The result was that instead of the ing thy delay in the Examination Shed ut the Shanghai &' Hongkew Whart Co's Hongkew Wharf which customary whenever ships dike the Empress of Canada arrive in port, passengers were: able to go ashore within a few minutes of the CPR. gong-plank being put into place.
'A. full. {ifteen minutes before the Canada made fast, the examination of all baggage had been completed, which meant that during the hour and a half that the Empress of Canada had taken to travel up-river from the Blockhouse Buoy to the point where she commenced swing~ ing off the Hongkew Wharf, the DbawKage examiners had been' able to complete their scrutiny of several hundred -pleces of baggage. The Empress of Canada made fast to the wharf of about 15. p.m, The examination of baggage before the ship has arrived at the Wharf not exactly a new departure for Shanghai, but the fact that the Customs officers boarded the ship before she actually arrived at Woo sung Is a distinct Innovation. The honour of being the first ship to be examined on route up the river goes to the Empress of Japan, which was bourded at Woostng by ihe Customs baggage "examiners. It is_pnder stood that the large trans-Pacitie vessels of the Nippon Yusen Kaisha. which, Tike the" Canadian Pacific ship," are now handling record passenger lists, have algo been board~ ed in the same manner.
early yet to say whether or not this arrangement will become a regular feature of the Customs ser= vice in the port of Shanghai, but the shipping officials concerned' have expressed their great appreciation at the ce-operation of the Chinese Maritime Customs, whilst passengers who were becoming almost inured {fo the inevitable delays attendant on baggage examination nave not been heard to raise any objections; deed, the contrary Is the case.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.