Directory_and_Chronicle_1922 — Page 813

SHANGHAI

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communication with Europe. An overland line to Tientsin was opened in December, 1881, subsequently extended to Peking, and in 1894 connected with the Russian land lines through Siberia to Europe. There is also a line west to Kashgar and south as far as Laokay on the Yunnan border, there connecting with the French Tonkin lines and to Bhamo, connecting with the Burmah line. During the operations in 1900, the Allied Powers found it necessary to be independent of the Chinese landlines, and submarine cables were laid connecting Shanghai with Kiaochow, Weihaiwei, Chefoo, and Port Arthur. Within the past two or three years a wireless installation has been erected at Siccawei giving direct communication with Lyons in France. The first railway in China was constructed by a foreign company and opened from Shanghai to Woosung in June, 1876, but after running for sixteen months it was purchased and taken up by the Chinese Authorities. During the short time it was running the passenger traffic alone covered the working expenses, leaving sufficient profit to pay a small dividend. Twenty years afterwards it was reconstructed. There is railway communication now with Nanking viâ Soochow and Chinkiang on the north, and Hangchow viâ Sunkiang and Kaching on the south. Rapid progress has been made towards the reorganisation of the Kiangsu-Chekiang railway under the control of the directorate of the Shanghai- Nanking railway. This line received no small damage at the lands of the rebels during the disturbances in 1913. General plans for the linking up of this railway with the Kiangsu line have already been formulated and negotiations for the purchase of the necessary land are proceeding apace. There are several locally-owned lines of steamers running on the coast and the river Yangtsze. Many manufactories under both native and foreign auspices have sprung up of late years, and would have done so in large numbers long ago had it not been that the native authorities offered strong opposition to any manu- factories under the control of foreigners and tried to strangle the importation of foreign machinery. Although the right under the Treaty to import machinery is quite clear, the British Government hesitated to enforce it; but the Japanese, in the Treaty of 1895 which closed the war, obtained the insertion of a clause specially authorising its importation. With the number of mills working and others in course of construction, the place is rapidly assuming the appearance of a thriving district in Lancashire. Indeed, Shanghai bids fair to become the principal centre of the cotton industry in the Far East. There are also a number of ginning factories, foreign and native-owned. The Silk Filatures give employment to 20,000 natives. Other industries include Hydraulic Packing Factories, foreign and native-owned Paper Mills, and Chinese-owned Match Factories. There are also large foreign Flour Mills (for grinding native wheat, which, it is said, makes excellent flour); two Kerosene Tank Oil and Tinning establish- ments and works, and various other industries which are fast increasing in number. During 1919 several new manufacturing projects were established, including a new steelworks, a glass factory, a cigarette factory, and an oil mill.

No notice of the important place taken by Shanghai in the industrial progress of the East would be complete without a reference to the large engineering and shipbuilding establishments which now form a conspicuous feature in the business of the place. Already in the early 'fifties, Mr. William Muirhead, an engineer officer in the service of the P. & O. S. N. Co., had conceived the idea of starting a repairing shop. With the exception of the P. & O., which then ran a fortnightly mail service from Hongkong, there was no regular line of steamers trading with the port, and the visits of coasting steamers were few and far between. Still, as the northern terminal port in China, occasional jobs came in. After the opening of Tientsin and the northern ports, and more especially after the opening of Japan, the business commenced to increase, and room was found for another small establishment to begin, Messrs. Nicolson & Boyd. Towards the end of the 'sixties Mr. Muirhead retired owing to failing health, and his business passed over to his former competitors. Meantime, as a number of sailing ships then entered the port, many of which came from the United States, two enterprising American shipwrights, S. C. Farnham and C. P. Blethen, had started, in connection with the "Old Dock," a general shipbuilding and repairing establishment under the style of S. C. Farnham & Co., and this from small beginnings rapidly grew in importance. The opening of the Suez Canal enormously increased the number of steamers visiting the port, and the Japanese daimios of the old régime were seized with general desire to become steamer owners, so that the trade got a considerable filli, and in the way of docking and repairs a large amount of local business commenced to spring up, and competition finally became strong. About 1890 both the old partners in S. C. Farnham & Co. having died, their successors conceived the idea of converting the old business into a limited liability company, and this was finally accomplished in 1893. In 1892 another limited liability