Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 668

TIENTSIN

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to Hankow branches off. This line was completed and opened to traffic in November, 1905. In 1900 the violence of the Boxers was chiefly directed against the railways, all of which were more or less destroyed, but under British, French, and Russian military administration they were afterwards all restored to their former efficiency. As usual, the railway has brought all sorts of foreseen and unforeseen contingencies with it. Farmers up near Shanhaikwan are supplying fruit and vegetables to Tientsin. An enormous trade in pea-nuts (with Canton) has been created. Coal has come extensively into Chinese household use; the foreign residents are developing a first-rate watering place at Pei-tai-ho on the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, and all the various industries of the city have been stimulated. Brick buildings are springing up in all directions and the depressing-looking adobe (mud) huts are diminishing.

The

Foreigners formerly lived in three concessions-British, French, and German- which fringed the river below the city and covered an area of less than 500 acres. Japanese took up a concession in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. They filled in land, laid out new streets and built a large number of houses in foreign style. During 1901 Russia, Belgium, Italy, and Austro-Hungary all appropriated large areas on the left bank of the Hai-ho as future Settlements, while the existing concessions extended their boundaries very considerably. These developments have thrown all present and future landing facilities for direct sea-going traffic into foreign hands. The concessions have excellent and well-lighted roads, with an electric tramway system. The British Municipality has a handsome Town Hall, completed in 1889; adjoining there is a well-kept public garden, opened in the year of Jubilee and styled Victoria Park. An excellent recreation ground of 10 acres has been developed, in which tennis-courts, etc., have been laid out. The various British areas-known as the British Concession, British Extension, and the Extra-Mural Area-have been amalgamated to form one Municipal Area under a Council elected on a broad franchise. New land regulations have come into force, and it is stipulated therein that the new Council consist of nine members, of whom five shall be British subjects. Candidates must be nominated by two electors and all electors are eligible to serve on the Council. Voting is to be on a sliding scale; the minimum qualification for a foreign voter being the payment of Tls. 20 per annum in respect of land-tax or the occupation of premises of an assessed value of Tls. 480 per annum, and for Chinese the payment of Tls. 240 per annum in respect of land-tax or the occupation of premises of an assessed rental of Tls. 3,000 per annum--the discri- mination between foreign and Chinese electors being intended apparently to prevent the possibility of the foreign vote being completely swamped in an area set apart primarily for foreign residence and trade. The development of the various concessions continues to advance at a great rate; but the question of the terms required for the extension of Crown leases in the (original) British Concession-which have only 40 years to run-is agitating the holders of property there, for, until the actual terms are settled and published, the development of the area is, and will continue to be, retarded, to the advantage of the other concessions. Delay in settling this question is now assuming a greater importance than the question of the amount of the increased rentals, important as that is.

Upon the entry of China into the Great War in 1917 the Chinese Authorities took over the German and Austrian Concessions on the 16th March of that year, and these have since been administered by the Chinese Police Bureau, but authority has been received from the Central Government to form an advisory committee of local residents. In the autumn of 1920 the local Chinese authorities assumed charge of Russian Consular functions and the policing of the Russian Concession, leaving the Municipal Council, however, to continue to function in minor municipal affairs. The nationalities of the owners of land in the Russian Concession, based on the assessed value, is in the following proportion:-American, 13.95 per cent.; British, 41.52; Chinese, 10.92; Japanese, 23.58; Russian, 8.19; other nationalities, 1.84 per cent.

A feature of Tientsin which arrests the attention of visitors is the open-air storage of cargo on the British and French Bunds, which have thus become in effect a "general godown." A great deal of confusion and congestion formerly existed from this practice, but the British Municipality has recently elaborated an excellent scheme whereby the Bund is divided into numbered steamer-sections and storage-spaces, and the roadway onow kept clear of cargo. The result has more than justified expecta- tions, and the riderly storage of goods in marked-off spaces not only allows a proper control to be kept over all such cargo but has facilitated communications by keeping the carriage-wayclear of obstructions.