Directory_and_Chronicle_1924 — Page 753

LUNGKOW-WEIHAIWEI

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An imposing theatre was erected during the year 1922, capable of seating several thousand people. The site is about half way between the eastern limit of the old town and the New Pier. Next to this building a number of small entertainment houses have sprung up, and the occupation of these by singers and actors, it is hoped, will be an inducement to land investment in that direction, instead of west and south as matters now stand.

DIRECTORY

ASIATIC PETROLEUM CO.

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO CO.

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME

Deputy Commissioner-R. T. Nelson

1st Clerks-Cheung Kai Neu and Jen

Chiu Ming

Boat Officer-W. Jenkins

Examiner-H. Hyatt Tidewaiter-S. Suzuki

STANDARD OIL CO.

HWANG HSIEN

NORTH CHINA MISSION

Ayers, Bryan and Hartwell

WEIHAIWEI

衞海威 Weihaiwei

Weihaiwei is situated on the south side of the Gulf of Pechili near the extremity of the Shantung Promontory, and about 115 miles distant from Port Arthur on the north-west and the same from the port of Kiaochau on the south-west. Formerly a strongly-fortified Chinese naval station, it was captured by the Japanese on 30th January, 1895, and was held by them pending the payment of the indemnity, which was finally liquidated in 1898. Before the evacuation by the Japanese an agreement was arrived at between Great Britain and China that the former should take over the territory on lease from the latter, and, accordingly, on the 24th May, 1898, the British flag was formally hoisted, the Commissioners representing their respective countries at the ceremony being Consul Hopkins, of Chefoo, and Captain King Hall, of H.M.S. Narcissus, for Great Britain, and Taotai Yen and Captain Lin, of the Chinese war vessel Foochi, for China. Weihaiwei was leased to Great Britain "for so long a period as Port Arthur shall remain in the occupation of Russia," and was regarded by the British Government as a sanatorium for the British squadron on the China station. At the Washington Conference in 1921 Great Britain offered to return the territory to China, and during the latter part of 1922 an Anglo-Chinese Commission met to deal with the questions arising out of this. These questions included arrangements for the use of the port by the British Fleet as a summer station, provisions for the safety of foreign residents, and the representation of foreign residents in the administration of the territory. In the latter part of 1923, the text of the agreement under which H.B.M. Government were prepared to hand back the territory to China was published.

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The leased territory, which lies in latitude 37 deg. 30min.N, longitude 122 deg.10min.E, comprises the Island of Liu Kung, all the islands in the Bay of Weihaiwei, and a belt of land 10 English miles wide along the entire coastline, and consists of ranges of rugged mountains and rocky hills up to 1,500 feet high, dividing the plains into valleys and river beds. The island of Liu Kung, once barren and nearly treeless but now verdant and picturesque as the result of a system of afforestation inaugurated in 1910,