Directory_and_Chronicle_1926 — Page 642

TIENTSIN

586

Tientsin owes its early importance to its location at the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, and its later development is mainly due to the opening up of North China to foreign trade, to improved railway communications with the Interior, and to the deepening of the Bar and the Hai Ho by the Hai Ho Conservancy Board. Before the advent of steamers, however, Tientsin had become a flourishing centre for junk traffic, and when the tribute rice no longer followed the Grand Canal route-owing to the shoaling of this ancient and celebrated waterway-it was sent to Tientsin in sea-going junks until comparatively recent years. It may be mentioned here that a Commission, composed of Chinese and foreign engineers, has been estab lished to draw up plans for the improvement of the Grand Canal, and hopes are entertained that this waterway will ultimately be restored to something like its former usefulness. While it is improbable that it will ever again be used for through traffic from the Yangtsze it will doubtless serve a very useful purpose as a means of com- inunication between many busy trading centres in this Province and Tientsin. The natural expansion of trade to be expected from Tientsin's unique position as the distributing centre of North China has been arrested from time to time by the defective communications with the sea; both the Hai Ho and the Taku Bar have stood in the way of development and limited the carrying trade of the port to light-draught coasting steamers. It would be difficult indeed to find another city in the world of equal com- mercial importance, or serving so rich and extensive and so densely populated a hinterland, with so poor shipping facilities. A river improvement scheme of some importance was inaugurated in 1898 under the direction of Mr. de Linde, a local engineer who had studied conservancy matters here over a number of years, and later on raking operations on the Bar on a plan devised by Mr. T. T. Ferguson, of the Maritime Customs, resulted in deepening the channel and facilitating navigation for the time being. But it remained for the Hai Ho Conservancy Board, established by the Peace Protocol, to prosecute the work of improving the navigational interests of the port and thus render great services to shipping by successfully overcoming some of the chief difficulties. Four important cuttings have been effected in the river, for example, which have not only facilitated the movement of the flood tide but have shortened the distance to the sea by some 20 miles by the removal of some corkscrew windings and dangerous bends; and powerful dredgers have been acquired for work on the Bar.

Early in September, 1917, the Hunho was in flood, and, finally, the Grand Canal burst its banks a few miles west of Tientsin, carrying away the main line of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway, which resulted in the Concessions being flooded before much warning of the impending danger could be given. The Municipal authorities of the various Concessions dealt with the problem in a prompt and public-spirited manner, and it was ultimately decided to enclose the submerged Concessions with a dyke and pump out the flood waters therefrom. The lengths of the various dykes in miles were approximately as follows:-Chinese (ex-Gernian) 0.47; British, 1.40; French and British, 0.87; French, 0.32; Japanese, 2.27; total, 5.33 miles. Powerful pumps were then erected, and the whole undertaking for the British and French Concessions was successfully and expeditiously completed in a fortnight. It took longer to clear the Japanese Concession, however, where the water was from 7 to 10 feet deep in places. It is estimated that over 15,000 square miles of the most populous part of the Chilli province between Paotingfu and Tientsin were flooded, and it has been calculated that crops to the value of $100,000,000 were utterly lost, and that 80,000 groups of dwellings, ranging from hamlets to large villages. were destroyed.

In 1924 unprecedentedly heavy rains in the hinterland caused a very severe flood in the district between Paotingfu, Peking and Tientsin, though fortunately both these latter towns escaped. About the middle of July it was evident that an immense volume of water was moving down from the interior and threatening Tientsin. That Tientsin was not flooded was due to several causes. Principally the comparatively recent improvements in the Haibo, ie, the construction of a new and straight channel through Tombs bend cutting whil, eliminating the previous sharp bends in the river at this point, allowed a free and uninterrupted passage for the water; and, secondly, to the eleventli-hour precautions of strengthening the dykes. These were not only confined to the outer defences of Tientsin, which took the form of raising the Haikuanssu and Weitze Creek dykes; but, also, the British Concession Water Works and Electric Power stations were admirably protected by surrounding dykes, and the French Council raised a wall 3 or 4 feet high at the rear of the French Concession. A two-feet dyke was also raised on the bund along the front of the Concessions. However, the danger was not expected from the south, where there were three lines of defences-the