Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/837

 SWATOW.

WATOW, or Shan-tau, one of the ports thrown open in 1860 by the Treaty of Tientsin, lies at the main mouth of the River Han, which is here about a mile wide, and forms the entrepot and harbourage for a rich and flourishing hinterland, of which the ancient capital is Cha'o-chow-fu. In its setting of rush-covered, sandy dunes, vallevs laden with orange trees, crags in wild disorder, and distant, venerable mountains, Swatow is rightly named "the beautiful," and its climate, removed from either extreme of heat or cold, is healthful and invigorating. The trade of the port was originally carried on by sailing vessels, which had to pay a hundred dollars per mast each time of entry — a profitable source of revenue when it is remembered that in the early days the harbour often gave shelter to as many as fifty sailing ships. The first steamers to touch at Swatow were those of the Douglas and Peninsular and Oriental Companies, which scheduled three sailings a week from Hongkong for Swatow, Amoy, and Foochow. In course of time the Peninsular and Oriental boats were withdrawn from the run, but for upwards of fifty years the Douglas Company have maintained a regular service, though latterly they have had to face strenuous opposition from the Japanese.

The former prosperity of Swatow depended largely on the sugar industry. Fleets of native junks and numbers of foreign steamers came into port from Newchwang laden with bean cakes as manure for the cane planta- tions, which extended for hundreds of miles around, and everybody and everything lived more or less directly by and on sugar. Now, however, Javanese, Hongkong, and heavily subsidised Japanese sugars have practically driven the local product from the market ; the industry is dead, and all the factories are closed. The tea industry has also dwindled to insignificance, and an attempt to intro- duce flour-milling was speedily frustrated by competition from Hongkong. But, neverthe- less, the trade outlook is hopeful. There is a steady appreciation of land values, which may be taken as an indication that Swatow is slowly realising its destiny as a great emporium, with ever-extending railway com- munication, and a growing ste.uner service along the great trade routes of Eastern commerce. The decline of the former staples has already in some measure been balanced by an enormous development along other lines of industry, thanks to the wealth brought, or remitted, to the country by Chinese coolies, who have emigrated to the Malay Peninsula and elsewhere, and found prosperity. The extent of the coolie emigration from Swatow may be gauged from the latest available figures for one vear, which are as follows : — To Hongkong, 12,876 ; lo the Straits Settle- ments, 52,678 ; to Sumatra, 8,971 ; to Bangkok, 46,246 ; and to Saigon, 5,786. The coolies are sent as " assigned servants " to the agents of large Chinese sugar, rice, rubber, indigo, tobacco, fruit, and other planters in the respective countries ; and there can be little do;ibt that this traffic, in spite of its repulsive local sobriquet, " the small pig trade," is not without advantage to a district where, owing to over-population, infanticide is of common occurrence.

The manufacture of pewter-ware, earthen- ware, coarse paper, and drawn-lace fabrics has received considerable impetus, while, in addition to limited quantities of sugar and tea, fans, grass-cloth, indigo, oranges, jute, bamboo-ware, oil, tobacco, eggs, tinfoil, ver- micelli, macaroni, &c., are exported. Imports, via Shanghai and Hongkong, consist princi- cipally of cotton and woollen textures, American fiour, wheat, cotton yarn, kerosene oil, metals, opium, ramie fibre, rice, beans, bean cake, matches, &c. The net value of the trade of the port coming under the cognisance of the foreign Customs in 1906 was Tls.43, 159,013, as compared with Tls. 47,948,050 in 1905, and Tls. 49,280,786 in 1904. Quite a feature of the commercial activity of Swatow is the extraordinary enterprise of the Japanese, who since the war have overrun the country and have made their way into almost every department of trade.

The population of Swatow, estimated at about 35,000, contains an increasing per- centage of Europeans and Japanese, and quite a city of detached villa residences, each with its trim garden, is springing up, and finding its way through the older parts of the town — a marvellous change since the days, less than half a century ago, when the foreigner was strictly forbidden entrance to Swatow, and had to remain for safety on Masu, or Double Island, lying just inside the river mouth about four miles below the port. On the shore opposite Swatow, at the foot of a range of rugged heights, lies the settle- ment of Kak Chieh, where the British Consul and a few other Europeans reside, but with this exception all the foreign houses and representatives conduct their business in the town itself. Various schemes of reclamation have been undertaken, and in this way about 2ii acres have been added to Ihe available building land. It is interesting, and, indeed, curious, to remark ihat in Swatow and the surrounding district no bricks are used in the construction of the houses, the substitute being a form of concrete into the composition of which a peculiar local clay, in admixture with oyster- shell lime and water, enters largely. This material hardens into a solid wall, and appears to last quite as well as the bricks so generally used in other parts of China. The local government of Swatow and the surrounding district is vested in the Taoutai, a high Chinese official, who resides in the Yamen, or Court-house, at Cha'o-chow-fu. The present holder of the oftice, recently arrived in the district, is a man of action, and under his supervision the local police, who were formerly under mercantile administration, have been brought to some state of efficiency, and much better order prevails in the towns than formerly. Assisting the Taoutai are the Chief of Police ; the Tung Hi magistrate, who settles the disputes among natives, and metes out punishment in Swatow ; and the Chow Yang magistrate, who deals similarly with Kak Chieh, and the district on the southern shore.

There is a fairly large staff of Customs officers attached to Swatow, and they are usually fully employed, as the number of vessels entering and clearing the port is increasing year by year. For many years the Customs Department had to perform their functions and live on Double Island, and it was only after exterminating a couple of hundreds of desperadoes, rowdies, and fanatics, that they succeeded in occupying the present site on the mainland. New Customs offices are now being built on a portion of the reclaimed land. The yearly duty collected