MY sister and I had got to know a Mr. and Mrs. Price.

He was headmaster of a large school. Mrs. Price had been to England, but I had heard that she was back.

While going along the Bund towards the Soochow Creek one day I saw a lady in front of me whom I felt sure was Mrs. Price, particularly as she was walking in the direction of their house. I walked faster to catch her up, and just as I was passing her and was on the point of raising my hat, the lady turned towards me.

It was not Mrs. Price and she seemed to resent me chasing her.

Next day I went on board the French mail tender to join a steamer at Woosung which was bound for Hong Kong, with my suitcase in one hand. I walked aft to place it in the saloon, but just as I reached the door a lady's head appeared; it was the lady I had chased the day before, so I did not venture any further. Just then three people arrived on the jetty. I knew one of them, who hailed me with, "Hullo, Eldridge! Are you going to Hong Kong? Because if so, I want to introduce Mr. and Mrs. to you. They have just been transferred to that port to take charge of Gibb and Livingstone's office." This was a fortunate meeting, because these two people and I were the only British passengers on board and were put at the same table.

When I called on Mrs. May at Mountain Lodge, Hong Kong, and told her of the incident, she roared with laughter because that particular lady was so prudish; and but for the presence of the other two passengers to whom I was introduced, which saved my reputation, I would have been branded with a black mark against me for ever.

In 1903 Tyler took home leave and I was given charge of the department. This gave me the opportunity of visiting Sir Robert Hart at Peking for the first time.

I was particularly anxious to meet him, as it was on the recommendation of Lord Dufferin, then Viceroy of India, that Sir Robert had appointed me to the Service.

What surprised me most was that he was so quiet a man, and seemed shy and polite, notwithstanding his great power.

In order to see him I had to call on the Chief Secretary in another building, who arranged the time of my call for me. He was a Russian gentleman called Konovaloff, brilliantly clever, and I shall have a lot to say about him later on in my career.

Having been granted home leave in 1904, I left Shanghai by a North German Lloyd steamer on the 2nd of July and was unlucky enough to arrive in Hong Kong late one evening, when we were not due to sail until noon next day. Before the ship anchored I received a note from Mrs. May, brought by the pilot.

Writing from Government House, she said, "Your room is ready for you, so come whenever you arrive."

As I would have had little time to see them next day, I went ashore immediately the ship had anchored and caught the last train to the Peak, took a sedan chair to Mountain Lodge, arriving some time after 11 p.m., to find everything in darkness. After a while the door was opened by a very sleepy-looking boy. I gave him my card to take to his master, whom he told me was in bed. Shortly after I saw May walking downstairs in his dressing gown with a candle in his hand — they had no electric light in those days at the Peak. I ran up to greet him, but he stopped me by putting a finger to his lips; then, when we were in the drawing room with the door closed, he told me that his second daughter, Phoebe, was ill and he did not want her disturbed. Next morning, Mrs. May told me how she had laughed when she was told of the meeting on the stairs.

The Mays took me to my steamer in the Governor's beautiful steam-launch. As this was my first leave since I had left my parents at Beyrout 20 years before, in 1885, I felt very happy, and enjoyed every moment of the voyage to Genoa — for my mother and sisters were staying at Settignano, near Florence. My eldest sister, the one who had been living with me in Shanghai, had gone on by an earlier boat.

The weather was very hot, but I did not mind, and in due course I arrived at the Canonica where my people were staying, the priest being related to some Italian friends of ours. At Settignano I met a charming American lady — Miss Blood — who lived in a delightful house called " Gamboria." She had a beautiful niece staying with her, a Miss Sanderson from Liverpool, whose father was a director of the White Star Line.

She and I, sometimes accompanied by my youngest sister, enjoyed some lovely walks together. There was a certain hill on the opposite side of a valley from the Canonica on which stood a monastery. Its name was " L'Incontro," or meeting-place, and that is why I named our house in Branksome Park " L'Incontro," when I settled my mother and sister in England. It was in that house that my mother had her four sons together for the first time in many years; they had all been in the East.

After several weeks' stay, I took my people to England. From Florence we took train to Le Havre, stopping for a night at Basle and one at Paris for a rest.

The cross-channel steamer to Southampton was very full and I had to get chairs to sit on in the saloon.

As I noticed a lady standing, who had not managed to get a chair, I gave her mine and went on deck and sat next to a nicely-dressed foreign girl, who appeared to be feeling seasick, for she had an arm round an iron ventilator and was resting her cheek on the cold iron.

Feeling sure that she would suffer for this if she remained there for long, I got a wicker chair, which I secured with a rope to a skylight; then, after getting two blankets from a steward, I put the girl in the chair and covered her up. Next morning early I told the steward to give the girl a cup of coffee, then disappeared and changed my hat and coat in order not to be recognised.

I wonder if that girl will ever read these lines and remember the incident?

In due course we arrived at Boscombe where rooms had been booked for us. As Tyler's mother and sisters lived near by, we were not amongst strangers. After house-hunting for some weeks we decided on a house in Motcombe Road, Branksome Park, which we all liked, and in which my mother and sisters lived until 1920.

This house was, as I mentioned above, named " L'Incontro." Having settled my family I went to London for the first time in 20 years and visited friends there. After that I took a trip to Ireland, and to Liverpool to see the Sanderson family, and while there was shown over the White Star steamer Oceanic. From there I went to Perth, in Scotland, to stay with the Furlonges, who had left China some years before.



My leave having expired, I returned to Shanghai by a North German Lloyd steamer from Genoa. There was a remarkable Englishman among my fellow- passengers returning from Peking, who said that he found Chinese easier to learn than either French or German. This man later became a Chinese and lived like one. I never met him again, but used to hear a lot about him when I visited Peking. He never mixed with the Europeans, though a man of good family who had been trained for the British Diplomatic Service.

On arriving at Hong Kong in 1905 I called on the Kowloon Commissioner, who said that he had been told by my chief, Tyler, that I was to be appointed to Canton, but that he had no written instructions for me; I therefore proceeded to Shanghai, and a few days later was sent to Canton to supervise extensive reclamation works which were being carried on by the Chinese authorities there, also the removal of several stone barriers that had been constructed by the Chinese many years previously, to prevent foreign vessels from coming up the river. I found the work most interesting, the social side even more so.



First let me explain that the Foreign Settlement is on the olive-shaped island of Shameen, adjacent to the Chinese city of Canton. The island is about a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, and its shores are protected by a well-built sea wall, the space within being filled to the top of the sea wall above the level of high-water. Shameen is connected with the city by two stone bridges with heavy iron gates; these are guarded by soldiers to prevent any Chinese from coming on to the island, which is the exclusive place of residence for the foreign population, including some Japanese.

There are a church, club and tennis ground. Everyone turns out of an afternoon, and those who do not play tennis, walk along the wide promenade on the Bund, and at the time I was there the community were on the most friendly terms with each other, so that we were like one family. When those who were walking felt thirsty they went into the tennis enclosure, where the staff of the Canton club had a bar, which at dusk was moved back to the club premises, followed by a procession of men who had various ways of gambling for drinks. Dinner parties were frequent and were of a most friendly nature. When I left the Settlement for a day or two, I was greeted on my return as if I had been a long-lost brother.

As I walked along the promenade alone one morning, I met a missionary doctor who had come down from Amoy to stay with a daughter of his who had married a man in Canton. I wished him "Good morning," and as we walked together he said that he was afraid to read newspapers owing to the number of massacres recorded therein — some missionaries had quite recently been massacred by the Chinese near Canton.

The Chinese are a very suspicious people, and when they are worked up they get into an excited frenzy, will believe anything against the foreigner, and will murder whom they can. On this particular occasion, a missionary doctor had pickled a still-born Chinese baby in a very large glass vessel filled with spirits of wine, and had placed it on a shelf. This got about, and was exaggerated to the extent that missionaries were collecting babies which they packed up and sent away. It was this that caused the massacre.

The Amoy doctor then went on to say that the Chinese were nearly as bad as the Russians, to which I replied, being Russian on my mother's side, "You should first ascertain the nationality of the person you are talking to before you make a remark of that kind, as I happen to be half Russian myself." He looked at me with a startled expression on his face and then, noticing that the gate of the tennis ground was open, bolted like a hare. It was a funny sight to see that fat little man running away in terror, with a large pocket handkerchief hanging half out of the tail pocket of his frock coat.


The Chinese consider fat duck a great delicacy; when cured for food these have a brown skin like the crackling on roast pork. It is a common thing to see a large boat tethered in a swamp at the estuary of a river, with hundreds of duck feeding near it. Usually a man is seen seated at the stern, who at dusk makes a sound and waves a long bamboo, by means of which he drives the ducks up the gang plank into the matshed construction on the boat, which has been erected especially for that purpose. When all are aboard he closes the door, and the ducks are safely sheltered for the night.

Some time after I had been established at Shanghai, my boy, a smart Cantonese, told me one day that the dog kennel for stray dogs had been moved away from the electric light power station at Hongkew, which was a suburb of Shanghai. He then said, "No got dog's eye, how fashion electric light? " — which meant, how could electric light be manufactured without dog's eyes. You will see from this little incident how the mind of the uneducated Chinese worked — in literal ways, like a child's mind, but quite logical. I cannot say that there are not others besides the uneducated Chinese who have queer ideas, so I must make my apologies to any Chinese who may read this record, for I well know that there are many clever and educated people amongst them.

Soon after this incident I left for Shanghai in order to be at my brother's wedding, in 1906, which was to take place at Hankow, where he lived. I arrived at Shanghai a day or two before the Chinese New Year.

It so happened that Tyler, my chief, had accepted a temporary advisory post with the Chinese Admiralty, and he at once turned over the charge of the office to me, thereby delaying my departure for Hankow; as the Chinese New Year stopped all activities at that time, I had to wait several days before I could get a steamer.

While walking along the French Bund impatiently waiting for my steamer, I met a friend of mine who was in charge of the passenger department of one of the large steamship companies. I told him of my anxiety to reach Hankow, and asked if his company had a steamer leaving by which I could travel. He told me that their steamer would be the first to leave, and that the best he could do for me was to provide me with a free passage on the condition that I paid the steward for my food and wines. Pretty good, wasn't it? I found out that most steamer companies did this for members of the Customs Staff travelling unofficially.

Eventually I arrived at Hankow a few hours' ahead of the time for the wedding, so all was well.

On my return to Shanghai I was once again in charge of the Marine Department, which by this time had been worked up to a far greater level of importance through the great ability of Tyler, the Coast Inspector. It would be difficult for me to describe the number of subjects we had to deal with, so I will not bore you by attempting to do so. Not having kept a diary I must rely on my memory for the chronological order of my record.

To show how difficult it is to please people I will quote two cases: one was, that I received a letter from the Ningpo Commissioner, asking me to provide his office with 15 fathoms of ±3 inch cable for the moorings of a certain 6-foot buoy that marked the channel.

As the size of chain indicated was unreasonably large, I looked up the record of this particular buoy's mooring, and found that as its cable frequently got caught by the rock it marked, a length of 2-inch chain was attached to the anchor. So I sent the 2-inch chain with the above explanation. The chain was returned as being far too heavy; the reason stated was that the man who measured the chain when the request was made, took the outside diameter of the chain instead of the diameter of the iron from which the link was made.

Another case: At the time of a disturbance at Foochow, the Commissioner made an urgent request that a stand of arms with ammunition be provided for him as soon as possible. There was a steamer leaving direct for Foochow the day I received the letter, and I ascertained that the captain would take the arms if we shouldered the responsibility. So I asked the Shanghai Commissioner, after having shown him the letter, to help us. Now arms and munitions could not be moved in China without the authority of the representative Chinese official of the port. As it would have taken two or three days to get the document, called a Huchow, the Commissioner authorised the shipment and asked for the Huchow afterwards. In due course I received a letter of thanks for my promptness.

A few days later I received a copy of a despatch that the Foochow Commissioner had sent to the Inspector- General of Customs at Peking, which pointed out the omission on the part of the Shanghai Commissioner in allowing arms to be sent without the required Huchow!

To show how unimportant size is, I give the two following cases.

A very small and youthful Japanese gentleman was shown into my office one morning. He was so small that when seated on the chair by my desk, his feet were well above the floor. He told me that he had received a report about which he wished to consult me.

Small and young though he appeared to be, he was the acting manager of the Osaka Shosen Kaisha, a large Japanese shipping firm. The report was that one of their steamers, while outward-bound, had collided with the Fairwell Bell gas-lighted buoy marking the outer entrance to the south channel of the Yangtze. This position was, owing to very strong currents, too exposed in typhoon weather for a lightship. The buoy was 10 feet in diameter.

He told me that the captain stated that he had seen the light on the buoy functioning after the collision and did not think that it had been damaged. I asked him where the steamer was. He said that she was anchored in the river near the buoy. I then asked if she had sustained any damage, and was told that she had lost two blades off her propeller. To this I replied, "Your steamer has cut the buoy's cable and holed the buoy. If you recover the buoy with its mooring you will only be charged with the cost of repairs, but if you do not recover them you will have to pay for a new one." " I have neither a vessel nor an officer to send in search of the buoy," he replied. Thereupon I engaged a tug and sent one of my staff to drag for the buoy and its mooring; he returned after two days, reporting that he had found no trace of them. I sent in my claim of about £500 against the loss of the buoy and in about half-an-hour received a cheque for the amount. I asked a member of my staff to take my acknowledgements of the cheque and to ask why he had paid so promptly. The reply the little man made was, "Exchange is in my favour to-day! " The claim against the buoy had been made in pounds sterling.

The second case was this.

Once while on my way to Harbin, having with me three large nailed cases containing surveying camp materials, I had got as far as Changchun, a station where one changes from a Japanese train into a Russian train.

Here the Russian stationmaster would not let me carry the three cases to the passenger train on which I was to travel. It was nearing the time of departure and I was at a loss to know what to do, when an extremely small Japanese gentleman came forward and asked me what my trouble was. I told him, and he went into the Russian stationmaster's office, came out in a twinkling and gave the hulking Chinese coolies orders to place the cases on the weighing machine; off they went into the train and we were steaming out of the station before I had time to thank my helper properly.