Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/846

838 838 TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF HONGKONG, SHANGHAI, ETO. entrance lo the Min River, is strongly forti- fied with modern heavy guns. Foochow has still some attractions to offer to the sportsman, for game abounds in the neighbourhood, and a little further in (he interior tiger and panther are common.

MR. 6. M. H. PLAYFAIR. Mr. George Maci)os.li) Home Playfair, the British Consul at Foochow, has been in the Consular service of China for nearly forty years. Born in 1850. he graduated at Dublin University, and, being successful in the usual competitive examination, was appointed a Student Interpreter in 187^. He remained in Peking for some time acting as Assistant Chinese Secretary. He carried out the duties of Consul at Taiwan in 1877, and at Pakhoi from 1881 to 1883. In 1886 he was promoted first-class assistant, and since that time has been attached, in various administrative capacities, to a large number of places in different parts of the Chinese Empire, including Tainan, Tamsui, Shanghai, Ningpo, and Swatow. He was appointed Consul at Foochow in 1899, and acted as Consul-General at Hankow from 1903 to 1904, after which lie returned to his post at Foochow.



DR. S. L. GRACEY.

Dr. Samuel L. Gracey, who, except for an interval of three years during the Cleveland administration, has been Consul for the United States of America at Foochow since 1890, comes from an English stock, his ancestors having gone to America with William Penn. Born on September 6, 1835, at Philadelphia, he was educated at public schools of that city and at Boston University. He is a Doctor of Divinity, and was for a number of years minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, Chelsea, Cambridge, Lynn, Salem, and other cities in Massachusetts. For three years he served as chaplain in the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War. He was a member of the Massachusetts Legislature for two terms. The whole of his Consular service has been spent at Foochow, and for assistance rendered during the Boxer troubles he was decorated with the Order of the Double Dragon. Dr. Gracey has been twice married. His first wife was Leonora Thompson and his second wife Corda Perkins Pratt, of Massachusetts, who is a direct descendant of the Mayflower pilgrims on both her father and mother's side. Dr. Gracey has, with one exception, served longer than any other American Consul in China or the Far East. He commands the highest respect of his nationals. His son, Wilbur T. Gracey, is the United States Consul at Tsingtau.

DR. T. RENNIE.

Dr. T, Rennie, who has a large private practice in Foochow, was born in West Aberdeenshire in 1850. He graduated at Aberdeen University and took his M.B. and CM. Degrees in 1872, becoming M.D. three years later. Before coming to Foochow he was stationed in Formosa for six years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Public Health ; Member of the British Medical Association ; Medical Officer to the British Consulate and the Imperial Maritime Customs ; and Hon. Medical Officer to the Foochow Native Hospital.

ME. H. BAKER. Mr. H. Baker, who was born in Wiltshire in 1854, and educated privately in Germany, came to Foochow in 1875 to join Messrs. Newman & Co., and, in 1881, transferred his services to the local branch of Messrs, Butterfield & Swire. He was associated with Foochow during the old tea days, and has been engaged for six years in Shanghai and Hankow as a tea-taster. He is fond of shooting and riding, and often enters ponies in the Foochow races.

MR. C. F. ST. C. STOCKWELL.

Mr. Stockwell is a member of a family which has been resident in China practically ever since the establishment of Hongkong as a British Colony. His maternal grandfather, Captain S. Clifton, was present at the bom- bardment of Canton in 1840, and accompanied the 70th Foot Regiment to Hongkong in 1849. He was the first Captain-Superintendent of Police in Shanghai, and his wife has the reputation of being the oldest European lady residing in the country. For a term of fifty- nine years, between 1845 and 1904, she divided her time almost equally between Hongkong and Shanghai. Mr. Stockwell's father is the son of Dr. James Stockwell, Medical Officer to the Government Civil Hospital, Hongkong. Mr. Stockwell himself is the representative for the British-American Tobacco Company, Ltd., in Foochow. His has been an active career. He holds a commission in the King's Colonial Imperial Yeomanry and, attached as interpreter to the Russian Army, went through the Boxer trouble of 1900. He holds two certificates, sliowing that he has passed the School of Musketry and the Cavalry School. A good linguist, he has travelled in every continent.

MR. J. C. OSWALD.

Mr. J. C. Oswald, the chief partner in the firms of Bathgate & Co. and Fairhurst & Co., was born at Croydon in 1857,' and was educated at Heidelberg. He has been engaged in the tea trade all his life, for at the age of sixteen he joined a firm of importers in London, and, after remaining with them for thirteen years, came to Foochow, where he has since been engaged in superintending the export of tea. Mr. Oswald is an enthusiastic sportsman. In his younger days he established a high reputation as a cyclist, and was awarded in 1882 a gold medal for a hundred miles record. Now riding and shooting constitute the chief recreations of his leisure.

MR. M. J. ISAACS.

Mr. Morris J. Isaacs, the agent in Foochow and Formosa for the Sun Life Assurance, of Canada, has had a training and experience which fit him admirably for the post. The manager of the head office in Montreal, Canada, and the general manager for Eastern Asia, Dr. R. H. Macaulay, often refers to his success in establishing a connection since he took over the work in December, 1906. Horn in Bombay in 1880, he came to China when quite young, and was educated at Queen's College, Hongkong. From the age of fifteen he has been connected with insurance work. A clever linguist, he speaks the Cantonese dialect, Hindustani, Arabic, and several other Oriental languages fluently.

MR. PESTONJEE B. JOKHEE.

Mr. Pestonjee Bomanjkk Jokhee is managing partner in Foochow for Messrs. Mchta & Co., opium, yarn, and camphor merchants, and commission agents. He was born in Surat, and came to China quite early in life.

MR. H. TIENSINFOO.

Mr. H. Tieksinfoo was born in Foochow in 1870, and educated at the Anglo-Chinese College. At the age of twenty-four he started in business as a timber, rice, and tea merchant. In addition to carrying on this business, he has charge of the Foochow branch of the Standard Oil Company, whose interests in the district are being rapidly developed. Mr. Tiensinfoo holds the Chinese Order of the Fifth Rank. ME. CHOET CHEN PONG. Mr. Choey Chen Pong, who is the pro- prietor of the famous Choey Wo Long Fairy Boat brand of tea, which has a large sale in England, was born in Canton in 1855 and educated in Hongkong. On leaving school he went to Foochow and entered the tea trade. Besides the tea business he has lately taken an interest in camphor.

ME. H. MANNCHOW.

Mr. H. Mannchow was born in Canton and educated at Hongkong, where he subsequently joined the Great Northern Telegraph Company. After a few years' service he came to Foochow and obtained employment with the Eastern Extension Telegrapli Com- pany. He relinquished his connection with this Company in order to become chief Chinese assistant to Messrs. Gibb, Livingston & Co. in Foochow, but he now combines with his other duties the positions of super- intendent of and electrician to the Fokien Telephone Company,. Ltd. This Company, which is under Chinese administration, has only recently been formed, but it has already one hundred and fifty subscribers.

MESSRS. PAUL PETTICK & CO.

The oldest and largest store-keepers at Foochow are Messrs. Paul I^ettick & Co. Established since 1888 they enjoy an excellent reputation amongst both the Euro- pean and native population. Of recent years they have disposed of their retail business to the Foochow Trading Company, and have concerned themselves solely with the wholesale import and export tr,ide. They import goods from England, America, France, and Germany, and export native produce, such as camphor, feathers, lac- quered wares, bamboos, curios, &c. The