Directory_and_Chronicle_1917 — Page 865

Mrs. H. L. Beer

Miss Beer

Mrs. H. W. Bell Mrs. Brown Mrs. C. R. Burnett Mrs. Duncan Clark Miss Clark Mrs. R. F. Clark Miss P. D. Crawley Mrs. F. G. Crudge Miss Daniell

WEIHAIWEI-KIAOCHAU

LADIES' DIRECTORY

Mrs. F. Forcey Miss Gresham Mrs. Hamblin Mrs. T. Hartley Mrs. E. N. Hili Mrs. Hope Greig Mrs. A. E. House Mrs.G. H. Jennings Lady Stewart Lockhart Miss Stewart Lockhart Mrs. Lemon

Mrs. Lumsden

Mrs. A. W. Matthews

Mrs. Monsarrat

Mrs. W. M. Muat

Mrs. Ockenden

Miss Pettifer Miss Rout Mrs. Smith Mrs. Smyth Mrs. Whitelaw Mrs. Whittaker

KIAOCHAU (TSINGTAU)

HKiáu-chau

771

Tsingtau, situated at the entrance to Kiaochau Bay in Shantung, was occupied by a German squadron on the 14th November, 1897, in consequence of the murder of two German missionaries, and Germany obtained from China a lease of the territory for the term of ninety nine years. When the great war in Europe broke out in 1914, Japan, under the terms of her treaty of alliance with Great Britain, intervened because the peace of the Far East was menaced by the German occupation of Kiaochau, inasmuch as the Colony constituted a naval base for operations in the East against the shipping and terri- tories of the countries with whom Germany was at war. Shortly after the outbreak of the war Japan advised Germany to disarm all her armed vessels in Chinese and Japanese waters, and to hand Kiaochau over to Japan with a view to its eventual restoration to China. Germany returned no reply to this communication. Consequently on August 23rd Japan declared war against Germany, and took measures at once in co-operation with the British to blockade and invest the German territory of Kiaochau. The bombardment of the place by land and sea began on September 27th and the garrison capitulated on November 7th after all the forts had been taken by a final night attack, in which the South Wales Borderers took part with the Japanese. H.M.S. Triumph and the destroyers Usk and Kennett assisted in the naval operations. Upwards of 5,000 prisoners were taken and conveyed to Japan for internment until the end of the war.

While Kiaochau was in German occupation, the special attention of the Adminis- tration was devoted to agricultural, commercial and mining development in the Protectorate and Shantung. The local administration consisted of a Council, composed of all the heads of the several administrative departments under the personal supervision of the Governor and four members chosen from the civil population and appointed for two years. The Protectorate developed to an unlooked-for extent under this system of administration, which enabled all the vital questions at issue, such as legal rights, landed properties, land tax assessment, school and Church matters, to be satisfactorily settled. The object of the Administration in dealing with the land question was to secure for every settler the lasting possession of his plot, thereby opposing unhealthy land speculation. Tsingtau, on the 2nd September, 1898, was de- clared a free port. The harbour had all the advantages of a Treaty port, and as a free port especially recommended itself as an emporium, since the merchant could there store, free of duty, his wares from abroad or his raw materials brought from the interior of China. The Chinese import duties were at first levied only on goods brought to Tsingtau by sea, when they were transported beyond the borders of the Protectorate into Chinese territory. The Chinese export duties were at first levied