erect al TO THE WODN.
The International Settlement is) pot the only pebble on the beach jof the Whangpoo. There is that territory popularly but incorrectly known as Frenchtown, and properly styled the French Concession. People who live in the French iGonseriously enough, the sine sconce tat note ornamental but aquo surroundings. In other words, they are thirsty, they meed light, Jand they occasionally wish to be Jcarried about on their lawful and) junlawfal occasions in vehicles other} than the rickety rickshaw. In the international Settlement the obligations to provide amenities of this kind are divided among three or {four different companies. There li ithe Shanghai Power Ca, which. works all day and all night to keep Nanking Road prettily lit and the tramcars running, There is the [Shanghai Electric Construction Go., which runs its trams and its trackless trams. There is a bus company or two, and there is the JShanghai Waterworks. The French, more modest in their requirements, lowing to their less pretentious ideas, Jon the subject of population, com-[bine all these obligations within the portfolio of the particular company. Tt is called a trainway company, cocause, after all, even a company' must have a name, But actually it} gives water, it supplies power, it runs buses, and generally, like the tweeny in the "Morning Post" a4- jvertisements, makes itself general-_ ly useful. Naturally these activi [Riverside and the other spots in the [Settlement where the workers lay for the benefit of the com-
But, as always, there is their favourite toys seem to attract Jand exploit to the delectation of the: careful observer. vices in one company has of course its disadvantages. For all utility' services have their enemies being these irresponsible creatures who come all over a-twitter when they find the world working and delight jin nothing better than to try and Jput unlawful spokes in the wheels When those irreeponeibles find that lby attacking one company they are Jattacking, as it were, four different [forms of service to the general pubs ie, they are all the happier, And that explains many things which in the recent history of Shanghai may have seemed obscure to the Jsuperficia) student of, events, "The tramways, are perhaps nob Jquite so long oF numerous. But the casual visitor in Shanghai sees many. of these useful vehicles trundling along the road that he [would, be surprised, probably, to be told that there are only 60. motor trams in the whole of the French Concession, plus 24 trailers, plus 20 buses, plus 18 crackles. land that there are) on 1 fal' of these trams duly stalled in their cubby-holes or temporarily laid jup for repairs in the repair shop, is still more surprised, It shows Jwhat organization can do, and also that the managers of the tramwayd need not go 40 any theatrical pro-Jducer to learn the art of presenting stage army, 'The animals maintained by the ways company are, as already, indicated, the pure and simple tran, the trailer, the trackless tram, and the motor bus. Trams are' now, made in France, but the company, possesses come built in Belgium Jand some manufactured in England, The trailers can be made in the ese workshops of the company, The repair shops are kept busy, Jand at this particular moment are particularly busy, because they ara endeavouring to remove the traces lof that little difference of opinion into which the system was plunged la few weeks ago, By a satisfactory arrangement with the other systems, that is the Ghinese system working in the Ghi-Jneto City, and the International aystem, the rolling stock proceeds lover foreign lines, as it were, and returns the compliment to those ines, There is very little friction in making this arrangement, Me Jdeed the Shanghai Tramways, although no one would accuse them of being particularly fattradtive, provide w ood example of sensible The Power Station is the aris lerot of this company of servic Iz illustrates " the growth of the French Concession, For eight yeard ago two Swiss dievel motors of 1,000 ko watts each were sufficient light up the whole of the French, [Concession Since then the greed Jof the population has successively demanded the augmentation these Swi monsters to the number motors are supplied with their own fuel, their own water, and their own reserves, all within a few, yards' radiue. They present a pieture of simple installation, giving the minimum amoring of suporvie sion with the maximum amount of Personnel, And it is said that within a year another of these huge 3,600 kilowatt monsters will be installed, after the shed has keen extended telescopically to provide the The growth of the French Cone cession in the last eight years can Jalso be gauged from che fact that the peak load is now estimated at 9,000 kilowatts against 3,000 some Jeight or nine years ago. And whereas six years ago the Conces= sion absorbed something ko 20,000 Jcubic metres of water a day, it now. needs 65,000 cubic metres, The water, by the way, comes from the Whangpoo, after treats Jment very similar to that accorded, lower down the river at Riverside, pipes go under Chinese whereby hangs many tale, and the water is disivibuted jover the Concession from four mains, disposed at suitable points Jof vantage. Three of these mains have water towers to facilitate shortage against emergency and to Jenable the pressure of the water to be evenly distributed over the whole system. Emergencies are levants for which all properly con-+ stituted utility services have always to make provision, so it should be Jnoted that the French Power Station and also the French water supply jean draw on the good offices of the bigger institutions: in the Inter. national Settlement if need for such Step should arise, a Wt is instructive to' note thi Hiopothmess with "which the opera: tion of "these "three big. aervicog
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.