A442
AMOY
In has become one of the most charming places of residence on the coast of China. The peace and good order which are preserved in the International Settlement are shown by the palatial residences of many wealthy Chinese residents, mostly returned emigrants to the Straits Settlements, the Netherlands East Indies, the Philippines and Burmah. The value of land on the island of Kulangsu has advanced 100 per cent. compared with the prices ruling a decade ago. There are several good clubs in the neighbourhood of the Recreation Ground. A neat little Anglican Church has been erected.
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In 1922, the ratepayers of the International Settlement of Kulangsu recommended that an Advisory Committee of Chinese residents should be elected by the Chin se 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.
In Amoy electric energy is supplied at 110. a.c. and on Kulangsu ať 220. a.c. There is little demand for power. All telegrams or wireless messages are transmitted through the Chinese Telegraph Administration. As telegrams are transmitted over land lines and are therefore often subject to delay, it is always preferable to use Wire- less, the Radio service being more efficient and more reliable. During 1933 Amoy was a port of call of passenger and mail planes, a twice weekly service between Shanghai and Canton being maintained.
There is a dockyard at Amoy, formerly owned by foreigners but now belonging to the Chinese Navy. The Standard Vacuum Oil Company 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. have built a new installation on an adjacent site with oil tanks and a can factory capable of turning out 4,000 tins a day. In June, 1921, the proposal to reconstruct, a pier between the hulk of Messrs.. Butter- field & 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 settlement was reached and the boycott was withdrawn in March, 1922. In 1932 the firm was requested by the local Chinese Authorities to assist in the development of the port facilities by moving their hulk and pier to a site some half a mile to the South where they have now acquired at considerable expense a suitable site and obtained permission to construct two piers. The work should be concluded about the end of 1934 and will add considerably to the loading and unloading facilities of Amoy. This improvement is evidence of a pro- gressive spirit on the part of the modern Chinese authorities. It is to be hoped that other firms will follow this example. The foreign residents number about 280, apart from Japanese and Formosans who together number between 10,000 and 20,000.
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Frequent and regular steamer communication is maintained with Hongkong, Swatow, Foochow, Formosa and Shanghai, and steamers run direct to the Straits Settlements, Manila, Japan, Rangoon and Calcutta. 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 tomage 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 the 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 merchant froin Ainoy. 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
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