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SHASI
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Matheson & Co., and a number of newly erected Chinese houses were burnt by the mobs, kerosene oil being used to feed the conflagration, and the foreign residents were driven out of the port, narrowly escaping with their lives. The Custom-house was re-opened on the 1st July of the same year. In August, 1898, an area 3,800 Chinese feet in length, by 800 to 1,200 in breadth, lying along the riverside below the town, was assigned to Japan as a Japanese Concession. The British Consulate was withdrawn in January, 1899, British interests being placed under the care of the Consul at Ichang. Calling steamers anchor in the river, which is very swift during the summer, and discharge and load at pontoons, but some bunding work, commenced in December, 1904, and finished in April, 1905, provided berths for three hulks, with jetties. Un- fortunately, in 1908 this bund for over two-thirds of its length went bodily into the river owing to the action of the water coming from inland carrying away sand from beneath the stone work. The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognizance of the. Foreign Customs was Hk. Tls. 18,651,178 in 1931, as compared with Hk. Tls. 21,486,783 in 1930, Hk. Tls: 34,355 862`in 1929, and Hk. Tls. 38,910,321 in 1928. The bulk of the carrying trade was, until the 30th of May 1931, carried on by junks, under the control of the Native Customs under the Foreign Customs supervision. These Native Customs, however, were abolished on the 1st June 1931. In December, 1913, a contract was entered into between the Chinese Government and the British firm of Pauling & Co. for the construction of a railway from a point opposite Shasi to Singyifu in the province of Kweichow via Changteh and Kweiyang, with a branch from Changtel to Changsha. Good progress was made in the survey of this projected railway until the outbreak of the European war and consequent necessity for a temporary cessation of operations led to the recall of the engineers. It is reported that so many lakes and morasses lie in the direct survey of the Shasi-Changteh section that a détour to the west, through more productive country, may be necessary. A telephone service was introduced in March, 1921. A motor service between Shasi- Hsiangyang was started in 1924. The Mao Yeh & Co. installed in May 1930 a machine to supply Shasi public with ice and electricity. The Hankow Press-packing Co. (Shasi Branch) started operations in September 1929, while the Shasi Cotton Testing Department of Hankow Bureau of Inspection and Testing for Commercial Com- modities, a governmental organ, commenced work in October 1929. The Sahsi Cotton Weaving and Spinning Factory was informally opened in May 1931 with a capital of $1,000,000. The Air-mail and passenger service between Shanghai and Ichang via Shasi was commenced in April 1931 Flights are made three times a week. The river rose to 35.3 feet 9th August, 1931 (the fighest water mark on record), but no damage was done to lives and property in Shasi.
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TRADE IN 1931
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Shasi was too efficiently garrisoned throughout 1931 to be in much danger of capture but the town was under continual threat of attack by Red and bandit forces and the whole district which Shasi draws upon for export pro- ducts was overrun by hordes of bandit and communist auxiliaries. Even if the unprecedented disaster of the flood had not turned the situation from bad to worse, it is doubtful if any revival of trade could have come about during the year under review. As it was, all hope of a better year's busi- ness was lost when most of the cotton crop, the mainstay of the port, was seen to be destroyed after the bursting of the dykes around Shasi, Hosueh, and Kungan. Only about 20 per cent of the whole crop was saved, and cotton seed was of course correspondingly affected. The rice crop fortunately escaped to a large, extent, and the harvest was excellent. A cotton-spinning factory, the construction of which was commenced in 1930, was completed and came into operation during the year; and an old flour mill that has recently been reorganised also started production, operating at a profit on a daily cutturn of 500 bags of flour, mostly for consumption within the district and at Tchang. In
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on the erection of addition to these two new enterprises, work was begun
on the erection of a new electric light and power plant. The motor-bus ser- vice to Siangyang could not be resumed, as the road was unsafe on account of bandits, but the presence of troops along the route to Hosuch has enabled the service on this long stretch of road to be restarted. The establishment of a Government wireless station and of a branch office of the Bank of China has added somewhat to the advantages of the port.