A FEBRUARY morning on the Whang-Pu, the air cold and bracing, a light misty rain falling, and the dull grey light of English winter - time. A sort of feel of London, as if Tilbury had been dropped in the Far East and become orientalised. But the languor and ev lasting patience of the East are missing. On the river is all the bustle of the West. The long low warships lying moored, one close behind the other-British, American, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese; the tugs, tenders, ocean-going transports, and liners; the junks with their great sails and heavy cumbrous lines, and the little sampans, with their crews packed below deck, calling to take you across the river, or to and from the ships lying out in the stream. Here, at a jetty, is a luxurious motor house-boat ready to carry its foreign owner after snipe,

VOL. CCXXII.-NO. MCCCXLI.

teal, goose, and woodcock. Or, perhaps, in these anxious days it is not the lure of the bird but the sight of the Chinese armies, lying one against the other, that will take him twenty or thirty miles up the river.

Tied up to another wharf are the newly arrived transports with British troops on board. Khaki-clad men, sent in haste from India for the defence of Shanghai, full of delighted enthusiasm at seeing this great new city, whistling and shouting to people on shore, who laugh and wave their hands in reply.

How long is it since an English regiment landed in Shanghai? There were Indian troops here in the Boxer rising, but no battalion of Englishmen. And the Boxer trouble was twenty-seven years ago! But here they are now-men from Gloucester and from Durham. And here in the ships must

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But till the men can be be housed they must remain in the ships; and there let us leave them, to smoke and play "House" and sleep another night or two on deck, whilst we turn and take a glance at Shanghai: not the walled Chinese city which lies a few miles to the south, but the foreign town, which is here before us. A narrow strip of land along the left bank of the Whang-Pu, measuring less than thirty miles from the point where it leaves the river to its junction with the French concession, and at no point extending more than five or six miles from the river. This is the International Settlement, and upon it is built the modern city of Shanghai. Governed and administered by the Municipal Council, with its five British, two American, and two Japanese members, an able and popular American chairman at its head, it is an independent city, neither Japanese, nor American, nor British. A wet marshy strip of land it used to be, the home of the whimbrel and the snipe.

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suitable place for the foreigner, thought the Chinaman when he conceded it to him! But where the muddy creek ran is now a tar macadam road, and where the rushes grew are flourishing jewellers' shops with plate-glass windows. Here is the Bund, stretching along the river bank, with the wharves and landing-stages on the one hand, and on the other the great Hong-Kong and Shanghai Bank, the Shanghai Club, with the longest bar in the world, the Consular buildings, hotels, smaller clubs, and offices. Leading away from the Bund we see Nanking Road, the Bond Street and Piccadilly of Shanghai, other crowded and prosperous streets, and the Avenue Edouard Sept, which is the boundary of French town. Everywhere are modern European buildings, interspersed with Chinese shops; excellent roads and broad pavements; rickshaws in thousands and motor - cars in hundreds ; crowded tram-cars and streets full of pedestrians. Chinese police in blue, with flat hats, or tall Sikhs, with their turbans, are at every corner, regulating the crowding traffic with their batons, or by the red and green warning lights displayed from posts in the centre of the cross-roads. Here and there also is a European, who has been specially enlisted in London or Dublin for the responsible and often dangerous task that falls to the lot of the Shanghai Municipal Police. And the flags! This is a city

of flags and picturesque signs and symbols. To-day we see many Union Jacks, Stars and Stripes, and French Tricolors, but to-morrow, perhaps, the Kuomintang colours will flutter from every building, for the Chinaman is quick to see which way the political wind is blowing, and to change his rôle accordingly.

A busy money-making city, and quickly growing. All around are builders working on scaffolding. Here, as in all the world, is a shortage of houses; but the building land within the Settlement is limited, and both foreigners and rich Chinese are now being crowded outside the boundary. Beside the Bubbling Well Road is the racecourse. The stables, diningroom, bars, boxes, and stands, as big as those at Ascot, have been completed in the last six months. The course is a mile and a half round, has a good grass surface, and encloses the only open space within the Settlement. Beside it is the mud track, on which the game, sturdy, little, short-necked China ponies do their training work, and on the enclosed open space the British and Americans play golf and football.

Shanghai, although a great trading centre, has no roads leading into it other than the few made by and belonging to the municipality, which extend but a little way outside the Settlement. Even the railway station is without the boundary. So the city is like the rest of China, in that she depends on

the waterways to transport her merchandise. The greater part is borne by the Yangtse and the Whang-Pu, but the Soochow Creek, which forms for several miles the Settlement boundary, is also crowded with water transport. Up or down, according as the tide flows in or out, go the huge junks laden with merchandise flour, coal, timber, pigs,-whilst two or three boatmen pole and steer, and groups of women and children sit or play amongst the bales, making their home upon the waters. In places the press of river-craft is so dense that it is easy to cross the sixty or eighty yards of water by stepping from junk to junk.

Here, by the Soochow Creek, we are no longer in the rich shopping district, but on the borders of the slum area, which lies to the north-east. We see the labouring coolies' quarters, the great warehouses, the gas works, and the water station, while across the street is Chapei

the Whitechapel of Shanghai. Here lies the North Railway Station, to be occupied later by the Northern and Southern Chinese armies in succession. All is now quiet, and there is as yet no hint of the barbed wire and sentries so soon to stand at Markham and Thibet Road Bridges, and along Boundary and Range Roads.

As we leave the creek, the light of the misty February afternoon is fading, and in Nanking Road we find the flags taken down and replaced by myriads of coloured lights. The

the route leaves no question as to the welcome from the international community.

Away to the south is the French Settlement, one of the principal residential parts of Shanghai, facing the Chinese city, and joined to the International Settlement by streets the names of which recall friendly relations with the British- Avenue Edouard Sept, Avenue Haig, Avenue Foch. In all the town there is not a khaki coat to be seen on this twelfth day of February. No soldiers have yet landed, and the Shanghai Volunteer Corps is not mobilised. And, although the Municipal Council has already laid the foundations of an army by enlisting three hundred Russians, these are still busy at drill, and their uniform is not seen in the streets.

We wonder, as we return down Nanking Road, how the landing of British troops will affect the life of the inhabitants. How will the Chinese and the foreigners greet the incoming regiments? Will a general strike be declared ? This is freely foretold, for it is a weapon commonly used in these days in China. All forebodings are, however, set at rest when, on the 14th of February, the two battalions land and march to their billets-the one to the Shanghai waterworks, where mat sheds have been erected, and the other to the racecourse buildings. No general strike takes place, and the enthusiasm

Again a cold damp winter morning. Carden Bridge over the Soochow Creek, the Bund, Nanking, and Bubbling Well Roads are all thickly lined with placid inquisitive Chinese sightseers, while the windows of hotels, clubs, and offices are crowded with European faces.

As the regiments pass, with bands playing and colours flying, they are welcomed by cheer after cheer and a continual clapping of hands. Cries, also, of of "Attaboy!" leave no doubt that the greeting is not entirely British. The crowd is even denser and more demonstrative where the commander-in-chief, the admiral, stands to receive the salute.

Through the shouting and cheering of the multitude runs also a quieter note of relief and thankfulness. The people of Shanghai, many Chinese as well as foreigners, are thanking God that the soldiers are actually arrived. Now is Shanghai safe from the fate of Hankow. No Chinese troops, Northern or Southern, will now overrun the Settlement, bringing murder and destruction with them. The relief and gratitude of the Shanghai people bring their natural hospitality to an amazing pitch. Officers of the incoming regiments are made honorary members of all the clubs, American and French as well as British, including also that most cheerful community-the