Extensive improvements are under way and in contemplation, at the Kiangnan Dock & Engineering Works at Shanghai.
Work will be at once started on the enlargement of the dock at the Kiangnan works which will be extended by 152 ft. giving it a total length of 520 ft. which, it is thought, will sufficient to accommodate ip that will be likely to re-8 at Shanghai. With of the International dock which is 532 ft. in length, the new Kiangnan dock will be the largest in Shang!
The dock authorities have had this work in mind for some time, and the decision actually to put the plans into execution was reached some weeks ago when Mr. R. Mauchan, the superintending gineer, paid a visit to Pekin, which time the plans were sanctioned by the Minister of the Admiral Duke Liu Kuan. who tour before thie Chinese New Year.
Work is nearing completion on the new large machine shops addition, which will double the capacity of the former shop. This was started in December and the building is now awaiting the arrival of the travelling crane girders and other steel material ordered from america. The combined machine shop building—the old and the new—will be 200 ft. long by 70 ft. in width, or 14,000 sq. ft. of floor area. In addition to this, the blacksmith-shop and forge building will be increased by 7,200 sq. ft. floor area, and the it is reported that these works will be undertaken shortly after the extensions now under way are completed.
The office of Commander-in-Chief of the Navy has been abolished at Shanghai and the ships are now under the command of the Yangtze Admiral. Admiralty House, an imposing structure in the Kiangnan compound, is to be occupied as offices, one half to be used by the dock officials and the other half by the engineering chief of the navy and his staff. The reason for abolishing the office of Commander-in-Chief is, it is said, the affair of the cruiser Chaoho which, it will be recalled, mutinied here on the evening of December 5. As a result of the inquiry and subsequent court-martial at Peking, Captain Huang of the Chacho was sent to prison for three years, 14 men were shot, and Vice-Admiral Hsu was dismissed the servi The Arsenal li these days. The field gun munition works are particularly active and are working full capacity night and day. In fact there is 80 much to be done at the Arsenal just now that work was suspended for only one day at Chinese New Year, while in ordinary times a fortnight's holiday would have been allowed,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.