Twenty years ago, China was unable to point at any industrial plant with as much pride as she does now to the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering Works. If you approached a Chinese 20 years ago and told him that in 1920 a 14,000- ton boat would be launched on the Huangpu, he would have shaken his head in that peculiar sad manner which always accompanies an unbelieving Chinese smile.
The so-called modern ships China used up to the last few years were mostly constructed in Europe. China never had a decent dock—fact it never had a dock at all until the idea was conceived by a number of enterprising Cantonese gentlemen only a little more thea ten years ago.
At the time of writing, the Dock has no fewer than a dozen ships under construction simultaneously while contracts are coming in continuously for the building of new vessels, The Dock directors are unable to meet the enormous demand for ships as a result of the short. age of tonnage which is being keen-felt.
Even though the Dock is putting out additional tonnage every year, yet: the demand is " Ships. "Ships. Let us have ships."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.