[Inclosure in No. 299.]
Mr. Denby to the
Tsung-li yamên.
Your Imperial Highness and Your Excellencies: I
have the honor to inform your Imperial highness and your excellencies
that the foreign merchants and ship-owners at Shanghai have again
petitioned the foreign ministers to bring before your Imperial highness
and your excellencies the necessity of dredging the Woosung Bar.
[Page 184]
I can not fail to comply with this request, because I believe that the
interest no less of China than of the mercantile classes demands this
improvement.
I am aware that the subject has been heretofore on several occasions
brought to the notice of your Imperial highness and your excellencies.
But observation and experience have taught us that nothing is ever
settled until it is settled aright.
Shanghai, if not such already, is surely destined to be one of the great
cities of the world. She occupies the most fortunate position midway of
the Asiatic coast. With no possible rivals near her, looking towards
America and Japan, with the great Yangtze tributary to her, she is the
great central port of China, to which trade gravitates as naturally as
the commerce of the world gravitates to London, or of America to New
York. Her imports and exports largely exceed all those of the other
ports of China. Her shipping is enormous. The ships of every nation
visit her port.
There is no possible contingency which can ever deprive Shanghai of her
pre-eminence over other cities. Nature has, by the configuration of the
continent and the flow of the Yangtze, which pours its vast flood 1,900
miles through the heart of China, determined here the location of a
great city.
If these statements be true, is it not just to the people of this city,
and of China, whose commercial capital she is, that every facility
should be afforded to the great trade which finds its chief mart at
Shanghai?
For many years the Woosung Bar has been a detriment and injury to
commerce. Detentions of ships occur there and heavy expenses are
entailed on their owners. The bar could be dredged out at a
comparatively small expense, considering the ends to be accomplished.
Your archives and those of all the legations are replete with scientific
reports showing the necessity for this work and the facility with which
it can the accomplished.
Heretofore an objection has been made that this bar was necessary as a
protection in time of war. But China now has a fine navy, and her own
ships would be excluded as well as the ships of the enemy. Besides, the
progress of the science of warfare has devised other and more efficient
means to protect harbors. The present torpedo system insures absolute
protection against an attacking fleet of any tonnage.
The greater the size of the ships which can ascend the river, the greater
the tonnage dues collected. The greater the facilities for trade, the
more trade there will be. The cost of transshipment of freight is a very
serious item to large vessels. The danger of affecting the current to
the disadvantage of native vessels by removing the bar has been disposed
of by scientific observers.
I do not deem it necessary in this communication to go over the whole
ground in favor of the improvement that is now petitioned for. Your
Imperial highness and your excellencies are thoroughly posted on all
phases of the question. I desire simply, in conjunction with my
colleagues, to call your attention to the matter, and to beseech you, as
well for the sake of the best interests of China as for that of the
general commerce, to take immediate steps to have this bar removed.
I have the honor further to suggest that a work of so important a
character as the improvement of the Wangpu River should be intrusted to
the authorities who control the harbor, or that they should be consulted
in determining on the plan of improvement, and the best scientific aid
should be secured.
