory in the Province of Chihli, estimated at about 15,000 square miles, became flooded to a great depth, rendering thousands of Chinese homeless and causing wholesale destruction. On September 24 the Foreign Concessions were invaded by the flood waters as the result of the bursting of the banks of the Yu Ho, or Grand Canal. A tremendous volume of water poured across country, and the British Extra-Mural Areas and Extension, the greater part of the old Concession, the whole of the Japanese Concession, and parts of the French and ex-German Concessions were flooded, in many places to a depth of five or six feet. Europeans in the inundated districts had to seek refuge elsewhere, while the plight of the Chinese was pitiable.
Public opinion demanded that the problem of the Chihli waterways be tackled finally and comprehensively with a view to preventing a similar disaster in the future, and the Chinese Government appointed a special Commission, under the chairmanship of H. E. Hsiung Hsi-ling, and including foreign experts, to examine the questions thoroughly and to submit recommendations to the Government. The appoint- ment of this Commission soon bore important results, and, in 1918, many of the recommendations of the foregn experts were carried out. The condition of the Hai Ho, in particular, has been immensely improved.
In the winter of 1914-15 ice-breakers were utilised in the Hai Ho, and there are now four such vessels the property of the Conservancy. Ice-breaking operations are impossible this writer owing to the unfavourable conditions still prevailing on the Bar. It appears that the Flood caused about 1,000.000 cubic yards of silt to drop in the Bar Channel on a width of 500 feet reducing the depth from-9.3 feet Taku Datem to 2.5 feet T. D. Notwithsanding the fact that dredging operations were prosecuted con- tinuously throughout the year it is improbable that more than 11 feet of water will be found on the Bar before next spring. In such circumstances the ice-breakers could function for a few hours only each tide, not long enough to keep the approaches to the river free of ice. The abandonment of ice-breaking for this season means the virtual closing of the port. The trade of the city, however, no longer depends en- tirely on the free passage of the river. The railway now carries nearly 50 per cent. of the city's trade with the interior, and railway development generally in the district promises to make the trade less dependent upon the waterways. Chinwangtao makes an excellent winter jetty.
The expeditions of the allies in 1858-61 greatly enhanced the importance of the city, as it then proved to be the military key of the capital and an excellent base. It was here on June 20th, 1858, that Lord Elgin signed the treaty which was to conclude the war, but which unhappily led to its prolongation. The famous temple in which the treaty was signed, about a mile distant from the West gate, was destroyed by British shells in July, 1900.
During the long satrapy of Li Hung-chang the trade and importance of the city developed exceedingly. Li, by the vigour of his rule, soon quelled the rowdyism for which the Tientsinese were notorious throughout the empire, and as he made the city his chief residence and the centre of his many experiments in military and naval education, it came to be regarded as the focus of the new learning and national