Women's Joint Committee Told of Conditions Among Lower Class Chinese Fine weather on Thursday, after a succession of rainy days, greeted th sixth annual Conference of women' clubs in Shanghai, generally known as the Club Institute, held by the Joint Committee of Shanghai Women's Organizations.
ust over a hundred women, representing sixteen clubs, met at me ere by Mrs. Harrison King, Amperican Women's Club, where the;
President of the A.W.C., who extended the hospitality of the' rooms to the Tnstitute and hoped thet her club might have the privilege again many occasions of housing the annual Institute, Mr. 8. H. Peek, Land Commissioner for the Shanghai Municipal Council, gave a most interesting address on housing conditions in Shanghai as they affect the native popula-ion of the lower middle class, A Chinese hong or li house, as it is known, is the type of house most commonly found in Shanghai, built usually.
alleyways lying off the main thoroughfares, These houses, said Mr, Peak, measure about 12 feet in width and 0 feet in depth. About nine or ten these houses occupy one mow of land, Describing the plan of these houses Mr. Peek said that when new each one built with a small courtyard designed to provide a certain amount of fair and Light, a main room and kitchen on the' ground floor, and two rooms and a drying stage on the first floor reached by a steep stairway. A water tap in the yard' was the only suggestion of modern conveniences. Sanitary arrangements were conspieuous by their complete absence. This was a building constructed in accordance with the Municipal Council's re quirements and houses of this type fare to be found in their thousands all over the Settlement, To the uninitiat~ fed it would seem that a family could make itself fairly comfortable. But a visit to the house some time after it had been in occupation would reveal surprising change in interior arrangements,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.