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AMOY
Amoy ranks as a third-class city. It is considered, even for China, to be very dirty, and its inhabitants are unusually squalid in their habits. There are several places of interest to foreigners in the vicinity, and excursions can be made to Chang- chow-fu, the chief city of the department of that name, and situated about 35 miles from Amoy. The island of Kulangsu ["Drum Wave Island," from a hollow rock in which the incoming tide causes a booming sound] is about a third of a mile from Amoy, and the residences of nearly all the foreigners are to be found there, although most of the foreign business is transacted on the Amoy side. It is a remarkably pretty island. It was handed over by China as an International Settlement on the 1st May, 1903. In the opinion of the then Commissioner of Customs, Kulangsu bids fair to become one of the most charming little republics on the coast of China. The value of land on the island of Kulangsu has advanced 100 per cent. compared with the prices ruling a decade ago. There is a good club in the Settlement, adjoining which is the cricket ground. A neat little Anglican Church has been erected. A Japanese Settle- ment was marked out in 1899, and a fair number of Japanese, officials and others, reside there.
In 1922, the ratepayers of the International Settlement of Kulangsu recommended that an Advisory Committee of Chinese residents should be elected by the Chinese residents in the Settlement to assist and advise the members of the Muncipal Council in all matters in which Chinese ratepayers were concerned. This recommendation was approved by the foreign and Chinese authorities and adopted by the Chinese rate- payers. Three Chinese members, appointed in December, 1926, took over the full representation of Chinese ratepayers.
There is a slipway at Amoy, formerly owned and managed by foreigners but since sold to the Chinese Government. The Standard Oil Co. of New York have erected several oil tanks at Sung-Su on the mainland, close to the site of the station of the Amoy-Changchow railway, and the Asiatic Petroleum Co. are building a new installation on an adjacent site. There are kerosene oil tanks, and a can factory capable of turning out 4,000 tins a day, the property of the Asiatic Petroleum Company, on Amoy Island, but this will be dismantled and transferred to the new installation at the end of 1930. In June, 1921, the proposal to reconstruct a pier between the hulk of Messrs. Butterfield & Swire and the shore aroused opposition on the part of the Amoy public. The matter having been referred to Peiping, no further trouble was experienced. In the late autumn, however, the recommencement of the work resulted in a boycott being declared against the steamers of the firm. A settle- ment was reached and the boycott was withdrawn in March, 1922. The foreign residents number about 280.
Frequent and regular steamer communication is maintained with Hongkong, Swatow, Foochow, Formosa and Shanghai, and steamers run direct to the Straits Settle- ments and Manila. There has always been a comparatively good trade done at Amoy, and notwithstanding that the tea trade, for which it was long famous, has now practically disappeared, it is significant that the shipping tonnage employed by the port has quintupled since the decade 1864-73, and almost trebled since the decade 1874- 83. Until the shortage of shipping caused by the European war tlie tonnage figures for many years topped the million mark. In former times, before the glory of Amoy had · departed, the staple export was Tea-the local product as well as the superior blends brought over from Formosa-but, largely owing to the deterioration of the local pro- duct and the indifference of the grower to the changing conditions of the foreign market, locally-grown tea has long since ceased to be exported, and the Customs Commissioner made a fairly safe prophecy that it only required the development of Keelung harbour to cause the total disappearance of the foreign tea mercliant from Amoy. Before the Japanese obtained possession of Formosa the Formosan teas were "settled" and ware- housed in Amoy, whence they were shipped to the foreign markets. Now no Formosan tea is "settled" in Amoy, and with Keelung still unimproved to any considerable extent quite 50 per cent. of the Formosan product is being shipped direct to America from Kee- lung. The foreign tea merchant at Amoy has practically lost his occupation, and we are witnessing the fulfilment of the prediction that "the row of quaint, rambling, old hongs on the Amoy side, and many picturesque residences on Kulangsu will be offering for the occupation of the wealthy returned emigrant or the missionary school." A University has been established at Amoy in a fine range of buildings with ample playing grounds, funds for the purpose having been provided by a native of the district who made his fortune in British Malaya; and thanks to the civic patriotism of an- other native of the district who amassed great wealth in Java, a contract was signed in