LUNGKOW-WEIHAIWEI
DIRECTORY
BRITISH-AMERICAN TOBACCO (CHINA), LTD.
-Tel. Ad: Powhattan
CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME
Acting Deputy Commissioner-M. C.
Drummond Assistant-Yü I-cheng
Clerk-Jên chin Ming
Boat Officer-J. J. Lovelock Examiner-U. Araki
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Tidewaiters-Chen Chow Ping, Sung Hwei Han, Chang Chien Yung and Ho Lun Sin
ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSION
Rev. L. M. Frederic
WEIHAIWEI
衞海威 Weihaiwei
Weihaiwei is situated on the south side of the Gulf of Pechili near the extremity of the Shantung Promontory, and about 115 miles distant from Port Arthur on the north-west and the same from the port of Kiaochau on the south-west. Formerly a strongly-fortified Chinese naval station, it was captured by the Japanese on 30th January, 1895, and was held by them pending the payment of the indemnity, which was finally liquidated in 1898. Before the evacuation by the Japanese an agreement was arrived at between Great Britain and China that the former should take over the territory on lease from the latter, and, accordingly, on the 24th May, 1898, the British flag was formally hoisted, the Commissioners representing their respective countries at the ceremony being Cousul Hopkins, of Chefoo, and Captain King-Hall, of H.M.S. Narcissus, for Great Britain, and Taotai Yen and Captain Lin, of the Chinese war vessel Foochi, for China. Weihaiwei was leased to Great Britain "for so long a period as Port Arthur shall remain in the occupation of Russia," and was regarded by the British Government as a sanatorium for the British squadron on the China station. At the Washington Conference in 1921 Great Britain offered to return the territory to China, and during the latter part of 1922 an Anglo-Chinese Commission met to deal with the questions arising out of this. These questions included arrangements for the use of the port by the British Fleet as a summer station, provisions for the safety of foreign residents, and the representation of foreign residents in the administration of the territory. Towards the end of 1924 the Chinese and British plenipotentiaries arrived at a complete agreement regarding the terms of rendition, and the Con- vention, was almost ready for signature when General Feng Yü-hsiang brought about a coup d'état in Peiping in November of that year. Negotiations were resumed in 1929 and carried to a successful conclusion in April 1930, by the signature at Nanking of the convention for the rendition of Weihaiwei, which was to be ratified and came into force on October 1st, 1930. It was accompanied by an agreement whereby certain naval privileges and facilities were granted to the British Government for a period of ten years, subject to renewal by agreement between the two Powers.
The former leased territory, which lies in lat. 37 deg. 30 min. N., long. 122 deg. 10 min. E., comprises the Island of Liu Kung, all the islands in the Bay of Weihaiwei, and a belt of land 10 English miles wide along the entire coastline, and consists of ranges of rugged mountains and rocky hills up to 1,500 feet high, dividing the plains into valleys and river beds. The island of Liu Kung, once barren and nearly treeless but now verdant and picturesque as the result of a system of afforestation inaugurated in 1910, is formed by a backbone of hills rising to some 500 feet. The hillsides on the main- land, of which Port Edward is the chief port, are either barren rock or planted with dwarf pine and scrub oak trees. The valleys are mostly undulating country full of gullies and mountain river-beds; the streains are all torrential and choke up the valleys