Brunner Mond & Co Shanghai, Java-China-Japan Line office Shanghai, 1937

Situated in the Brunner Mond & Co Building, Dutch shipping company Java-China-Japan Line had its Shanghai office here before WWII. Dorone van den Brandeler worked at JCJL, along with several other Charles Gesner van der Voort's friends. About him and his friends, their time in Shanghai and all over the world during WWII, research is being done to publish a book, "Charles in Shanghai".

The building still exists, current address is 133 Sichuan Middle Road, it is in use as a luxury shop nowadays.

When this photo was taken, July 1937, WWII started in China, with Japan's attack on the city of Shanghai.

The United Kingdom was still a worldwide empire and had a king which had just been crowned in May, George VI. The lighting on the building was still celebrating the occasion.

Shipping company Java-China-Japan Lijn (internationally using the name Royal Interocean Lines) was probably attracted by the building which was designed to impress, and its convenient location near the Bund, where most companies had their office and many countries had their consulate.

The general Chinese population in Shanghai had multiplied several times because of millions of refugees from the countryside; civil war and Japanese attacks were causing this.

The international concessions were relatively safe, although some bombs meant to hit Japanese cruiser Idzumo killed thousands, a month after this photo was taken.

The rickshaw coolies in this photo were dressed rather fancy, most wore rags and the hard work in the summer heat and winter cold made them last not very long. Their health deteriorated quickly. [as per Stella Dong, Shanghai 1842-1949, The Rise and Fall of a Decadent City] The refugees made an ample source for replacements. The 'luxury' coolies in this photo probably earned enough to be more presentable and have a better chance to survive. The ordinary ones only wore pants and you could see their chest bones stick out.

The photos come from Dorone van den Brandeler's Shanghai photo album, kindly shared with me by his most charming widow, who had just revisited her place of birth Shanghai at the age of ninety. With a sparkle in her eyes, she told me about her childhood in Shanghai, meeting her husband in the same city after WWII and several other interesting stories, enough to fill a separate book.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nedlloyd
The Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland (SMN), otherwise known as the Netherland Line, was founded in Amsterdam in 1870, while the Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd (KRL) was founded in Rotterdam in 1875. In a long-lasting friendly rivalry, both shipping companies offered regular mail-ship services between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies, the Dutch colony in South East Asia now known as Indonesia.

Within the Dutch East Indies, inter-island services were provided by the Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij (KPM), founded in Amsterdam in 1888 and with the operational head office in Batavia, now known as Jakarta.

These shipping services to the Dutch East Indies were complemented by the Java-China Japan Lijn (JCJL), founded in Amsterdam in 1902 and with the operational head office in Hong Kong.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronation_of_George_VI_and_Elizabeth
The coronation of George VI and his wife Elizabeth as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 12 May 1937. George VI ascended the throne upon the abdication of his brother, Edward VIII, on 11 December 1936, three days before his 41st birthday. Edward's coronation had been planned for 12 May 1937 and it was decided to continue with his brother and sister-in-law's coronation on the same date.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tata_Chemicals_Europe
Tata Chemicals Europe (formerly Brunner Mond (UK) Limited) is a UK-based chemicals company that is a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals Limited, itself a part of the India-based Tata Group. Its principal products are soda ash, sodium bicarbonate, calcium chloride and associated alkaline chemicals.

An article about Brunner Mond in China can be found here:
www.historic-shanghai.com/astrazeneca-shanghai-and-the-fa...
By Duncan Hewitt, on Historic Shanghai.
..."Soon the company commissioned a new office building on Szechuen Road (Sichuan Zhong Lu), just behind the Bund. The six-storey building, in a neo-classical style with imposing front pillars, was designed by the Scottish architect Alexander Graham-Brown (who also worked on Jardine Matheson’s office building on the Bund, and the Kadoorie family’s spectacular Marble Hall.) Its construction, by contractor Feng Tai Shing, was apparently a stressful process: “The office building is the curse of my life. The amount of trouble and worry, unheard of,” wrote the company’s second China boss, Percy Fowler, in 1922."...

Courtesy Van den Brandeler-Meyrier family archives.

Taken in: China / Shanghai / Huangpu (show map)

Taken on: July 1, 1937

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