"JO the people who came first: to China had selected Tsingtao, me stead of Shanghai to settle, what irt they would have made of it."
"Yes, I's pretty enough, but not Jenough business in it to be worth the trouble, It certainly would not been as great as Shanghai.'t Jof peace in this province, we would Surprise you with what we could Two impressions of the place, while the ship was tied up alongs side the wharf, and an answer from man engaged in business in the place, who had come on board, Five hours in any place is not sufficient to obtain any approxima tion of all the facts concerning it, nor five days, and probably stilt lees five weeks, but three hundred minutes of conversation with several people in the port, justifies the con jection what whatever Shanghat may be suffering from trade pression is amply reflected in the fortunes of Tsingtao at the moment.
Teingato is weill worth a, visit, it only to realize the porspteacity of the Germans when they selected it as their port, As a base foe Far Eastern squadron, the en" form ous landlocked harbour, capable of housing any or per hay the fleets of the world, Tsingtao, choice available, dour, suffering from under-development, entirely due to the misfor~ tunes of the past sixteen years, was always capable of extension.
is so now: but whether Tsingtao will over be the port it prom= ised to be depends on time and the Chinese. 1 First impressions are not favout~ able. Where stacks of coal used be, there is a flat wharf as desolate as Goldsmith's village, ad unkempt as an unwanted dog. the rails at the wharf's edge stood two or three forlorn looking trucks, red with rust, with sides gone, picture of lence, without event smile for grief. The impression conveyed by the inner harbour was that here was the beginnings of port, built by a people who had great faith in it, not only front ithe point of view of a naval base, but from that of the ultimate possibilities of trade, with rails for trucks to come alongside the ca carriers of the Yellow Sea, hurry goods into the mainland be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.