Should the new metropolis grow as its builders hope, a large railway pier will be built for the use of ships too large to pass up the Creek. Although Hongkew. Creek shows little sign of change at present, it should present a scene of business and bustle comparing favourably in every respect to that of Soochow Creek if company officials find conditions such that they will be able to carry their plans to completion.
These plans, which the engineers of the scheme hope will be fulfilled in about six years, also make provision for a central -railway station which will serve as the main terminal of a railway line which the builders intend to construct from their new city to a point on the Shanghai-Nanking railway. A spur line will connect with the North Station, but officials made it clear that the main line will not serve those sections composing present-day Shanghai. If the new settlement should attain the prosperity which seems to be expected, future circumstances permitting, the International Settlement and French Concession will be relegated ignominiously to mere suburbs of the new Utopia.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.