Directory_and_Chronicle_1938 — Page 780

A378

YOCHOWSHASI

Yochow having long been a distributing centre of this commodity for the neighbouring districts. The mainstay of export trade was wood oil. Ship- ments increased from 114,247 quintals valued at $5.9 million in 1935 to 140,564 quintals, valued at $11.6 million. The establishment of the China Vegetable Oils Corporation during the year aimed at improving the quality of wood oii to a standard that would meet with an encouraging reception in foreign markets. Next to wood oil came ramie from Yuenkiang, the quanti

exported being 35,403 quintals valued at $1.6 million. Considerably improved figures were also recorded in the exportation of raw cotton, lotus-nuts, broad beans, rice, and wheat. Steam navigation in the Siang River. was greatly nampered by the incessant drop in the water-level since the autumn, and much cargo had to be shipped by junk, otherwise better figures would have been shown in the Customs statistics.

關 州岳

CUSTOMS, CHINESE MARITIME

DIRECTORY

Commissioner-W. R. Myers

Fu 怡 E wo

JARDINE, MATHESON & Co., LTD., Mer-

chants

Chen Sung Tsun, agent

PU CHI STEAMSHIP Co.-Cable Ad:

0361

i.

Hong Sai Dong, agent

會初復美大

REFORMED CHURCH

City; Cable Ad:

Tu me fuh jso wei. MISSION Yochow Evrechurch

→

Rev. and Mrs. E. A. Beck John D. Beck and wife

Rev. & Mrs. Sterling W. Whitener Mrs. M. B. Hoy

Miss G. B. Hoy, secretary

Miss A. E. Traub

Mics M. E. Myers

Miss E. J. Flatter

Rev. & Mrs. T. F. Hilgeman

市

SHASI

iti # Sha-si

serious

Shasi (the "market on the sands") roughly 900 miles from the sea, is one of the ports opened to foreign trade under the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) the officiał deglaration of the opening being dated the 1st October, 1896. The port is about 85· miles below Ichang. It is reclaimed from the river by a magnificent system of dykes and canals. The district suffers periodically from the flooding of the Yangtze. On July, 4th, 1935, the river rose to a height of 35. 7 feet, the highest level in the history of Shasi, and nearly plunged over the dyke into the low lying roofs of 100,000 inhabitants, Many lives were lost in surrounding districts and whole towns disappeared under the waters. On the 9th and 10th May, 1898, a anti foreign

riot occurred at Shasi. The Customs Office and the residence of the Commissioner, the Customs boats, the premises of the China Mercliants' Company and their hulk, the office of the Foreign Board, the Japanese Consulate, the premises- occupied by the native agents of Messrs. Butterfield & Swire and Messrs. Jardine, Matheson & Co., and a number of newly-erected Chinese houses were burnt by the mobs, kerosene oil being used to feed the conflagration, and the foreign residents were driven out of the port, narrowly escaping with their lives. The Custom-house was re opened on the 1st July of the same year. In August, 1898, an area 3,800 Chinese feet in length, by 800 to 1,200 in breadth, lying along the riverside below the town, was assigned to Japan as a Japanese Concession but was not developed and much of the land on which it would have stood has since undergone erosion. The British Consulate was withdrawn in January, 1899, British interests being placed under the care of the

Page 780Page 781