Mr. M. H. Shen was born at Ching-hai Hsien, Chihli province, in 1871. He was one of the early graduates of the Peiyang Military Academy in railway engineering. After his graduation he joined the Imperial Army stationed along the Tientsin Shanhaikuan sector, serving for a few years as German interpreter and also teacher in German in the military camping schools. Later he became German translator in the Foreign Affairs Bureau of Shantung at Tsinan. Mr. Shen began his engineering career as Cadet engineer of the Kiaochou Railway. The other positions he held in the Ching regime were: Engineer of the Tientsin Municipal Works Bureau: engineer of Peking-Mukden line; engineer of Peking-Kalgan line; supervisor for the construction of the Army Training. Headquarters building and also the War Board building, Peking; associate director of the municipal works of the Outer City of Peking; director of the Municipal Works Office at Mukden; director of the Imperial Works Department at Mukden; adviser to the Szechuan-Canton Railway Administration; chief-inspector of the northern section construction works of the Tientsin-Pukow line; supervisor of the construction of the T. P. R. Yellow River Bridge; and co-director of the southern section of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway Administration. In 1912 Mr. Shen was appointed a principal technical expert of the Ministry of Communications, having in charge at different times the Civil Engineering section, the Mechnical Engineering section and the Drawing Office, of the Railway Department. In 1914 he was promoted to be Chief of the Railway Department. In December 1917 he was appointed the Chief Principal Technical Expert of the Ministry of Communications. In 1918 the Commission on Railway Technics was organized with Dr. Jeme Tien-yu and Mr. Shen as chairman and vice-chairman respectively. The work of this Commission includes the selection of civil and mechanical engineering students and the standardization of traffic matters. In February 1919 Mr. Shen was given a concurrent position as President of the Railway Administration College. In June 1919, following the death of Dr. Jeme, he was appointed chairman of the Commission on Railway Technics. Subsequently he was given the post of director of the Peking-Suiyuan Railway. In July 1920 he was ordered to hold concurrently the post of chief engineer of the northern section of the Tientsin-Pukow Railway. For a time he was also director of the Tsangchow-Shih-chiachuang Railway. In December 1920 he was ordered to assist in the organization of the Communications University. In February 1921 the Second Class Paokuang Chiaho was awarded him. He was appointed an executive member of the Commission on the Communications Questions in connection with the Shantung Rehabilitation in March 1922; appointed acting Chief of the Railway Department in May 1922; ordered hold concurrently the post of Chief of the Inter-Through Traffic Bureau, also in May given another concurrent post as Supervising Officer of the Bureau for the Compilation of the History of Communications. In January 1923 he was relieved of the post of Chief of the Railway Department to become the Chief Principal Technical Expert of the Ministry. Since that time he has been given concurrent positions: Chairman of the Commission on Material Purchases; Vice-Chairman of the Commission on the Construction of Proposed Lines; and government director on the controlling board of the Lung-yen Coal Mining Company, Peking. Mr. Shen was President of the Chinese Institute of Engineers for the years 1916, 1917, 1919, 1920, 1921 and 1922. He is an honorary member of the Haute Etude Chinoise, Paris, and of the Association of Chinese and American Engineers.
