6th June.
Fires have been of so frequent occurrence in Shanghai of late, and the destruction of property has been of so large a value, that it is absolutely necessary that drastic measures should be taken to prevent them so fir as possible. The fire that braly: out in the Foochow Road on Sunday evening last, which destroyed upwards of fifty tenements, shows clearly that in some quarters of the Settlement the houses ave of such flimsy construction that should a fire break out in one of our narrow streets when a fresh gale is blowing, no efforts on the part of our hard-working Fire Brigade can prevent it spreading to an alarming extent. That we have hitherto been spared a conflagration that would clear away an entire district is owing in a great measure to good fortune, but it is quite possible that this may occur at any time of such a nature that the resources at our command for checking it would be futile, and that we should have to face a loss of property that would be absolutely appalling. The experience of London, New York, and other populous cities shows that this is no unfounded alarm, for even where the houses are substantially built and the streets wide, conflagrations have frequently happened which defied the efforts to control them of a powerfully equiped and ably directed force. Here in Shanghai there exists every chance for a serious fire raging to such an extent that all that our Fire Brigade—good as it is—could do to check it would be in vain, so that house after house would go down until the conflagration burnt itself out for want of material that might be consumed. The loss of property that would be so caused, and the dis-organisation of business that would probably be the consequence in such case is not pleasant to contemplate and besides this, the Municipal Council would be deprived for the time being of a valuable source revenue.
The fire that broke out in the Foochow Road on Sunday last was of, deplorable magnitude, as property -to the value of Tls. 150,000 was destroyed, and of this loss it is estimated that no less than Tls. 80,000 and upwards falls upon the foreign insurance offices. Now this itself is sufficiently serious for a community such as ours, and it is unfortunately certain that much of this loss was due to the nature of the buildings that were destroyed, and also to the fact that the Foochow Road is so narrow that though the fire broke out on the north side it was impossible to prevent it spreading to and destroying several houses on the south side. It is therefore apparent that, if greater disasters occasioned by fire are to be avoided, the Municipal Council must take steps to prevent the erection of buildings such as those that were destroyed on Sunday. The erection of wooden-fronted buildings with inadequate fire-walls must be strictly prohibited, and no houses should be built in any part of the Settlement that are not up to a high standard that should be officially determined upon. Furthermore, the Council should insist that, as occasion offers, such portions of property be given up for increasing the width of the street, sufficiently to guard against the misfortune that occurred on Sunday, so far as is reasonably possible. The Council have the power now to do this, and though it will be a costly proceeding it is one that will eventually be the most economical, by greatly diminishing the risk of a fire spreading from one side of the road to the other. We have for too long permitted our narrow streets to be encumbered with numerous fire-traps, and it is high time that we set about a thorough reformation of our building regulations, no matter how great a drain on the public revenue such desirable changes would involve. ject. It is evident to the meanest The above suggests a cognate sub-
capacity that many of the fires that have recently occurred are due to incendiarism. Unfortunately the comparative ease with which insurance on the contents of a house can be obtained is an inducement for dishonest Chinese to attempt to make a gain by firing the premises wherein they reside in order to secure a round sum from an Insurance Office. Where in many cases there was a moral certainty that arson had been resorted to, the Police failed to procure sufficient evidence to convict the accused, and this is the great difficulty that will occur on every occasion. But even where the evidence submitted to the Mixed Court has been sufficient for a conviction, the sentences passed by the magistrate have been absurdly inadequate, and have therefore in no way served asa deterrent. It is above all the putting down of incendiarism that the community desire, and not the vindictive punishment of any one culprit; but if offenders when caught are punished as if they had only committed petty larceny, it is certain that the evil-disposed amongst. our Chinese population will risk the chance of detection, and that in consequence fires will continue to be of frequent occurrence. The punishment for arson by Chinese law is very severe, namely, rigorous cor-oral punishment and banishment, wut. in the event of loss of life having happened in consequence of the crime the culprit is decapitated. In England arson is an offence which invariably meets with a heavy sentence, and the offender is liable to be tried for murder should his crime have occasioned any person's death, while even the unsuccessful attempt to maliciously fire a house is a penal offence. There is, therefore, every warrant for a very severe sentence being passed at the Mixed Court in case of conviction, and should the magistrate continue to wilfully set his face against the infliction of a suitable penalty where arsonis proved, and let the offender off with trivial punishment, the Municipal Council must take immediate and energetic steps to have the sentence increased in such a measure as would deter others from attempting a similar crime, It is only in this way that there is any possibility of reducing the number of fires in the Sottlement, many of which are undoubtedly the result of incendiarism.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.