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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

TLC.O. 882

6 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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type setting. It will then be possible to issue a fortnightly Government Gazette, and ti, pullish rules and regulations and notices of general interest.

Administratice Staff.

72. Danng 1598 and 1×99 the administration of the leased territories was carried kat og Captain King-Hall and Commander Gaunt.

Lung this time administrative work was practically confined to the island and

Malto.

Ta 1-99 and 1900 Messrs. Wilkinson and Barton, two junior Consular Assistants, were seconded for service here. In 1900 the War Office took over charge of the Cal Administration and Major-General Dorward was appointed His Majesty's Miltary and Civil Commissioner. In 1901 the Colonial Office took over the adminis tration from the War Office, and Sir A. R. Dorward was appointed Civil Commissioner under the Wei hai-wei Order in Council of 1901. Mr. Barton, after carrying out much excellent pioneering work, rejoined the Foreign Ollice, and Mr. Hare, of the Civil Service, Straits Settlements, succeeded him as Acting Assistant British Com-

missioner.

In 1902 Mr. Walter, of the Civil Service of the Federated Malay States, was attached to the Settlement as Financial Assistant and Secretary.

At the close of 1901, the War Office decided to abandon fortifying Wei-hai-wei, and transterred Sir A. R. Dorward to Shanghai, and the Colonial Office appointed Mr. J. Stewart Lockhart, of the Hong-Kong Civil Service, Commissioner in his place. Majer Cowan, Royal Engineers, "is acting as Commissioner until Mr. Lockhart's kival.

During the carly part of 1899 and 1900 Colonel Bower, of the 1st Chinese Regi- ment, assisted in the administration of part of the mainland district. Mr. Schaller, terpreter and Secretary to the 1st Chinese Regiment, has also been in charge of the Municipal area of the town of Mahto, on the mainland, from 1899 till the end of 1901.

The work of Colonial Surgeon has been performed by Major Starr, of the Royal Army Medical Corps, since 1899, assisted by several naval and military doctors who 4 ive been resident in the island from time to time during the last three years. The public works, ronds, survey and land registration work have been carried out by Major Lee, Royal Engineers, who has acted as Colonial Engineer and Surveyor since

1-99.

The financial accounts of the Settlement have been kept since 1900 by Quarter- toaster Sergeant Williamson, of the Army Pay Corps, under the supervision of the Commissioner, and the Army Pay Treasury Chest has been used for receiving and disbursing all public Colonial funds and for paying the salaries of civil officers.

G. T. ITARE, Acting Assistant British Commissioner, Wei-hai-wei,

Wei-hai-wei, April 25, 1902.

Appendix I.

WEI HAI-WEL.

Secretary, Chine-e Affairs,

Federated Malay States.

This territory was leased on the 1st July, 1898, fo Great Britain by China to provide His Majesty's Navy with a suitable naval harbour in North China, and for the better protection of British commmerce in the neighbouring seas. This lease is to run for so long a period as Port Arthur remains in the occupation of Russia. The territory leased comprises the island of Liu Kung and all the islands in the bay of Wei-hai-wei and a belt of land ten English mites wide along the entire coast line of the bay. 1 lies in latitude 37.30 north, longitude 123.10 east, and is 'the most eastern harbour on the north-eastern coast of the Shantung peninsula. The bay is six miles broad and from three to four wide. There is easy access to the bay from the eastern and western passages. The eastern channel is two and a quarter miles wide and the western one two thirds of a mile wide. The island of Liu Kung lies roughly east and west across the lay itself, forming these two channels. It is two miles long and about three quarters wide, and forms a complete protection to the anchorage,

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It is an easy place for shipping to make and steamers can load and discharge here in any wind. There is no other harbour in China where battleships and exean steamers can lie so close to the shore.

cargo

The leased territory was surveyed in 1899 by a reconnaisance party of Royal Engineers, and mapped on a scale of two inches to one mile. The total area was fixed at about 285 square miles, including the island of Liu Kung,

The sphere of influence comprising that part of the province lying cast of the meridian 121.40, along the sea shore, over which the British Government holds certain military rights, was surveyed on a scale of 14 inches to a mile and its area fixed at about 1,505 square miles."

The leased territory consists of ranges of rugged mountains and rocky hills up to 1,500 feet high, dividing the plains up into valleys and river beds.

The island of Liu Kung is barren and nearly treeless, and is formed by a backbone of hills rising to some 500 feet. The hill sides on the mainland are either barren rock or planted with dwarf pine and scrub oak trees. The valleys are mostly un- dulating country full of gullies and mountain river beds; the streams are all torrential and choke up the valleys with sand and debris from the hills. During three-quarters of the year these river beds are dry. All the hills are terraced for cultivation as far as possible.

The strata of the mountains are metamorphic, consisting of beds of quartzite, gneiss, crystalline and limestone, cut across by dykes of volanie rock and granite. Gold is found in the territory, and has been worked by the Chinese, and silver, tin, lead and iron are said to exist.

Proper boring operations under European management for minerals have not yet been undertaken. Good building stone and a rich non-hydraulic limestone are found.

The territory contains some 330 villages and the population is estimated to be 123,750. There are four small market towns where fairs are held every five days.

There is no local industry but a little rope making, boat building, line making and stone cutting is done. The Chinese inhabitants are either fishermen or farmers. The chief crops grown are maize, millet, wheat, sweet potatoes, buck wheat, turnips, beans and pea nuts. The food of the Chinese is cereals, fish, vegetables, or eggs. Very little fruit is cultivated. The scrub oak is grown to some extent for the maintenance of the silkworms. The raw silk produced is sold to the Chinese silk filatures at thefon,

There is no export trade except in salt fish, which is carried in Chinese junks to Southern China.

The import trade is not large, and is also carried on in Chinese junks. It consists of timber, firewood, and maize from Manchuria, and paper, crockery, sugar and tobacco from Southern China. The average yearly import of maize is about 50,000 piculs, valued at $250,000.

Most foreign

The value of the salt fish exported is about $60,000 per annum. goods are brought from Chefoo by junk to Wei-hai-wei,"consisting of picce goods, yarns, oils, matches and sugar.

The Government of Wei-hai-wei is administered by a Commissioner appointed under the Wei-hai-wei Order in Council of the 24th July, 1901. Under this order the Commissioner is empowered to make Ordinances for the administration of the territory.

There is a High Court established in which all jurisdiction, civil and criminal, is vested, subject to an appeal to the Supreme Court, in the Colony of Hong-Kong. District Magistrates' Courts are also provided for.

The Commissioner resides on the island of Liu Kung, and the Assistant Commis- sioner on the mainland at Malto.

The village communities are administered through their headmen in accordance with Chinese laws and usages, and the people have now entirely acquiesced in the newly established régimé.

All purely civil inatters are left as much as possible to the village chiefs. Difficulty is experienced in getting the village headmen to take any active steps in criminal matters, and very few persons will give evidence against their own village people. As a class the natives of the territory are law abiding and well behaved, are illiterate and very indigent. The territory is over populated, and too poor to support its population, and thousands of villagers emigrate yearly to Manchuria and Corea.