The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-01-26

more than s5.O0O,oO worth of British shipping in the Bay of Bengal, bom- barded Madras, and, disguised by a dummy extra funnel and flying the Japanese flag, crept into Penang and sank 8 Russian cruiser and a French torpedo boat destroyer. She kept alive
 until the 10th of November. when she fell in with one of the Australian cruis-
 CTS off the Cocos Islands and was driv- en ashore and burned.
 The Japanese made things mighty un- comfortab le for Kiauchau. They had
 airplanes and hydroplanes. with which they dropped bombs on the fort and city, trying to hit the ammunition
 depots, the signal station, the electric
 light plant and the kerosene oil tanks
 In opposition, the Germans had orIy two balloons and one little taube. The
 Japanese filled one of the ballons with
 shrapnel holes, and the other was lost
 by a strong wind, which carried it out
 over the Yellow sea. The taube left
 the port the day before the surrender
 and flew to the Chinese city of Hal
 chaw, lS0 miles away, where 1t was
 interned. it's aviator making his way to
 the United States. After the siege was
 over the Japanese took possession of
 the port and the country surrounding.
 since then many civilian Japanese have arrived and the trade has been largely captured by Japan. Last year it had
 7S per cent of the imports, and 95
 per cent of the exports There are said to be about 10000 Japanese now living and doing business in Tsngtau. New ertheless, the Japanese government all
 leges that it is willing to give back the civil administration to the shan tung peninsula to China. and this may De the decree of the peace conference.
 Whatever be the decision as to the gov erilment of the territory. it is bound to continue to be the chief commercial stronghold of the Germans in the far east. They have exploited the country adjoining and have established connec- tons, commercial and otherwise, which Will enable them to control mueh of the trade They have built d railroad 250 miles long from the port of Tsinanfu the capital of Shantung and this con meets with the road running north to Tientsin and south to Shanghai. It is now possible to go from Shanghai to kiauchau in a comfortable train.
 The Germans have opened up the coal mines which lie about 60 miles back from Tsingtau, and these mines will compete with the Japanese mines at Nagasaki and the Chinese mines at Kaiping The Shantung coal deposits are said to be large and the coal is close to he sur face of the earth In visiting the Kaip- ing mines l was taken down more than 1000 feet below ground, and when I went through the Japanese mines at Nagasaki l travelled for miles in tunnels far down under the Pacific ocean, The Shantung mines have been worked by the Chinese for generations. They dug the coal out with picks and carried it over the coun- try on the backs of mules and donkeys and in carts and wheelbarrows.
 Outside the territory reached by the railroads the wheelbarrow is Shantung's chief means of heavy transport It is a rude monocycle, with a wheel coming up through the center of the bed and a shelf on each side of the wheel The freight is carried on the shelves in baskets or bags. Such barrows are pushed and