The great need for a hydrographic service in China has ensured the steady progress of the new department, and to-day it is a highly emicient service, closely related to all technical departments of the Chinese Government and the hydrographic departments of foreign governments. Its membership of the International Hydrographic Bureau has given it certain privileges and corresponding Fesponsibilities.. "To meet them i has #0" far produced 60 charta and various technical publications such og tide tables, notices to mariners—of which 300,000 were distributed last year—and Usts of lights, buoys, and Beacons. It 1s also engaged in compiling. sailing directions and direc Hons for port facilities and att other such marine publications that are Fequired of it in ie state member-hip of the International Bureau.
had had a very dim cult begin. ning, os it found the coos's and rivers of China and the marginal seas practically without any geodetic control. or, system of hydrographic research. The hydrography of China Such as existed was principally inthe archives of foreign governments, ani much of it dated back to the 19h century and was totally Inadequate for the modernized China of the post= war period. The records Kept by ploneers—mostly derived from the Customs—were crude and almost unadaptable to modern practice.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.