Back to Italy After 41 Years' in China After 41 years in China Mr, Luigi Camera hax' sailed for Italy to complete the rest of his life in his old home. Mr. Camera came to [Shanghai in 1887 and was for many years associated with Jardine] /Matheson & Co.'s silk department before he retired to an estate near Florence in 1919. While he lived there he occupied the historic home of La Casa, an Italian gentleman who wrote the first book on polite manners about three centuries ago. Mr. Camera has since disposed of the property and returned recently. to Shanghai in company with Mr. Maziero who was one of the Italian flyers to make the flight from Rome to Tokyo. It is understood that Mr. [Camera returned to China represent. ing Italian interests in aeroplane manufacture. He is a personal friend lof Mussolini and a strong Fascist.
From a perspective of 41 years Mr. Camera recollects the old Shang hai and contrasts it with the present development. When he first came here rieshas and carriages were of Jeourse the only means of transportation. Paper hunts were started from behind. the Bubbling Well Cemetery and finished up at what! was called Del Monte in the Sinza Road. Hungjao Road and Brenan Road did not exist and Mr. Camera recalls when a hunt was started for! the first time in the Rubicon. territory. Some of those riders are dead and others hunt in England, The development which has. interested Mr. Camera more than any, other is in industry. Factories of all kinds have sprung up and there has been a steady demand for every description of machinery. The pioneers of the industrial movement in Shanghai were the British merchants who laboured under many: difficulties with very little support from home. Later Germany' and]
america entered the industrial field, but Mr. Camera says that the due entirely effort.
The French Concession has also developed to an exceptional extent. Mr. Camera is convinced that the {future development of Shanghai is certainty, but that development will be in the Settlement only. At present the Chinese are considering {starting a wool spinning mill, a hat factory, and other steam filatures. Forges and foundries are sise under the Comte de Martel loration and if the price of and down in Yangtszepoo were not} any plans would have terialized before, The greatest jeulty at present is the increased cost of Inbour which may increase still further if the silver decline persists As to the future of silver Mr, Camera declined to prophesy stating] that so far every authority on the subject has proved to be wrong. He! thought there was a possibility that the dollar may reach the value of the rupee and be stabilized, at] that although if conditions in China became steady there would no doubt be a reaction upwards in favour of Concerning the industrial, possibilities in the interior of Chia Mr, Camera is convinced that persons with wealth will invest nowhere so the Shanghai settlement because lof the uncertainty and lack of safety in the interior. For this reason land values in the Settlement are exorbitant.
Regarding the government of the Settlement Mr. Camera was noncommittal, concluding however, that view of its cosmopolitan nature the League of Nations might possibly undertake the problem. The European population is steadily increasing and residences are now extending well out along the Hunadao and Rubicon Roads. Whatever the factors in the changes which are place may be, the fact 8 that there is an Jenormous growth and development] now taking place which will be even greater in the future providing there fare not too many radical changes in} the present system of self-government,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.