CONDITIONS IN CHINA

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3483, 23 June 1934, Page 4

CONDITIONS IN CHINA

LADY'S LETTER FROM SHANGHAI. " THE CITY WITH GROWING PAINS." A Te .Awamutu resident has kindly made available for publication extracts from the letter of a lady formerly resident in the Waikato and now domiciled at Shanghai, where she occupies a position with an important commercial firm. The writer sets out to give a brief description of life and conditions in the great metropolis of the East. We quote:— " And as for! this great city of Shanghai, which I do not like, I will endeavour to describe bi-iefly. To commence with, it has 'growing pains' rather more acutely than any. other city I have ever visited, and is spreading in every direction possible. It is flat for more miles than the eye can see. So far as navigation is concerned, Shanghai ha|s a very fine river, and 22,000-ton ships can come up almost to the city proper; but its water is a dirty brown, and for quite a number of miles on either side (for it is quite narrow) the shores are lined with wharves, godowns (warehouses), factories, coal yards, docks, etc. I [spend many week-ends down the r'ver (about 11 hours' journey from the business area), and the more I go up and down this brown river the more it fascinates me.

"There is shipping from all over the world —big boats, little boats, grubby looking tramps, palatial ocean liners, tiny sampans poled hither and thither often by quite a small boy, warship|s, from such a magnificent specimen as H.M.S. Hood to small American torpedo boats, most of the nations being represented—- Japan very much so—and, most fascinating of all, the Chinese junks, alternating on Saturdays and Sundays with white-sailed yachts. The Chinese junk is, I think, the most picturesque water craft to be seen the world over, especially if one sees a good specimen, such as we passed last Sunday. It was a very large one, lowish in the centre, but towering up at the prow and aft. The whole of it was gaily painted in harmonious greens, reds, blues and browns —representing dragons, I think. In front were the usual twoHbig staring eyes " to watch for evil spirits," and its huge tawny brown sa : l s were serenely extended by a gentle breeze. We watched it (ill a bend in the river hid it from sight. "The Bund at Shanghai (waterfront of the city) is perhaps one of the finest in the world, beautiful buildings being in evidence everywhere, but perhapis 100 yards or so inside one of the by-streets one comes across small Celestial shops that have not changed in the last 200 years, flaunting their gay banners in front. Everywhere in the city now, though, tall buildings are springing up—some of them 12, 14, 16, and even 20 stories in height-—and apartment houses are everywhere. For population, Shanghai comes third in the world, and one can well believe it when a glance is given to the teeming myriads that throng the streets, the deafening noise that :"s perpetually in evidence in the city, for the coolie in the streets, on the wharves, and en sampans, seems to find work impossible without peculiar calls and cries.

" It is rather quaint to hear small boys, when at the age of perhaps eight or nine years. They start carrying heavy loads on the(ir should-

ers, and you are at once attracted with their pathetic, rather breathless, " Hee-haw, hee-haw" for all the world as though they were practising. Poor little beggars, having to toil so hard when they really should be playing football or marbles. " Shanghai is just a large city surrounded on all sides by the Chinese city and numerous villages. When we were house-hunting some, time ago we arrived at the edge of the Foreign settlement at all angles—and the difference, the pestilential odours, the squalor, was positively amazing. But the squalor of Chinese life has penetrated the Settlements everywhere, and it is rare to go more than perhaps an eighth of a mile without the attractiveness of pretty houses and grounds being broken up by Celestial settlements. Nowhere do they seem to have been able to keep a suburb all attractive. One would not so much say that the Chinese are dirty (of course they are wretchedly poor), but they are utterly and entirely unsanitary, and can thrive in the midst of odours that almost make a foreigner collapse.

" I wandered out the other evening to and beyond the foreign settlement where for an hour and a-half I saw not one foreigner—every human was a Chinese —and though I had no fear of being molested, my throat was quite sore with endeavours to withstand the poisonous aromas that pervaded the otherwise delightful summer evening.

"The Russian element is' stronger than ever, and many of them are a disgrace to any community, Occidental or Oriental. One night recently, after dining out, and going on to a cinema, we finished up at a cafe, where men buy dances at 50 cents a time. It looked rather like ' school's in ' in evening dress, when one looked at the rows of girls (practically all of them Russians) waiting for dancing partners. As a study I enjoyed it, watching those who were perpetually in demand, and odd pathetic ones who sat for an hour or more without moving. I wondered dimly if not dancing meant no breakfast/ because I fancy they get a percentage of all their earnings. Cabarets of this nature are so terribly frequent in Shanghai, and I think ar e a detrimental influence.

"China, like the rest of the world, 's feeling the effects of the depression, and not nearly so many foreigners are coming here as formerly, very many of the firms have had to reduce staffs.

" If only China was safe for travel, and one had the time and means, some wonderfully interesting and instructive trips cculd be taken, but one dare not w*ander from the beaten track—and even that is often not safe. Just now there are a number of people held in captivity—have been so for many months, the bandits demanding such exorbitant ransoms that, though it does not sound humanitarian, there ijs nothing for it but to leave the unfortunate folk in their captors' hands and at their mercy. Every ransom paid means only_niore captives, because the kidnappers find it a most payable occupation. The foreign Governments are absolutely powerless to .move. "Things are still in a frightful pickle, and it is a marvel how the country goes along from day to day. The hold of the Japanese in the north ha»s become very strong, and one wonders just what will happen—for the little Jap is both cunning and clever. Peking has just escaped, but nowadays, and for some time past, the Japanese guard there has been, doubled. Actually, there are two Japanese soldiers to every Japanese citizen. The hands of the' Chinese author'tiete are tied., and before long they will be mere puppets, just as they are in Manchuria (or Monchoukuc, as it is now called).