Page:Twentieth Century Impressions of Hongkong, Shanghai, and other Treaty Ports of China.djvu/367

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TWENTIETH CENTURY IMPRESSIONS OF HONGKONG, SHANGHAI, ETC.
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Mr. Cowen. Ultimately the matter was ar- ranged by arbitration before Mr. F. S. A. Bourne, Assistant Judge.

JOHN O’SHEA,
Editor.

In the middle of 1902 the offices of the Shanghai Times were removed to Honan Road, and, Mr. Swarthont having returned to Manila and Mr. Cowen gone to Tientsin, a new editor was found by Mr. Ball. Shortly after- wards, however, Mr. Ball, who had lost considerably by the paper, sold it to Mr. Willis P. Grey, the head of the syndicate which had the original concession to build the Canton-Hankow Railway. Mr. Grey en- gaged Mr. “Volcano” Marshall to edit the paper, but this gentleman soon became in- volved in a suit for slander with Mr. John Goodnow, the American Consul, and other Consuls, and a complete re-organisation of the Shanghai Times was the result. Mr. Frank Maitland, proprietor of the weekly, Sport and Gossip, and Mr. Henry O'Shea, of the China Gazette, became interested with Mr. Grey in the 7imes, and a partnership was arranged under which publication of the Times and Sport and Gossip was taken over by the China Gazette, the three papers to be run as a joint venture by the gentlemen named. Linotype machines were bought by Mr. Grey and installed, with a great deal of other plant, in the Gazette office, and Mr. O'Shea became editor of the Times and was entrusted with the general management of the entire concern, Mr. Maitland retaining the editorship of Sport and Gossip. The arrange- ment, however, did not endure longer than a few months, and finally a dissolution of partnership and an arbitration took place between Mr. O'Shea and Mr. Grey. UIlti- mately the latter sold his interest in the Shanghai Times to Mr. Maitland, who became sole proprietor of the paper, as well as of Sport and Gossip. Mr. George Collinwood, who had been business manager during the partnership between Messrs. Grey, Maitland, and O’Shea, became editor of the Times and of Sport and Gossip. The offices were re- moved to the corner of the Bund and Canton Road, and a godown was secured on the Yang-king-pang to serve as a printing office. The linotype machines had by this time

become useless, and hand-setting had again to be resorted to. In 1905 the editorial offices had to be removed to Kiukiang Road, on account of political considerations. The Bund offices were part of a Japanese Shipping Company's premises, and as the Times had been espousing the cause of the Russians towards the end of the war, the Japanese took offence and gave the papers notice to quit. Towards the end of 1905 differences arose between Mr. Maitland and Mr. Collin- wood, and the editorship of the two papers passed into the hands of Mr. A. Marnham, who had for some months previously been over the editorship of that paper and Sport and Gossip on June 15, 1906. Mr. O'Shea had been connected with the Times in the first few months of its existence, and, for a short time after Mr. T. Cowen left Shanghai, had been joint editor with Mr. Swarthont. In January, 1907, Mr. Maitland died; the other directors of the company did not wish to carry on the papers, which had been steadily losing money, and once again the Shanghai Times and Sport and Gossip were placed in the market. They were sold separately, the Times to Mr. J. C. Ferguson, and S. & G,, as it is familiarly called in

A RECENT ISSUE OF THE “SHANGHAI TIMES.”

sub-editor. Mr. Maitland sold his interest in the papers to a company. The ‘Shanghai Times and Sport and Gossip,’ Limited. The plant and machinery were bought by the Oriental Press, by whom the publication of the two papers was undertaken, and the offices were removed to the Rue du Consulat, in the French Concession, where Mr. John O'Shea, the present editor of the Times, took

Shanghai, to Mr. J. D. Clark, of the Shanghai Mercury, and Mr. George Lanning. The Oriental Press was settled up with, and_ the papers were removed to No. 18, Nanking Road, the premises formerly occupied by the Shanghai Library, the responsibility of publication being undertaken by the Mercury. Dr. Ferguson went home for a year to America, and on his return Sport and Gossip