Associated American Chambers of commerceThe American Chambers of commerce in Shanghai, Tientsin,Peking and Hankow, following the example of the British merchants,decided to form an Associated American Chambers of commerce,and representatives from these local associations met in Shanghai onOctober 23rd for the organization of this body.
It had become increasingly apparent that the merchantsIn 1928 work on this road was taken in hand.
throughout the country had many common interests, and that it wasgreatly to their advantage to come together so that they might actunitedly in presenting to their Government statements in regard tomatters affecting American trade in the Far East.
community Affairs
More interest in settlement matters was evidenced by theestablishment of a Civic League, for the discussion of Municipal affairs.
For the most part Ratepayers have been content to allow the Councilto conduct the affairs of the Settlement without interference. Oncein a while there has been vigorous agitation when some unpopularmeasure has been proposed, but generally speaking the public hasbeen indifferent. The Civic League gave opportunity for those whowere critical to express their views, and to do something in the way ofcreating public opinion.
Shanghai was still troubled by the increase in house rents, andby the evidence of profiteering on the part of landlords. The slump inbusiness began to show its effects, and for the first time in its history,the problem of unemployment among the foreign residents assumedserious proportions.
War Memorials
On February 8th, a war memorial was unveiled in the ShanghaiClub by the British Consul-General, Sir Everard Fraser, on which wereinscribed the names of members of the Club who had given their livein the War. Sir Everard in his address referred to those, who dying,“gave us rarer gifts than gold.”
Another memorial was the Cathedral War Memorial Chapel,dedicated on Sunday, December 10th, by the Rt. Rev. H. J. Molony, D.
D. The Chapel is a fitting shrine for over 200 men, who gave their livesin the Great War, and whose names are commemorated in letters ofgold. Above the names on three sides of the Chapel is the inscription:“To the Glory of God and in honour of the memory of thoseconnected with the Cathedral and Shanghai who fell in the Great War,1914–1918, this Chapel is dedicated.“The Chapel also contained a memorial to the Rev. W. H. Price,former Sub-Dean of the Cathedral. Two memorial windows werepresented by Sir Edward Pearce in memory of his son who fell on“Flanders‘ field.”
Recently a memorial tablet has been erected to the late Dean C. J.
F. Symons who died on January 19th, 1928.
National Christian ConferenceOf great interest to the missionary community, was the holdingof the National Christian Conference in Shanghai on May 2nd.
Heretofore the membership of Missionary Conferences had beenalmost entirely composed of foreign missionaries, but in this case themembership was predominantly Chinese.
Out of the National Christian Conference came the appointmentof a National Christian Council of one hundred members, whosefunction was stated to be that of acting as an advisory body in regard tothe Protestant Christian enterprise in China.
New Pasteur InstituteA new Pasteur Institute was opened on December 27th, atHospital Ste. Marie in the French concession on the centenary dayof the great scientist. Its object was not to compete but to co-operatewith the Pasteur Service established by the Municipal Council of theInternational Settlement. The need of such an institute was amplyshown by the fact that in the preceding year, 1,500 stray dogs, themajority of them infected with rabies, had been captured and destroyedin the French Concession.
Noted Visitor
The French Concession was en fête several days in March, 1922,in honour of the visit of the distinguished French soldier, MarshalJoffre. He was entertained lavishly, and the Chinese residents displayedmuch interest in seeing the man who played so prominent a part in theopening days of the Great War.
Deaths of Prominent CitizensDuring the year under review, 1922, several old China handsjoined the “great majority.” On February 25th the death of Mr. H.
E. Hobson occurred in England. He was Senior commissioner of theChinese Maritime Customs at the time of his retirement. He cameto Shanghai in 186 1 to join the Customs, and during the TaipingRebellion was staff interpreter to General Gordon. He opened severalof the new treaty ports for the Customs and had resided in no fewerthan eighteen. His last term of service was in Shanghai where heendeared himself to a large number of friends.
On March 21st occurred the sudden death of Sir Everard Fraser,K. C. M. G., British Consul-General in Shanghai for eleven years, andhis country"s representative through the trying war period. He had wonthe respect and admiration of the whole foreign community by hisdevotion to duty, marked ability, and high character. Memorial serviceswere held in the English Cathedral and Union Church, and there weremany expressions of appreciation, especially from the American officialsand organizations.
A tablet in his memory was placed in the War Memorial Chapelof the English Cathedral.
The Rev. Samuel Couling, for many years a missionary educatorin China, died in June. He was an eminent Chinese scholar and theauthor of the Encyclopaedia Sinica, a work highly commended bySinologists throughout the world. Upon the death of Mr. GeorgeLanning, the Shanghai Municipal Council asked Mr. S. Couling tocontinue the official history of Shanghai, but like his predecessor, hedied before completing the task.
The death of Mr. J. D. Clark on October 26th, took away anotherwell-known resident of Shanghai. He had been in the East since 1865,first in Japan, and then in China. In 1879 he established the ShanghaiMercury, for a long time the leading evening paper.