Once-Great Seaport Of China

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30094, 30 March 1963, Page 3

Once-Great Seaport Of China

Yellow Creek. The Story of Shanghai. By Brigadier J. V. Davidson-Houston. Putnam. 205 pp. Index. This is not a travel book but an outline of the history of one of the world’s most intriguing •cities. The site of Shanghai is first mentioned, under the name of Hu, in 220 B C. when it was probably a fishing port, but the first European contacts Wirth Shanghai did not take place until the sixteenth century. In the following century ‘he East India Company began to take an interest in China, and a master’s report darted 1758 mentions Shanghai as ‘‘a desirable place for trade." From the time when the company's ship “Lord Amherst" sailed uo the Huang-pu dr Yellow Creek in 1832 and anchored opposite the walled city, the merchants of China, acute businessmen if ever there were any. were anxious to trade with foreigners, but the Imperial Government in far-off Peking, remote from the sea and hostile to any encroachment upon the established order, thought otherwise. From the officials therefore traders met with non-co-operation and obstruction. Ten years later Canton was opened to foreign commerce and this was an event of revolutionary significance. The subsequent story of Shanghai is a dramatic product of the changing patterns

of international power and reflection of China’s developing relationship with the rest of the world. Brigadier Davidson-Houston devotes most of this book to the life of Shanghai from the time of the Opium War on, and brings the story up to 1960 when the last foreign factory, the Swiss-owned Chinese Aluminium Mill, was taken over by the Communist Government. Shanghai’s population is now said to be about seven mi Miens. Its importance as a seaport has recently diminished, but industrialisation is proceeding apace. Its future destiny depends upon the foreign and domestic policies of the central government, but the author concludes that “it is inconceivable that this natural gateway to the richest part of the country Should not resume its place among the great ports of the world.” Brigadier DavidsonHouston’s personal acquaintance with Shanghai goes back to 1927 when his experience with the Shanghai Defence Force led him on to study the language and history of China. This history is presented chronologically and is easy tn follow. Dlumiinating and authoritative, it is nevertheless somewhat dry and uninspired. The general reader wall find the book as a whole rather heavy going.