of the Whangpoo, "When the bootn was erated, ing to the wharf property on the Pootung.side
was generally believed that the Japanese steamers seized by the Chinese and sunk at that spot, had been sunk in a methodical manner which would make the task of salvage relatively easy, but it was discovered later that they had bees' sunk hurriedly and haphazardly with the sole purpose of, blocking any Japanese aval advance 'Up-river and salvaiye operations became' more difficult. After the Chinese junks had cither been freed or destroyed by fire, the Japanese engineers set to work with a force of 130 men belonging to the Japan Salvage Company to deal with the steamers of the Nisshin 'Kisen Kaisha. 'The Suzan Maru, the first to be freed froth the mud. la reported actually to have been raised two weeks ago but she went down again and complete salvage was of effected until lost Saturday. Eight' more ships, including two or three said to be among the finest on the Yangtze when they were in normal service there, are still at the bottom, and although the Suzan Maru is fit to re-enter service such hopes are not entertained regarding the condition of the others. Nevertheless, this task of clearing the boom cannot be over: estimated in importance for the problems of the Port of Shanghai have gone neglected for eleven months since; the hostilities started and the urgency of their solution finds daily emphasis in shipping circles where it is felt that political necessities can by no means construed of such overwhelming importance as to bring ruin to the port, which is used by Japanese-as much as by other nationalities. Following Harbour authorities' announcement of thei~ intention to remove junks and boats, also obstacles (o navigation, this work on the boom is an encouraging sign that action is at last being taken to save the harbour.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.