Directory_and_Chronicle_1905 — Page 781

SHANGHAI

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although the narrowness of the streets on the East and West sides considerably detracts from the possibility of obtaining a good view of the block. They took about eighteen months to erect and have been built from the designs and under the superintendence of Mr. C. Mayne, C.E., the Municipal Engineer, and Mr. F. M. Gratton, F.R.I.B.A., of the firm of Morrison and Gratton of Shanghai, as joint architects and en- gineers. A New Mixed Court, an imposing structure, was completed in 1899. A monu- ment to the memory of Mr. A. R. Margary, of the British Consular service, who was murdered by Chinese in Yunnan, was unveiled in June, 1880, and a statue of the late Sir Harry Parkes, British Minister to Peking, was erected in 1890. A bronze monument in memory of the heroic death of the crew of the German gunboat Iltis, lost in a typhoon off the coast of Shantung on 25th July, 1896, was erected on the Bund, at the end of the Peking road, in November, 1898. The principal buildings on the French Concession are the Municipal Hall and the Consulate. A bronze statue of Admiral Protet, who was killed when directing an attack on Nan-yao on 17th May, 1862, stands in front of the Municipal Hall. The Public Markets of the French Concession are large and well built and are perfect as regards sanitary arrangements.

The Council of the French Settlements voted in 1902 the amount of 90,000 Taels for the building of a street tramway-line from the Place de l'Est via the French Bund and the Rue de Consulat to the French Camp, but not a rail has yet been laid. Nor is the tramway scheme in the International Settlement in a much more advanced state. A contract was entered into with a British firm early in 1903, but owing to general financial depression the firm asked for an extension of time which the council refused to grant and the company thereupon abandoned the conces- sion. Fresh advertisements for tenders were accordingly published.

INSTITUTIONS

Among the institutions of the place may be mentioned the Volunteer Defence Force, under the command of Major W. M. Watson (West Riding Regiment) with Major Brodie A. Clarke as second in command. It consists of Staff 11, Light Horse 39, Artillery 68, "A" Company 87, "B" Company 53, German Company 45, Customs Company 59, Japanese Company 50, Reserve Company 87, Medical Staff 13, Maxim Gun Company 46, Signalling Company 20, total of all ranks 586. These numbers are exclusive of the Band. Originally formed in 1861 the Volunteer Force gradually went to decay, until the fear of attack after the Massacre at Tientsin in 1870 caused its revival with considerable vigour. It again dwindled in numbers, but the last re-organisation under Major Holliday proved successful and in 1900, during the China crisis, the membership of 300 was more than trebled and included an American and Naval Companies since disbanded. The annual inspection was made in 1904 by Lieut.-Colonel C. N. Watts, of the Hongkong Garrison, and the Corps was awarded high praise. The infantry is armed with the Lec-Metford rifle. A separate Company of Volunteers under the order of the French Consul-General was formed in May, 1897. The Fire Brigade, which is entirely volunteer with a paid depart- mental Engineer, has a strength of 77 and consists of four Engine and one Hook and Ladder Companies. It attended 104 fires in 1903. It is pronounced to be one of the most efficient volunteer brigades in the world. There is now a Public Health Laboratory at which bacteriological investigations and chemical analyses are carried out, vaccine lymph prepared, and the Pasteur treatment of rabies undertaken. The Municipal Nursing Home has existed for seven years and given much satisfaction. The Victoria Nursing Home has 25 beds and had 262 indoor cases in 1903. It also undertakes outdoor cases. There is a Hospital for foreigners, the building for which, although only completed in 1877, is already found inadequate and several additions have been made. There are also several Hospitals for natives and three Municipal Hospitals for infectious diseases. The other public institutions may be enumerated as, a Subscription Library containing about 20,000 volumes, a branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, with the nucleus of a Museum, a Masonic Club, a Sailors' Home, a Polytechnic Institution for Chinese, a Seamen's Library and Museum, a Wind Instrument Band of thirty-five men, paid by the Municipality, which gives concerts in the Public Gardens every day during the summer months, a Race Club, possessing a course of a mile and a quarter, and which holds race meetings in May and November, a Country Club on the Bubbling Well Road, Parsee, Portuguese, and Customs Clubs, also Pony Paper Hunt, Cricket, Rifle, Yacht, Baseball, Racquet, Golf, Skating, Football, Swimming and various other Clubs, Philharmonic and Choral Societies, English and French Amateur Dramatic

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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN