One of Shanghai's most im-jthe Bank should purchase premises chased for a sanctioned cost of portant—landmarks—the Hong. kong & Shanghai Bank building—is doomed to disappear in the near future after service to the hoax and community in general for 45 years. Like a number of these oid buildings in Shanghai there does not appear to be a great amount information readily available as to the history of the building itself but apparently built at a time when the Bank was not payin; particularly well, when two half. yearly meetings had passed without any dividend, the structure, which is rapidly approaching the time when it will fall into the hands of the breakers, has seen the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation grow until it has reached its present heroic proportions. There must of necessity be some regret at the passing of such a building, for within its walls have been completed transactions which have gone to help in the making of history in China; in it has been put through much of the unseen and often unrealized groundwork which eventually shows results in trade returns and it is consequently no exaggeration to say that the building, as much as the bank itself, has played a considerable part in the fortunes ut the port.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.