Branches scale of pay wore revised towards the close of the year.
International Hospital. Negoti tions for the liquidation of the i debtedness of the Special Adminis. trative District to the Hospital, amounting to Tis, 37,375.31 were: carried on for a considerable it being suggested that this {1 debtedness be liquidated by a cash payment of Tls. 15,000. To this the Chairman of the Board received 'a notification from the Special Administrative District stating that it desired to withdraw from the arrangement and further to. cease contributing towards the maintenance of the Hospital after the close of the year. Thus we are left with two Councils on which the burden of maintaining the Hospital falls, namely the French and ourselves. The question now arises as to what} this Concession is going to do towards maintaining the Hospital in the future. This matter has been touched on only briefly in my discussions with Mr. Eugene Chen far, but his attitude is that this is ter that must be left for con-Sideration at the hands of the Sino-British Administration which is to be set up after this meeting. And, Tam afraid, this is all that can be done at the moment. There is the suggestion that. he entire Heaptal, property, adm te, should be International Foreign El cleared up,, such as the title property, the correct proportion Ownership, ete, and on these mate 'A, V. Perry is very kindly ance. because, no doubt, it will come up for further consideration at an early date, Public Works. During the year we required a steam roller, motor lorry for removal of refuse, and a motor watering cart—disposed of the coolie drawn roller and Pontoon—this latter en account of the failure of the ferry company to maintain a service—it therefore being felt that! the Pontoon no longer could serve any useful purpose. Difficulty was experienced in conveying refuse through the area behind the Concession and arrangements then were made for the destruction of refuse on Lot 86, an arrangement that} worked highly satisfactorily, The river rose to 48 feet 9 on August 21, the highest recorded since 1878, and the sewer service broke down. This was our first of many difficult problems that we were faced with last year. It was necessary to purchase additional pumps, engage Targe numbers of coolies to man native pumps, and for several members of the staff to work for 18 to 20 hours a day doing everything' possible to prevent flooding, and we owe a lot to Mr. G. B, George and his assistants who stood by for hours on end superintending the work of safeguarding tie conces-
Concession Boundary Wall. As} an indication of the pleasant rela~ tions that existed between the' of H.M, Consul-General your Counil in November were obliged to reconsider the restriction Chinese making use of the Bund was clearly indicated that the continued interference with respectably dressed Chinese. sooner or later would provoke an incident} vhich might have far reaching consequences. After careful consideration the Council very reluctantly] were brought,, to the conclusion That the restriction must, be withdrawn, hoping that Chinese and foreigners alike would avail themselves of this promenade and. preserve it, as it always had been, the only available walk in the! concession where one could move bout freely and with comfort. As son as the restriction was removed coolies of every description swarm-to the path, speech makers exhorted everyone to use the path to the annoyance of the foreigner, the footpath to-day, littered Fubbiah, overcrowded with the thirst of coolies, no longer is had been especially conceded for their passage, These barvieades originally were erected for dee fence purposes against the possible influx of hordes of defeated soldiers, who might seize the occasion to resort {0 looting the concession.
As an immediate result of the very. violent anti-British agitation which signalled the arrival of the Soathern army in this centre were in constant danger of mo¥ riots, and these barricades proved fof value on many occasions. 4 Tt would serve nou punts describe here the happens ings which have resulted in oni They are well i, and perhaps the least said by me on the subject the better, The administration of thig tarea is now to be handed over td Sino-British Council which comes nto being after this meeting, fenced" by Mr.. O"Mattey Eugene Chen, Minister for Foreigi Affairs to the Nationalist Governs Foed Supplies, In November the Council was approached to consider forming a Food Control Board in view of the possible shortage of food. The Council pointed Messrs, Dixon, Dr. Lyon Brown, Muriel, Lacey, and Raddon as a Committee and jtthorized a subscription, wards obtaining an immediate! supply of food of $500. The Vie-ton Hall was placed at the disposal] of the Committee 'a central dis tributing depot, and it was arranged; should it become necessary, to {issue rations to all foreigners tthe discretion of the Council.
Most firms and individuals subscribed to this fand on the understanding that the loss, if a should be borne pro rata.
General Situation, Since 1 ad-Jdressed you here last year we have gone through tremendous changes—1926 must be recorded the most diffealt year the Council ever has of tiring you] repeat some ff the remarks 1 made to. you, [et tores meeting of the een Beinn ili a riaktd'aghite'hane the peat under which the new Council will function, Having had the opportunity, to study the Agreement and Regulas tions it probably has struck you that there remain many items off eae ce aaa any to be cone sidered very carefully and which called for discussion and settlement between the existing British Municipal Council and its successors, and it is on these items that we have been spending a great dei of time and thought since the
aps it will be best if T detail th events. since that chronological order.
of the Agreement, T think pers The Agreement was signed at 7 am. on February 19, The Coune fil was asked to meet Mr, O'Malley at the Consulate on the afternoon fof the 26th when it was informed of the signing of the agreement.
Mr. O'Malley stated that he had no doubt in his own mind that there were a number of people who locke fed with disfavour on the signature floods in July and continued. thr ff, i08 °F APY, agreement, but added stant Our troubles commenced wi that it was the best that could be faghout the ear from then up till Sansary thin year, and that trying and ential per aft has stood by you magnificent ise Our chet dificaltien have been sed by the very. great changes Srising from the political situation first these were not of a very serious nature, but as soon as the Southern party gained the upper hand our troubles grew out of proper to anything we previously hed been called upon to handle.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.