THE NEW YELLOW PERIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19658, 9 June 1927, Page 15

THE NEW YELLOW PERIL.

LIFE ON THE YANGTSE. DRAMA OF THE UPPER RIVER. NAVIGATION AND SHIPPING. VAST STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE. BY rUT.NAM WEALE. (All Rights Reserved). IX. SHANGHAI, March 23. It is practically impossible to get to the Upper Yangtse to-day. All regular services arc suspended, and, except for some rare boat that is forced to go beyond Ichang for relief purposes, there is 110 communication. I was hoping at least to reach Ichang, but even the halfway port between Hankow and Ichang— Shasi—had still too little water for any but very shallow-draught steamers, and I had to turn back. A strange and incredible story it is that is now unrolling on the upper river, a story fraught with grim possibilities which may yet shock the world if something goes snap. The sedulous watch vhich that latter-day miracle—wireless—allows to be kept is the hope and refuge of all men; for the British Navy is on guard. Each little ship strung along the Yangtse is flashing signals continuously; the signals are collated; the daily story studied. If the worst comes to the worst, the final evacuation of all white folk will come swiftly—although some may neverget awav. Navigation on the Yangtse. For many years after the Tientsin treaties Hankow remained the highest navigable point on the Yangtse. Then Ichang, 400 miles higher up, was opened just before the "eighties." Chungking, 1400 miles from Shanghai, followed suit in the "nineties," the treaty declaring that it would only acquire full status as an open port when steam navigation hud successfully conquered the famous rapids above Ichang. In 1908 a Captain Plant reached Chungking under his own steam. The tremendous rapids, which have two and a-half times the power of the Niagara Falls and had been held unconquerable by all the experts, had succumbed to science, and a new chapter in the struggle between East and West had been opened. It was to be a story with the most far-reaching consequences, affecting things so drastically that it brought fundamental changes. The province of Szechuen, with its population of 60 millions, virtually isolated for 2000 years since it had been first colonised, had been brought into direct and speedy communication with the outer world. It was now possible to travel in a week what it had taken a full month and more to do. The whole outlook was certainly changed. This first Chungking steamer was followed by many imitators. Correction o! Early Errors. Although there were many wrecks, early errors were quickly corrected. Highpowered, handy ships with triple rudders were found so safe that the abnormal 5 per cent, insurance fates fell to normal. Soon motor-ships pushed on from Chungking to Suifu, the head of the junk naviand 1700 miles from Shanghai, tapping more virgin country.' By 1915 there were a dozen ships on the upper river run; by 1920, a score; by 1925, 68. Had the present political upheaval not come, had things remained normal, the number of upper-fiver ships this year would have risen to a hundred. But the thing had not been normal from the beginning; it had grown rankly, like a weed, because of the tremendous profits, ships during many years paying for themselves in six months, some companies earning dividends such as tobacco trusts do not dream of. Because of the expansion of the motor-car industry, Szechuen wood oil, the basis of all good varnish, became more and more in demand. To buy it and push it fast down to the coast became a traffic resembling the old sailingship trade of rushing home the new season's teas. The speed with which steamers went and came, in comparison with the junks, stimulated immensely every kind of trade And this in spite of tremendous natural difficulties. Teams of Five Hundred Men. • During the high-water season, when there is an amazing rise of over 100 ft. in the gorges, the current runs at 14 knots an hour and it is necessary for the smaller steamers to be tracked over bad patches. Then teams of 500 naked men harness themselves with bamboo cables to the ship, and crawling like a colony of migrant ants along tho cut-out rock ledges, often hundreds of feet above' the water-level, they strain every muscle as they lie on the rope literally lifting the ship inch by inch ever the rise, until suddenly she breasts the rapid and breaks away. The piloting is so difficult that no man can qualify for the post until he has been 17 years a junk captain. The cream of the native shipping lias been impressed into the service of the steamers. Vet, while it was so prosperous, steam shipping was playing the part of an assassin—it was murdering an enormous native industry, the upper river junkshipping, which employed hosts of men, not only as junkmen and trackers, but in vast boat, building and repair establishments, since, owing to the great number of# wrecks, which averaged one or two a day, the new junk output was a thousand a year. There were half a million men engaged in this industry; there were never less than 6000 junks normally employed. Junk Building) a Lost Art. In fifteen years the 6000 jtinks have totally disappeared from the upper river and junk building has become a lost art owing to the steamers. In no part of the world has there ever been such a swift and incredible revolution. And this economic revolution was accompanied by a political revolution which never died clown, but constantly became aggravated. It was in Szechuen that the storm against, tho Manrhu Throne had commenced in 1911. After the republic had been successfully established, the numberless attempts made by Peking to crush Szechuen Only resulted in turning the province into an armed camp. Through this armed camp, like a solitary roadway ran the Upper Yangtse, on which prosperous foreign steamers had acquired the sole right of way. In the first 10 years of the Civil War, from 1911 to 1921, they had not sufficiently displaced junks to dominate the situation. But even before they were complete masters of the river, they had attracted hatred because of the numberless accidents they had inflicted. In the worst passages, such as the Fu-Tan ra pid, and the famous

Wind-Box Gorge, where giant cliffs tower , up thousands of feet, and the current runs like a mill-race, the steamer wash takes nearly an hour to subside. Heavily laden junks, with very little free-board, were inevitably swamped whenever an encounter took place; and although the ancient and extraordinary native life-boat service, the Red Boats, which have blue and white striped sails—a service established by a Manchu official many years ago, who lost his whole family in the rapids—were always ready to pick up survivors, there was a terrific loss of men and goods. And this in spite of rigid regulations limiting steamer speed to eight knots actual steaming speed. Thus there was a double phenomenon of which governments were profoundly ignorant —first, the conquest which steam shipping had silently made with the consequent hatred of the river people; second, the new importance which the river had , acquired as the solo roadway for the . armies of the Civil War, because the strategic points ran east and west and could only be reached by water. This last became the capital fact. If ! the river was the roadway means had to . be found to travel on it. As the junks disappeared, eyes were inevitably turned more and more toward the steamers. Many ■ of these, some of the best, were Chinese- ■ owned. They were at last commandeered. | The Chinese owners replied by organising foreign companies which gave them the protection of a foreign flag. ' In a few months the Chinese flag had almost totally disappeared from the upper river. Nations that hitherto had not had a single vessel engaged in the river trade, such as -the French and Italians, found themselves overnight endowed with important fleets, .one so-called Italian Shipping Company having no fewer than 11 vessels on the Chungking run. For a time the military leaders were checkmated, Hut not for long, lhey were perfectly aware of the trick'that had been ' played "on them, and being; desperately pressed tYiey did the natural thing; they I commenced indiscriminately invading foreign ships whenever they came to anchor, and forcing them at the point of the bayonet to carry their soldiers. As the average cargo capacity of the steamers was 250 tons against the 90 tons of the i largest junks, thev could take three times as many soldiers, who, moreover, travelled ' 10 times as fast, this increased mobility 1 training sudden victories. i b °