By "Frooo Tie"
Tientsin, July 23.
'The Haiho' is no longer a rive Up till'a few days ago this most important outlet to the sea at the upper reaches of the French concession near the International Bridge was in a terrible state, and at low tide long strips of green glass could be seen sprouting out of ble channel is day and lighters and tug boats is becoming. more difficult" and dangerous. Strange to say, by some freak -of nature although the navigable channel was getting narrower the depth of water was greater, and local shipping firms were Suoyed up in the hope that a 10 ft, deauyht would be feasible, and a Harbour regulation Issued to that effect. However, this hope proved to be short-lived, in fact, although 10 ft. of water was actually the depth of the navig. able channel, this only lasted for a couple of days, and the river went Dock again to its usual unsatisfactory state, 8 ft. 'The heavy rainfall which we have of late been exper ieneing in North China instead of having any appreciable effect on the Haiho seems to have acted contract' wise, and more mud and silt is pouring into the river.
The Yungtingho Overfows On the top of all this the Yungtinghe. which is primarily respon. sible for the present condition of the Haiho, overflowed causing a breach of over 700 ft. in length, 80 wide that all efforts to patch it' up have prove futile. While this Breach proved disastrous to the Jew lying districts of Chohsien (Chenchow) Kinanhsien Wanpinghsien and neighbourhood, which have been inundated to a depth of 4 ft of water and the southern sub urbs of Peking are threatened, this has proved a Ulessing in disguise as far as the Haiho ix concerned, or to be more correct Tientsin, " as otherwise the flood menace would have been practically at our own doors. On the 20th there was no flood tide in the Haiiho and the overflow from the Yungtingho continued to run into the Haiho, but not in sufficient quantity to wash away all tthe silt and mud. In fact the water which did van into the Haiho from the Yungtingho was also laden with silt and sand and in reality made the river conditions even worse than better.
An Urgent Conference Fortunately, General Shang Chen, Chairman of the Chihli Provincial Government and President of the Haiho Improvement Schenie, reali ing the urgency of patting in hand once the long delayed temporary or palliative scheme for the ameliortition of the Haiho currie down to Tientsin by special train on Thur day night and at once held ao: ference on Friday morning with the Chinese bankers in connection with the floating of the already author ced of $4,000,000, and afterwards a conference was held gb the offices of the Tientsin Municfpality to thoroughly into this matter and devise ways and means to carry out the work at once.
During the course of an interview which Thad with General Shang Chien on Sunday morning at the Villa West Lake in Racecourse Road some interesting: details came to light_in connection with what. has prevented the carryhye out of the Haiho Improvement Scheme which arnee several months has been off cially sanctioned by the Nanking] Government.
Dn Saturday afternoon from 4.30) until gone 7.30, a meeting, was held fu the Tienisin Municipal Building en. many important. points. were digeussed and obstacles overcome, which had hitherto stood in the way $f this most important work. "At {hat meeting weve present Mr. C. Gauss, the United States Consul-General and Chairman of the Hi Conservancy Commission—who fame down specially to Tientsin from Peitaiho to attend the mecting, General Shang Chen, President! of the Haiho Improvement Scheme, Mx, Yang Pao-lin, constructional engineering expert, Mr. J. Hardel, engineer-in-chief to the Haiho River Conservancy Commission, Mr. Bien, manager of the Bank of China, Mr. 'T. C. Shoung, Director of the Tientsin Municipal Harbour: Board, and Messrs. Warg and Kao, representing the Tientsin municipal government.
Raising the $1,000,000
At the previous meeting held with the Chinese bankers on Friday when the "question of the Joan was Ciscussed, everything was satisfactorily arranged and agreed upon, that is to say, that as far as the Chinese bankers were concerned they agreed to subscribe their share of the $4,000,000 loan which was. $3,000,000. With regard to the! other $1,000,000 which was. to be raised by: the foreign banks, that is the Hongkong & Shanghai Bank, Chartered Bank the National City Bank of New York and the Banque Franco-Chinoise, objection was raised that in the official Mandate issu-by the Nationalist Government Nanking nothing was mentioned about the foreign banks partieipatting in the loan. In fact no foreign banks were mentioned at all, In this connection General Shang Chen inted out that the work of improving the Haiho was being undertaken purely as a Nationalist. Government concern for which the Nanking' Government was entirely responsible, and that the foreign banks must not think that a slight had been put upon. them because their names had not been mentioned. Unofficially, it was understood that the foreign banks would participate in the loan, the more so, that the carry. ing out of the Hatho Improvement Scheme was just as much in the terests of foreigners as Chinese. Byen some of the Chinese banks who were subscribing to the Toan were not mentioned in the offic Mandate such as the China and Java and South Seas Bank, the Kincheng Banking Corporation and Yien Yieh (Salt Industrial) Bank, for the reason that the Nanking Government didn't look upon these banks as government banks directly under its control. The only Chinese banks mentioned in the official Mandate were the Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Central Bank of China, all of which were under the direct control of Nanking.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.