Directory_and_Chronicle_1913 — Page 897

852

SHANGHAI

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. An efficient tram service is maintained in both

Settlements.

INSTITUTIONS.

Among the institutions of the place may be mentioned the Volunteer Defence Force, composed of members of all nationalities, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel A. A. S. Barnes (Wiltshire Regiment), with Major T. E. Trueman as second in command. It consists of Staff 11, Light Horse 46, Artillery 43, Maxim Company 40, Engineer Company 34, “A” Company Mounted Rifles 98, “B” Company 57, German Company 81, Customs Company 61, Japanese Company 48, American Company 71, Portuguese Company 68, Chinese Company : 2, Unit Reserve 24, Buglers 16, Reserve Company 118, German Reserve 29. Mounted Scouts 24, 12-Bore Company 36, Light Horse Reserve 30, Portuguese Company Sportsmen's Section 31, total 49 officers and 755 non-commissioned officers and men on the active list and 9 Officers and 283 rank and file reserve, a grand total of 1096, and thirteen retired officers. These numbers are exclusive of the Medical Staff and 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 the late Major Holliday proved successful, and in 1900, during the Boxer crisis, the membership of 300 was more than trebled and included a Naval Company, since disbanded. The annual inspection was made on 20th April, 1912, by Col. C. W. R. St. John of the Hongkong Garrison, and the Corps was awarded high praise. 47 officers and 712 men were present on parade. The infantry is armed with the Lee-Metford rifle. A separate Company of Volunteers, under the order of the French Consul-General, was formed in May, 1897. The Fire Brigade consists of 60 Foreign volunteers with a paid departmental engineer, and 96 Native assistants, and is composed of three Fire Engine and one. Hook and Ladder Companies, a spare fire engine and fire float and 11,000 feet of hose. It attended 81 fires in 1911, at one of which 74 houses were destroyed and 10 damaged. It is pronounced to be one of the most efficient volunteer brigades in the world. Owing to the increased numbers of fires an independent brigade for the French Settlement was formed in April, 1908. 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 Settlements are well provided with hospitals. In addition to the large General Hospital, recently rebuilt and forming a four-storied block on the northern bank of the Soochow Creek, to which an extension is now being built, there is the Victoria Nursing Home, presented by the community as a Jubilee Memorial, with 25 beds and an efficient English nursing staff available for outside attendance, and a large isolation hospital for infectious cases, native and foreign, all these being directly under Municipal control. A bungalow to be used as a sanatorium in connection with the Nursing Home was purchased in 1907. There are likewise several private institutions under the control of the various missionary bodies. The other public institutions may be enumerated as, a Subscription Library containing about 25,000 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 ten Europeans and twenty-four Filipinos, paid by the Municipality, which gives concerts in the Public Gardens every day during the summer months, dance music in the Town Hall and Sunday concerts, a Race Club, possessing a course of a mile and a quarter, which holls 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 Societies, and other institutions for amusement and recreation. There are sixteen Masonic bodies, with over 500 members, In 1876 a District Grand Lodge for North China was constituted under the Grand Lodge of England; and in 1902 the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts also erected a China Province with a District Grand Lodge under a District Deputy Grand Master, both having their headquarters in Shanghai.

INDUSTRIES

There are five Docks at Shanghai. The one at Tungkadoo, opposite the city, has

■ length of 380 feet over all, with a depth at spring tides of 21 feet; the Old Dock at