Who's Who in China (3rd edition)/Ting Shih-yuan

General S. Y. W. Ting

丁士海字問楼

(Ting Shih-yuan)

General S. Y. W. Ting was born at Wu-hsing Hsien, Chekiang province, in 1897. In his youth he attended the St. John's College at Shanghai. For a time he was engaged in the insurance business. Later through the assistance of a Manchu Prince he entered the government service. Before long he was made an important officer in the Chienmen Octroi, Peking. While serving as tax officer, he devoted his leisure time to the publication of a daily newspaper together with the son of an influential official. One day Na Tung. former Grand Councillor in the Manchu regime, discovered that paper had been attacking him, and in the course of a cabinet conference, proposed to have these two youngsters shot. General Ting's royal patrori hearing of this intention secretly passed a word to him, and finally helped him to get away from Peking. After leaving the Chienmen Octroi, General Ting went to England to study for a year or so. During his sojurn abroad he was delegated to attend a Hague Conference where he represented himself as Advocate-General. The Conference wired to Feking for confirmation of his representation and Peking sent the confirmation desired. Subsequently he returned to China and gradually worked his way up. He was Chief of the Law Department of the Board of War; Advisor to the Board of the Interior; and Director of the Metropolitan Police College. In January 1924 General Ting was appointed Superintendent of the Customs of Hankow and concurrently Commissioner for Foreign Affairs of Hupei Province. These positions he held until July 1916. In June 1917 he was given the Second Class Wenfu. Later he was appointed managing-director of the Peking-Suiyuan Railway. In December 1918 he was appointed the managing director of the Peking-Hankow Railway. In February 1919 he received another concurrent position as Chief of the Aviation Department. In April 1919 he was commissioned to be associate director-general of the Lung-Yen Iron Mining Company. In October 1919 he was made a Lieutenant-General. Toward the end of 1919 General Ting amalgamated the Peking-Hankow and the Peking-Suiyuan Railways and became their managing director. In January 1920 he was given the Fifth Order of Merit. Upon the collapse of the Anfu forces, he fled and became a guest of the Imperial Japanese Legation, Peking, from which he escaped on November 1922. During 1923-24 he he was editing a daily paper in Tientsin which has been known to be an organ of the Japanese interests.