The report that Japanese salvage experts have arrived to undertake the task of refloating the steamers sunk in the boom eff the Nantao Bund is good news for Shanghai. It means that a definite attempt is to be made to remove this obstacle to shipping which fs interfering with the use of the channel and the wharves beyond the Nantao Bund. Six vessels of the Nisshin Kisen Kaisha were sunk by the Chinese troops when the boom was created at the beginning of the hostilities. There are other Chinese vessels and there were many junks, but those afloat were burnt by the Japanese troops when ihe boom was penetrated after the retreat of the Chinese. Local experts who have examined the situation believe that the refloating of the steamers and the removal of the boom do not present insuperable difficulties. It is believed that the sunken ships are resting on Chinese junks which, filled with cement, were sunk as a preliminary to the reinforcement by steamers, chiefly belonging to the N. K. K. While blocking the channel, the initial effect of the boom was to start a process of scouring which weakened the piling of the wharves on the Pootung side of the Whangpoo in that vicinity, but since the boom was forced this has been remedied although -it is still impossible for vessels of any size to proceed to the upper reaches of the Whangpoo. The efforts of the Japanese salvage experts should remedy this as well as restore to their owners six good ships, one of which has found much admiration in the eyes of shipping experts. What Shanghai needs is the removal of this and other physical and administrative obstacles to shipping if it is to regain anything like its former position as a port. The step now contemplated is good and in the right direction. Commerce must continue but it cannot while physical obstacles and burdensome restrictions exist.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.