Throo or four weeks on board a P. & O. steamer is to my mind the height of freedom and delight—no letters, no telegrams, no Dother about money (except at the and of each week). No bother about watches, as time von you every half-hour on the ship's bell; Plane of good attention, and above all ladies' society; but a trip' from Shanghai to Kisochou Bay—what a difference! Thanks to the kindness and politeness of the German Consul-General (Doctor Stuebel), who voluntarily telegraphed to the Admiral, I received "permission to make the trip'on board the little steamer Stoatow, now engaged by the German Government to run between th two places with mails and stores. This little ship hnd a cabin which would conveniently accommodate two passengers but with ton officers. and iwo civilixns—(the former joining their regiments and the latter the inevitable correspondents) the sleeping arrangements were not expected to be "of the best." The Captain did his utmost to make us comfortable, and I chose a corner of the saloon as my bedroom. Wo had our meals in batches and I performed my ablations on deck exposed to the blasts of the winds in the Yellow Sea. Thiee days and nights of this, and.I am satisfied. Some thirty miles before arriving I was shown jaolate island and told I must sketch it as was the' first land to be seen on the approach to the now celebrated Kiaochou Bay. I only mention this.to show you the public ides of what a War Artist is sent out'to do—fancy my making a drawing lump of rock, while my eyes wore ata strain to' see, and riy. fingers itching to portray, what the Germans were doing on that tiny little piece of China which the Kaiser had thought it necessary to appropriate.
"Tivo hours later, by the aid of glasses, T could see what looked like white seagull resting on -the waves, and I was informed these wore the German men-of-war lying off Tsingtio. Another halihour and we anchored ahead and wit three hundred yards of the vanguard of the fleet of Mailed Fists. Floating objects: which I was informed the natives call sampans, with still. stranger objects inside them, came alongside, and after consideration and with. much trepidation T allowed my baggage to be trans-red to one, and then steadily setting my foot.on'it I found it still. floated... I should mention perhaps that. previously to this acrobatic performance an_ officer had-very: kindly informed me that the new Governor (Capt. Truppel) had assigned me rooms, (together with " German correspondent) om shore, and would do'all he could to make mo comfortable. At this naturally fole very well satisfied. The strange native wood-knocked-together craft eventually ran safely alongside a breakwater or pier, and then a perfect army of Chinese coolies were enrolled into the service for carrying my luggage to my destination. It "took three of them to manage a-uniform ease, two for a. small portmanteau, and one just succeeded in getting along with ly light hand-bag. Tthink in all it took thirteen full-grown men to carry six pieces of baggage. It was blowing rather hard and I felt so cold that at first I did not notice much where I was being conducted, but gradually I woke up to the fact that instead of proceeding in the direction of the village, we were going in an opposite direction over sand hulls, one after the other. I then thought it time to ask the German correspondent (companion of the time)ito make enquiries as to where we were going, and was then informed by the officer in charge of our escort of armed soldiers who were again in charge of our coolies, that our house was ina fort about twenty minutes' walk further on—this was not quite my ides of appropriateness, but 1 could not speak a word of German and companion of the Press kept saying It's all right," I simply kept on but Aetormined that this would not suit me and I would—later on—look out for myself. In course of time we arrived at the Western Fort to find that our rooms had exch four walls with paper windows already loopholed, and through which the wind howled, like the blast of a fog horn. No bed, no chairs, no table, no stove, but door with a lock to it; and this I very soon determined to fasten, and then wandered to the village in search of more inviting quarters. It took me just 35 minutes to reach the main street of Tsingtao, and on the road I calculated that twice 35 meant 70 minutes there and back to get breakfast, the same for lunch and dinner, in all about three hours and a-half a day walking for food. Not me.
Ata turning in the main street I met a civilian (as I have mentioned in a previous letter) and after pouring my troubles and woes into his willing ears he very kindly offered me a corner of his house and to share the expenses of his table. Here eventually I stayed and did my work for about six days, but it was only on the departure of my German correspondent friend for Japan that I uccidontally realised how it was I had not been at once invited to better quarters. I had gone with credentinls and introductions from the court-eons English and German Consuls of Shanghai, but my travelling companion had unfortunately neglected these little precautions (more than ever necessary under the circumstances), and the very morning of his departure T not only had the honour of lunching with the German Admiral but was invited by the Governor to take up my quarters in the yamen and accept his hoxpitality—which I need scarcely say I was only too delighted to do—and which lasted for over a fortnight, during hich time I received the greatest consideration and politeness, not only from the Governor but from officials and officers of all kinds, I was the only Englishman who had been or was there since the landing of the Germans and I cannot help feeling ed_as well as proud that a represent ative of the Mustrated London News was 0 well and heartily received as I was.
I think in my last letter I spoke of daily walk of three and a-half hours for eating purposes, but I forgot to mention that as there is no European hotel even of the most modest, I should have had to satisfy the pangs of hunger at a dirty Chinese inn—to say dirty does not in any way sufficiently express what mean. The filth, the offence to the nasal organs, and 10 mode.of preparing the food is much too indescribably repulsive for me eve to care to give a second thought to it, and had I not fallen in with the merchant mentioned before, I fear the ever to be found tin of sardines and a bottle of German beer would have been my menu day after day. A few days later in company with Captain Truppel I did venture into one of these feeding dens for curiosity, but I feat my sketch was of the slightest description—men in rows, emptying large howls of a compound in which cabbage took 'a prominent place. Certainly these cabbages are grown to perfection as far as size and colour are concerned, but flavour—well may I venture to say, nil?
During the three' weeks that T was in Tsingtao I noticed day by day the improvements being made by the authorities in Jeaning the little village—but as the Germans had been in possession for three months and had been working to this end all the time, I could not help asking myself, what must have been the state of the place before they arrived? I do not know what the Main Street consisted of in days gone by, but I do know now that nearly every shop has liquor for sale either to be drunk on, or off the premises, and just off this' Main Street are the most loathsome dens of iniquity. With the object of regulating the sale of drink to the sailors and marines, the Governor appointed a Committee of officers, doctors, and interpreters to visit, regist and examine not only the houses but the spirits they were solling. I took up a bottle of Hennessey's three-star brandy but what " horrible decoction I found it At another house a bottle of Old Tom was simply full of a spirit warranted to kill in ten minutes. This then accounted for many of the men having been found in a bad way, in fact drank, and no: wonder if they had been drinking such vile stuff. Certainly the genuine article is to be found as well as good bottled beer, but then at double and treble the price of the fictitious, Creak! Creak! Creak! is the noise we hear everywhere, for the wheelbarrow-men uro daily hard ut work with stores and ammunition, The ordinary Tsingtao coolie cannot be held up as an example of Strength; he looks a big, strong fellow, possibly because he is clothed from head to foot in quilted clothes. Anyhow, he is very happy under the present circumstances and is earning three or four times more than he ever did before; but the payment each day or week is very funny. Cash, what cash! string after string vf brass tokens are handed toa head man, who then passes them on to a batch of coolies (after he has abstracted some for himself as a squeeze) who then divide out these coins amongst themselves.
Since my return I have been constantly asked what I think of Kiaochou and the harbour, and even a man who had been to Tsingtao gave it as his opinion that with " little dredging, Kixochou would be made a splendid port. Of course I do not wish to question this gentleman's opinion for one moment, but T should feel much inclined to the feeling that he had been dreaming or had been present at the grand Shanghai Pantomime and-had seen.some transformation scene which had utterly deluded him. Kiasochou Bay, Kiaochou Harbour, Kino-chou Port—what could he mean? Why a sampan only drawing four foet of water cannot get within eight miles of that place!
Personally, I'cannot see how without an enormous expenditure of money in constructing breakwaters, a harbour is going to be made even at Tsingtao where the biggest of ships can lie at anchor within quarter of " mile of the shore,—given there is no strong south-east wind; but in the event of this rising, then ship: of all kinds have to run for shelter to the north-western side of the point jutting out from the mainland; but Kiaochou? Why from twelve to fifteen miles of dredging would have to be done—in fact a miniature
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.