CHINA
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taking place, and many towns and districts are rapidly becoming linked up by a network of motor roads. But it is possibly in Western China, most of all, that the advent of the motor-car has opened up a new vista to merchants and officials alike. In these mountainous districts railways can only be built at great expense and at a heavy outlay of capital. In few instances. would they be likely to prove remunerative, and it would be only for political and strategic purposes rather than for commercial considerations that the necessary funds for their construction would be forthcoming. But good roads and motor transport at once offer an excellent opportunity for these distant provinces, accessible only by pack-animals over dangerous mountain tracks, to break the seclusion which nature has hitherto forced upon them. In Kwei- chow and
good state of repain he excellent roads already existing have been kept in a
good state of repair, and many miles of new construction have been added, while Yunnan is rapidly making herself independent of the French Railway and is linking herself up with her neighbouring provinces. While co-operation between merchants and officials has been partly responsible for the progress made, the International Famine Relief Committee has played a not unim- portant part both in providing funds and in the supervision of construction. Elsewhere Communism, banditry, extortionate taxation, and higher costs, contingent on the depreciation of silver, have dulled the first flush of en- thusiasm, and this apathy and stagnation are reflected in the decreased num- ber of cars and trucks imported during 1930. But that with more stable con- ditions and an adjustment of prices it will revive is certain, and it is to motor-car manufacturers rather than to vendors of railway material that China offers a market capable of the greatest development. Manufacturers would be well advised to bear this in mind and to study carefully China's immediate and future requirements both as regards quality and price. For those who do so, and are prepared to forgo immediate profits, there should be no reason to regret their initiative.
AVIATION.
The enthusiasm for aviation which spread over. China in 1929 did not wane during 1930. Rather it developed into a truer sense and understanding of the possibilities of aircraft and their uses both from a military and a com- mercial point of view, and a realisation that these possibilities can only be attained by a stricter and closer study of technical questions and of the machines themselves. It was noted the previous year that perhaps the greatest drawback to the dvelopment of aviation was the lack of training schools for pilots and the number of machines, especially in Shenyang, which could not be put to practical use through lack of aviators. Several Japanese pilots have since been engaged for training pilots for the Air Corps established under the supervision of the Military Department of the North-eastern local Gov- ernment, and many of the old machines have been made serviceable and a number of light planes added. Training schools have been opened in other large aviation centres also, where thorough instruction, both theoretical and practical, is given, and the success of the National Government in the recent warfare may be attributed in part to the bombing operations carried out by its aircraft under trained Chinese pilots. Apart from the lack of skilled aviators, which is being rapidly overcome, the disturbed condition of the country has, to a large extent, precluded further attempts being made to establish air lines on a commercial basis, while the dearth of suitable landing grounds and aerodromes has presented additional difficulties. But the air mail and passenger service between Shanghai and Hankow, which started operations during 1929, has continued an almost uninterrupted service on six days in the week throughout the year, and the success of this enterprise has done much to stimulate the demand for commercial air lines. A round trip from Shanghai to Hankow represents a saving of six days as compared with other routes, and the business public is gradually turning to aviation as a means of communication between up-river ports and the metropolis. An ex- tension of this service to Ichang is to be in operation shortly and should
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