Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 960

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HANKOW

Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, and at a recent conference there the matter was discussed at some length, as is well known, and a resolution was passed suggesting that a technical commission should be appointed to make a preliminary study of the whole question with a view to formulating general proposals in connection with the ultimate appointment of a Yangtsze Conservancy Board. The extensive silting at Chinkiang, moreover, has been the subject of further representations during the past few years from public bodies urging the necessity of adopting measures to save the waterfront, etc., at that important centre, and while largely a local question immediately con- cerning the port of Chinkiang, it is, nevertheless, connected to some extent with the general regimen of the river as a whole. But notwithstanding the magnitude of the trade, shipping, and revenue interests involved, the possibility of facilitating business by im- proving the communications and rendering navigable for deep-draught steamers at all seasons of the year a considerable part of the waterway draining some 750,000 square miles of territory, with a population approaching 180 millions, nothing of a tangible nature has hitherto been done to tackle the question seriously, and, indeed, until the last few years it has aroused little or no public interest. It may be mentioned, however, that Mr. F. Palmer, one of the eminent engineers who served recently on the Shanghai Harbour Investigation Committee, mentioned above, has been requested by the Chinese Government to visit the Yangtsze and submit a preliminary report on the general subject of conservancy in conjunction with Mr. H. von Heidenstam, of the Whangpoo Conservancy Board, and Mr. Yang Pao-ling, of the Commission for the Im provement of the River System of Chihli, and further investigations on the same lines will be continued during the autnmn of 1922. It is idle for a layman to speculate upon such a highly technical subject as the conservancy policy which ought to be adopted in connection with so large a river as the Yangtsze, but obviously one of the chief objects to be attained is to render it possible for steamers of larger draught than are at present admitted in the winter season to come up to Hankow at all times of the year. And to accomplish this end it will be necessary to proceed on general lines and not confine operations merely to improving local conditions at individual ports, but rather to have one co-ordinated scheme for the whole river, or, at least, from Hankow to the sea. Financial difficulties will arise, of course, but the capacity of the trade dealt with on the Yangtsze to pay for such expenditure as would be involved may be presumed. At other centres in China the slight increase of taxation imposed to meet the cost of conservancy works has not adversely influenced general business interests, while the economies effected in transportation, and in many cases the elimination of transhipment charges, etc., have far outbalanced such charges. The collapse of a cluster of those curious dwellings erected on piles on the shores of the Han River, on the 7th December, which resulted in the loss of some 10 lives, emphasises the highly unsatisfactory_conditions which exist along the banks of this stream in the vicinity of Hankow. In the first place, a number of these ramshackle houses overhang the waterway in an alarming manner, the object being to escape the high ground-rents on shore; and secondly, jetties and such-like structures have been permitted to spring up on both banks to an extent which has seriously impeded the flow of water and resulted in narrowing the fairway to an inconvenient extent by the dangerous accumulation of silt. The last right-angle bend just before the Han debouches into the Yangtsze is in a particularly unsatisfactory condition, and if the erosion there continues unchecked the question of either cutting a new mouth, as las already been proposed, or taking steps to preserve the left bank at this point from further damage should receive careful consideration, in view of the danger of the flood waters breaking through, etc. The conservation of the lower reaches of the Han, indeed, would appear to bear a direct relation to the improvement of the Hankow harbour, and, if this opinion is correct, it follows that in the interests of navigation and trade the matter demands serious attention,"

The Yangtze River Conservancy Board has since been established with head- quarters in Peking, and a branch of the Board, known as the "Technical Committee," has been appointed and functions in Shanghai. This Committee includes Mr. Yang Pao-ling (Chairman), the Coast Inspector, Mr. von Heidenstam and Mr. van der Veen, and has been actively engaged during the past two years in effecting detailed surveys of the River, etc. These, with the vast store of information already collected by the Maritime Customs, have been placed at the disposal of Mr. Palmer, who came out to China again last Autuinn and, with the members of the Technical Committee, made investigations as far as Chungking. Mr. Palmer will ultimately draw up a report and submit definite recommendations with the object of so conserving the River as to permit deep draught steamers to visit Hankow at all seasons and thus provide for direct communication between the latter emporium and Europe and America.

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