To the same offs of story belongs the famous pontoons and draw bridge belonging to Messrs, Butterfield Swire which caused endless trouble and repeated riots ab ut ten years ago. Wis a fact that when a steamship came alongside the pontoon, the drawbridge was not allowed to be Towered on to her deck, unfit all the pussongers had left, 1, had.descend 4 into sampans, to be rowed with a couple of strokes across the fow intervening feet to the shore, "Such was the power of the sampan people.
This ig now ancient history, more or less, a8 the pontoon and frontage: have been taken over by the muni= cipality, while B & 8: have a modern wharf and godown further down where the steamers are graciously permitted by the boat people to alongside and discharge their cargo directly on shore, though not, twas rumoured, without having to pay annual "peat fee" (o the labour Unions, By for the most important business at Amoy is the export of labour to the Straits and the Dutch East Indies (but not to Formosa) which ise rio on eblefly in British ships. The Tabourers have practically to sel! themselves to certain banks and mitlznee firms, for the cost of their pies and other expenses. For the first years, they have therefore to work for nothing. It is the wages these Immigrant labourers that Constitutes the prosperity of Amoy and other towns of the Fukien coast.
"The city is said to have over 190,000 Inhebitants and is the second largest The "population much better off than th of Foochow. fand the standard of Ili very high, an ordinary coolie's wages ing as much 9s 75 cents a. day.
heles, except for the modern equipped Amoy University and g very One nnd well kept Chungshan park, little to recommend it ne as dirty and Very une idy, the streets being covered with liter. The work of the 19th Route to have been completely Dentists Flourish the number of dentist shops which one saw, one next to the other in the main street, dentistry Would appear to be the most "ish Ing trade, perhaps due to ese nonce. When T was there wuwents fas they are called, varying in age from four to 24 were holding up all tragic in the streets and levying a collection the war against Japan in Sui Most of them, 1 noticed, were Wearing rubber shices of the kind Specially manufactured in Japan for the China market, while "from the pavements shopkeepers whose wine dows were well-stocked with Japanese goods watched these proceedings with smiling approval, The Island and settlement of Kulangus is a different place altogether. Twas greatly taken with it. The town fs built on the slopes of a steep hill and looks just like a miniature Hongkong crowned by the palatial grounds of the British Consulate which dates back close on a century. T might, however; add here that in future Consul will no longer, as hitherto, be the "Senior Consul," the Japanese having just recently raised their consulate. {othe status of consulate. teneral.
This well-managed little. community of about 40,000 souls Is at the same {ime a miniature, and if T may dare sey "so-in 2. Shanghai paper, Better-run Shanghai. Tt, too, isan International settlement, governed by Council of three Chinese, three foreigners and two Japanese. But, Unlike lis bigger sister, it still enjoys the advantages of a Mixed Court, and fg not in. financial "dimeulties, while kidnapping {x totally: unknown, although no tess than 32 millionaires are suid (o reside on the Island Kulangsu was opened as a Treaty Port in 1942, but did not. become 2 ettlement until 1903. "According. to the story T was fold, about that time the Japanese indicated their desire 10 seize It as a concession, whereupon the" Chinese rushed round. to. the Amtrlean Legation and offered it (0 hem. "The "latter, with "their usual. Self abnegation, refused the embar-Tassing offer and suggested making Kulangsu an international settlement, This story T must say, has a suspicious likeness to several others that were {oll me about other similar excellent harbours on the Fukien coast
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.