It is now twenty-one years since 1 first visited Canton. Bresh from 4 tour of industrial centres in tae United States, and with. vivid Tee collections of Berlin, Paris and other cities in Europe, I imagin that seam and internal combustion (Oom aucontly "important {own sufficiently "important mentioned in English schools aaa port and. place of foreign trade. Never"betore or since. have I been fo astounded as when first I passed trough the streets of Canton.
Hongkong, too, was different to tne. mental pietufe formed of Tt in London, "AE the Colonial. office a Featlnian named Ske eke Stbsequently "became. Sir. Regina Siabi'and' HE the Govern Hongkong) had given -me.a. mos depressing account of the life, and ihe lina of, thi ile outpoxt a great Empire. He informed me that fe had been sent out two oF {itee rears previously to Hongkokng report on certain grievances of the {vil servants. "He had, apparently, Stayed only about a fortnight.
had "thoroughly" disliked the place: The secretary of an institu: {ion which has sines changed ite nae ud i now "known vas the Royal Empire' Society, gave me Iteratare which emphasised mala: nay the heavy death roll of Euro= beans in the early days, and other Sbjectionable features, "And. some: how or other (Dr. (afterwards Sit James) Gantlie gave me the idea that Hongkong was' 1s barren ts: land, with the redeeming. features that Chinese servants were the best inthe world, and. that. University vacations. Would enable ust hitvive as my family could escape {oSapat diting the for same month on arrival in Hongkong all of those' dear disappeared from tind like mist Before bright sun thine. The island looked very be fal'as we steamed into the harbour at daybreak in September, 1912. And there were signs of electric light tloctric trams, modern water supply find. evidence" of applied. aclence vywhere. Hongkong fat exceed: stay expectations as a. place of Fesidence, and ie still seems to. tohave many redeeming" features for those fated to we exiled there A City Without a Wheel And 40, when it that' should pay' a tothe British con the Chines roper anton, less than' a hundred tiles up'the river from Hongkong, vee areurced fo, he that" the apitol of the Kwangtung. province other city yet seen or im: iyo be wlteny diferent tom any ined. enthusiasm of De. Cantite cancer ning. the. wonderfal "work of his protege, Sim Yat-sen, had helped to treate an illusion of sclentige.profrress in China that was shattered feithin an hour of my" landing: at Canton For, incredible as it how Appears to be, my first shock in passing through the narrow streets was the realisation was that it was a city of more. than a million People, but a city without a wheel. ten feet wide, made progress Those narrow streets, only about sedan chair slow; for'not only was there no traffic regulation, there was 4 complete disregard of' sanitation or the usual amenities of life as Were to be found in England and Hongkong. It was as if T had stepped_on toa time machine and had een projected back into the tenth century of the Christian era. Canton, in 1912, seemed to ante: date the stories of China written by Polo hundreds of years eat Tier, Te had never occurred to me that there existed anywhere in the Nprld the, twentieth "century" a city, of @ million. people that was city without a wheel, The Treadmill in Canton valu ne hae at that date the been completed, but it" terminated railway from Hongkong had. on the outskirts of the city and it did not come into my vision to ichoer me as I was carried through the maze of streets in old Canton, {was told that they had finished the bund Yower down the river; and later T was carried there and saw rickshaws and the electric power plant. But that first pression of a day in a city of million people, a day in which T was carried through miles of narrow ancient streets without seeing moving mechan! motor} gar, @ rickshaw, not even a wheel. harrow—that impression has never Jett my memory." And, Ey an irons of fate onthe next imomning,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.