Nor long ago a friend in a southern outport heard a distinguished naval officer discussing Shanghai he admitted both its title to be the Model Settlement and the energy of its citizens:1 the past, but expressed his fears tu! the sceptre was about to pass away from the Judah on the Huangpu. Tie gallant Admiral was of opinion that at the moment 'Tientsin was the most enterprising and progressive coramunity on the China' coast. We know of nothing which would better sustain this contention than the past and present attitudes of the two communities on the subject of River Impro Bent as our ream is on fluvial strangulation, it has never been at anything like the pass of the Peilo. Within six years natives have been known to lo eross the channel for ateumers in the Northern river to-day, in consequence of pressed scheme, Tients.n hi its old plice as a seaport, and the senior captains of steamers assure us that. never has the navigation been easy AS NOW.
To make our point clear. The Peiho, or as it 1s now called below the debouchwent of the Grand Canal the Haiho, began to go wrong in the and being let alone grew conducted in sampans. Except light-draft vessels like the Kwang-chi no ocean-going ship reached tke Tientsin Bund for years. Then all interests coalesced to remedy malters: the Chamber of Commerce, the British Municipality, the Commissioner of Customs, the Sivamer Companies, and the Chinese authorities all united in the work, 'I'hey called in the services of Mr. A. de Linde, a gentleman who in 1890 had made a survey and study of the river system of Chibli for the Viceroy Li Hung-chan;. Mr. de Liude's proposals commended themselves by their commonsense simplicity: briefly he told the would-be saviours of the Port, that they would compass their object by closing the numerous canals and creeks which robbed the river of its scouring power, by training it in places where it was too wide, and by cutting through some of the bends, thus decreasing the frictional resistance and giving greater facility to the play of the tide. From 1898 two years were spent in overcoming Chinese and other obstruction; the local Chamber of Commerce took a strong initiative, and finally recon-oiled everybody to the plan in hand. in this they were most ably seconded by Mr, de Lindein Peking: he succeeded in inspiring some of the Ministers, notably those of Frauve and Russia with his own confidence: and ways and means being fonnd by the enterprising lead of the British Municipal Council, the work was begun and ite first instalment finished just as the Boxer sedition broke out. Closing the creeks and judicious training increased the depth of the channel from six feet to nine.
The Boxer rabble set things back little but the British military with Mr. de Linde as it engineer, took it upon themselves to maintain the river fur some time: then the Tientsin Provisional Government and the authorities of the Allied occupation saw the imperance of the question from strategical points of view, and once again all interests joined for another great effort. A Conservancy Commission was formed and the cuttings were we se till, in the middle of the nineties, iv was inadequate Vor ge of even tow-the put in band; funds were supplied in part by the Provisional Government, part by loan, and two out of the hosts and lighters, and the trade of three great cuttings were made. 1! North China bad finally to be largely The effect. of these has been to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.