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TIENTSIN

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quantities of tribute rice yearly sent up to the capital, after the Grand Canal shoaled up so as to be unfit for carriage in bulk. The trade of the city was imperilled by the silting up of the Pei-ho, but a river improvement scheme of some magnitude was inaugurated in 1898 under Mr. A. de Linde, and the Peace Protocol of 1901 contains clauses which constitute a Board of Conservancy (now in existence) and the provision of fairly liberal funds for the maintenance of the work. It is, however, generally believed that no lasting success will attend the remedial measures until steps are taken to deal with the Taku Bar by permanent dredging; meanwhile by closing the canals and creeks which take off most of the flood tide, by giving a larger radius of curvature to the bends, and by widening the Reach, and making three cuttings to straighten the river, its navigability has been greatly ameliorated. Unhappily in 1912 a break was made by floods in the East bank of the Pei Ho at Li Shu Chen (above Tungchow), which caused the deflection of the waters of the Pei Ho, the main tributary of the Hai Ho, to the Pei Tang River, which enters the Gulf further North. This was attended with grave consequences, and enormously increased the burden of the Hai Ho Conservancy Board, whose dredgers were thereafter employed ceaselessly in the endeavour to keep the river open for steamship navigation to Tientsin. There are five dredgers at work at the present time. The breach at Li Shu Chen was repaired by December, 1916, after which the condition of the river-bed progressively improved. The mud obtained from the river-bed has been usefully and remuneratively employed in the filling-in of the foreign Concessions, which work began in 1910. The whole of the ex-German Concession below the Canal has been filled in, and also portions of the French, Japanese and British Extra-Mural Concessions. The deepening of the Bar Channel has progressed satisfactorily, the powerful suction-dredger Chung Hua having been engaged permanently on this work since 1914. The Bar dredging-plant was in 1915 improved by the addition of two hopper barges built especially for this

work.

In the latter part of the Summer of 1917, in consequence of the torrential rains which succeeded an unusually prolonged period of complete drought in the interior, a vast tract of territory in the Province of Chihli, estimated at about 15,000 square miles, became flooded to a great depth, rendering thousands of Chinese homeless and causing wholesale destruction. On September 24 the Foreign Concessions were invaded by the flood waters as the result of the bursting of the banks of the Yu Ho, or Grand Canal. A tremendous volume of water poured across country, and the British Extra-Mural Areas and Extension, the greater part of the old Concession, the whole of the Japanese Concession, and parts of the French and ex-German Concessions were flooded, in many places to a depth of four to five feet. Europeans in the inundated districts had to seek refuge elsewhere, while the plight of the Chinese was pitiable.

Public opinion demanded that the problem of the Chihli waterways be tackled finally and comprehensively with a view to preventing a similar disaster in the future, and the Chinese Government appointed a special Commission, under the chairmanship of H. E. Hsiung Hsi-ling, and including foreign experts, to examine the questions thoroughly and to submit recommendations to the Government. The appoint- ment of this Commission soon bore important results, and, in 1918, many of the recommendations of the foreign experts were carried out. The condition of the Hai Ho, in particular, has been immensely improved. From a conservancy standpoint the most interesting local work of 1918 was the completion of the Cathedral Cutting. The action of the tides will be facilitated by the removal of the sharp bends in the old arın of the river, and the harbour generally will benefit--more particularly the section between the International and ex-Austrian Concession Bridges. The question of extending the anchorage to the latter has received attention of late, and the improvement in the river in the vicinity which is expected to result from the straightening of the Haiho by effecting this cutting is likely to further the scheme, which is worthy of strong support. Another notable event in connexion with conservancy matters was the appointment of a Board composed of Chinese and foreign engineers to draw up plans for the improvement of the Grand Canal.

In the winter of 1914-15 ice-breakers were utilised in the Hai Ho, and there are now four such vessels the property of the Conservancy. It appears that the Flood caused about 1,000.000 cubic yards of silt to drop in the Bar Channel on a width of 500 feet reducing the depth from 9.3 feet Taku Datem to 2.5 feet T. D. In such circumstances the ice-breakers could function for a few hours only each tide, not long enough to keep the approaches to the river free of ice. The trade of the city, however, no longer depends entirely on the free passage of the river. The railway now carries nearly 50 per cent. of the city's trade with the interior, and railway development

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