174
SHANGHAI ENGINEERING, SHIP-
BUILDING, AND DUCK.
CO., LIMITED,
The second general meeting of the share- holders in the above Company was held at the offices of Messrs. Dodwell, Carlill & Co., Shanghai on the 16th August. Mr. Douglas Jones presided, and there were also present, Count Butler, Messrs. O. Middleton, Chnn Fairing, and Otto Meuser (Directors), and Messrs. T. Weir, E. W. Clements. J. M. Young, L. J. Vauder- stegeu, J. Ford, J. Watson, J. West, J. Blechynden, J. J. Buchheister, F. Clifton, J. Valentine. J. W. H. Burgoyne, and R. J. MacGowan (Secretary).
The notice convening the meeting having been read.
The CHAIRMAN said-Gentlemen, with your consent we will take the minutes of the last meeting as read; they were duly published. And also, gentlemen, I will ask you, as the ac- counts and the report have been in your hands now for some days, that you will allow me to take them as read. The report is so full, that it leaves me very few remarks to make upon it, but I trust that you will agree with your directors in thinking that the result of the first eight months' working is satisfactory, more particularly when remembering the heavy rains which fell during the last portion of 1896, and the early part of the present year, which in the partly uncovered condition of the Engineering works at Yangtze- poo, retarded work very considerably. As re- gards the new dock and works being built on the Pootung side, bad weather, and the late arrival of our timber, and small troubles, among which were the troubles with the workmen, which have been shared by pretty well every building oper- ation going on in the Settlement, have also pre- vented our proceeding as quickly as we should like to have done. At the same time it is satisfactory to know that there have been no accidents to the dock itself, and that the excavation is now within six feet of the limit. The cofferdam has on two occasions given us trouble, but, though annoying, I am glad to say that repairs will not be costly, and our manager thinks will now be effectual. The buildings aro progrossing satis- factorily; some of them are finished and the machine shop will be ready to receive the plant when it arrives. We have as much work in hand as our limited space at Yangtzepoo will enable us to deal satisfactorily with. I think, gentlemen, there is nothing more I can say in connection with the accounts and the report; but before sitting down I shall be happy to answer any questions any of the shareholders may put, to the best of my ability.
Mr. BUCHHEISTER-I was told the other day that this cofferdam question was not such a very small question as has been presented, I am very glad to hear from what the Chairman has said that the repairs will not be very costly, and I hope this is really & fact. I was told only two days ago by one of our com- petitors that it would take at least Tls.10,000 and six weeks to repair the cofferdam. I would be glad to hear a denial of this statement.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
| to give it all the attention he would have liked to have done, and certainly as we would like to have him do, on account of his ill-health, but he has shown me to-day that the cofferdam is all right, and that we will have no more trouble with it. If there are no questions, I beg to propose
That the accounts up to the end of April, 1897, and the report as printed, be passed.
Count BUTLER seconded.
Carried unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN-According to the Articles of Association, one of the directors retires at this meeting, but as he is eligible for re-election, he offers himself. That gentleman is Mr. Otto
Meuser.
Mr. MIDDLETON proposed, and Mr. Chun FAITING seconded :---
That Mr. Otto Meuser be re-elected a direc- tor of the Company.
Carried unanimously.
The CHAIRMAN-That concludes the business
of the meeting, gentlemen, and I thank you for your attendance. I wish it was in my power to
tell you that dividend warrants would be out to-morrow-(Laughter)-but I bare no doubt myself that they will appear in due course, and that a little patience on the part of the share- holders in the Company will be rewarded.
The preceedings then terminated with a vote of thanks to the Chairman, proposed by Mr. J. M. Young and seconded by Mr. Vanderstegen. -Mercury.
THE BANK OF CHINA AND JAPAN,
·LD., AND ITS CHINESE
SHAREHOLDERS,
The following correspondence is published with the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce :
THE CHAMBER TO THE SENIOR CONSUL.
Shanghai, 7th July, Sir,-The attention of the Committee of this Chamber having been called to the case of the Bank of China and Japan, Ld., against its Chinese contributories in the matter of the refusal of the latter to carry out their engagements as re- gards the payments of the calle due upon their shares, I have the honour to submit herewith two memoranda in which the particulars of the case, and the attitude of the Chinese Authori- ties regarding it, are fully set out.
As the case itself has been already brought to the attention of His Excellency the British Minister by the Bank, it is unnecessary for this Chamber to deal further with it; what, however, concerns the Chamber is the attitude assumed by the Taotai of Shanghai who, as will be seen in the memoranda, has definitely expressed his inability, and has given his refusal, to enforce written contracts entered into by his nationals with foreigners It is needless to say that the situation so created is of the gravest nature, striking as it does at all transactions between foreigners and Chinese.
The CHAIRMAN-I think, Mr. Buchheister, that the proper person to answer that question is our manager. I shall be glad if he willing to establish, and they trust that their protest answer it.
The Committee of the Chamber therefore take the earliest opportunity of entering their emphatic protest against the admissibility for a single moment of any such contention as the Chinese Authorities are apparently endeavour-
will receive the endorsement of the Consular Body, and that through them the matter will be strongly represented to the Diplomatic Corps at Peking.-I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Senior Consul.
C. J. DUDGEON,
Vice-Chairman.
Mr. BLECHYNDEN-I think myself that at the very outside a thousand taels will put the damage right—(Hear, hear and laughter); and I think it would be just as well that some of our competitors should be asked to see how they are getting on with their own docks. (Laughter.) We have never talked about other To Dr. O. Stuebel, Consul General for Germany, people's, but certainly I must say that they have been saying a great deal that was unneces- sary about our own. The reason why the acci- dent to the cofferdam did take place was that there was a scour outside of the cofferdam, and the pressure of mud was rather too much for the timbers. But I think we have secured it pretty well now. We have put larger timbers outside and secured it with mud inside, and I do not think it will give any more trouble-in fact, I am confident of it. (Applause.)
The CHAIRMAN-In support of Mr. Blechyn- den's remarks, I may say that I saw Capt. Roberts this morning, who, as you know, is superintending the construction of the dock, although I regret to say he has not been able
THE CHAMBER TO THE BANK.
Shanghai, 7th July. Dear Sir,-Your letter of the 24th of June, in which is set out the case of your Bank against its Chinese contributories in the matter of the latter's refusal to pay the calls due upon their shares, was carefully considered by the Committee of this Chamber at their meeting on Monday last.
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The Committee are fully alive to the gravity of the situation created by the attitude of the Chinese Authorities, who in effect say that they aro unable to enforce written contracts erterid into between Chinese and foreigners, and that'
[Angust 26, 1897.
they decline to make any attempt to do so. The Committee have at once addressed the Senior Consul on the subject, emphatically pro- testing against the admissibility for a 'single moment of any such contention as the Chinese are apparently endeavouring to establish, and they have asked that the matter be strongly represented to the Foreign Ministers at Peking.
The memoranda connected with the Bank's case have been forwarded to the Consular Body at the same time.-I am, dear sir, yours faith- fully.
C. J. DUGEON,.
Vice-Chairman.
To S. L. Darby, Esq., Acting Manager, Bank
of China and Japan, Limited, Shanghai.
EXPLOSION NEAR THE KIANGNAN ARSENAL.
Shanghai, 10th August. A tremendons explosion occurred in the camp to the east of the Kiangnan Arsenal at a few minutes to one o'clock yesterday morning. The
report was heard by a number of people in the Settlements and caused a great deal of specula. tion and some amount of consternation, many people being under the impression that an explosion had occurred near at hand. First enquiries conveyed the impression that, it was to be, the number of killed being put at only not quite so serions as it afterwards turned out
one or two.
A visit to the scene of the catastrophe how- ever revealed the true state of affairs. Instead of the loss of life being small, it was found that at least twelve were killed ontright, and more are expected to die. Six men had been conveyed to the Shantung Road Hospital, four of whom are not expected to recover.
The place where the explosion occurred is a small Camp, about 250 feet square, situated about a quarter of a mile in a direct line to the east of the arsenal and garrisoned by 320 braves under the command of a major. The magazine which blow up was almost in the centre of the camp. In the magazine, which was only a temporary structure, were stored about 16,000 riflè cart. ridges, eighty pounds of prism powder made up in flannel cartridges, a quantity of gun cotton, and a number of packages of percussion caps. Close to the magazine was a watch tower, of the ordinary type in use in such camps, the wooden supports of which were quite rotten. The theory is that this tower was not strong enough to withstand the high wind blowing at the time, and fell across the roof of the magazine, crushing it in, and some of the debris striking the percussion caps, caused the explosion. Whatever the cause, the effect was appalling. The buildings appeared as if they had been subjected to a severe bom- bardment, and the illusion was heightened by the numbers of shot and shell lying scattered about all over the place. There had been a large number of five inch solid shot stacked close to the magazine and these had been distributed all over the camp, many of them crashing through the roofs and walls of the buildings. One death at least was caused by them. A poor fellow, a brother of one of the officers, who was in the camp on a visit, had been struck full in the chest by one of these projectiles and crushed in a fearful manner. Twelve bodies were laid out in one of the least damaged buildings, to wait until coffius could be prepared for them. They presented a ghastly sight; some with limbs missing, others so badly charred as to be un- recognisable, and some crushed almost out of all human semblance by the falling buildings. It was a sight that one does not care to dwell
проп.
More than one narrow escape is reported. One of the officers, fortunately for himself, for some reason or other did not sleep in his own quarters on that night. No less than three five-inch shot came through the roof and penetrated the door, one of them striking in the middle of his sleeping place. Had he not shifted his quarters for the night he must in- evitably have been killed,
Of the buildings inside the camp, two bar- racks were completely destroyed scarcely one brick being left on another. The remainder of the buildings were terribly shattered, roofs having fallen in, and gaping shot-holes showing in all the walls. The officers' quarters suffered
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