A 4
CHINA
turned to the Tibetan Capital. The tripartite conference at Simla in 1914 to determine the status of Tibet and delimit the boundaries ended in failure, no agreement being arrival at. The Dalai Lama visited Peiping in 1921 and was received in audience by President Hsu Shih-chang.
FOREIGN TRADE IN 1933
In his review of the trade for 1933, Mr. H. G. MacEwan, the officiating Statistical Secretary of the Chinese Maritime Customs, writes:-
By the establishment during the previous year of the so-called independent State of "Manchukuo", China lost control of the Manchurian section of her foreign trade, and, by the subsequent failure of Japan to consider the conditions of the Dairen Custom Agreement as any longer binding, China also lost the control of cargoes imported and exported through that part of Manchuria known as the Kwantung Leased Territory.
It is necessary to bear these facts in mind for a proper understanding of the statistics published in China's Foreign trade Returns for the year under review, especially in inaking use of the comparative statistics given therein for previous years seeing that the returns do not include the usual figures for Manchuria in the 1933 columns and do include them in the columns for 1932 and previous years where such comparative statistics are given. Accordingly, as a necessary preliminary to any explanations regarding China's trade account for 1933, two statistical tables are given immediately hereunder: the first shows the value of China's trade with foreign countries during the year under review in comparison with the values published for the previous four years, all figures reduced to terms of the new Chinese silver dollar currency; the second shows the same value statistics for 1933 in comparison with the. figures for the same four previous years after deduction of the value of the Manchurian section of China's trade with abroad for these years.
LVALUE OF THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA, 1929-1933
1929.
1930
1931
1932
1933
Million $ Million $ Million $ Million $ Million $
Net Imports Exports
1,972
2,041
2,234
1,634
1,345
1,582
1,394
1,416
769
612
Total
3,554
3,435
3,650
2,402
1,957
Excess of Imports
390
647
818
866
733
II. VALUE OF THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA LESS THE MANCHURIA SECTION OF THAT TRADE, 1929-1933
1929
1930 Million $ Million $
1931
1932 Million $ Million $ Million $
1933
Net Imports
1,620
1,723
Exports
1,070
944
2,002 915
1,524
1,345
569
612
Total
2,690
2,667
2,917
2,093
1,957
779
1,087
955
733
.
:
Excess of Imports - 550.
While the first of these tables is of importance in that it is a record of the actual value of the foreign trade controlled by the National Government during the years in question, it is the second table, as will have been gathered, that gives truly comparable data on which to base investigations to the trend of trade during the year under review in the portion of China now controlled by the National Government. From Table II, then, it will be seen that the value of the import trade declined by 179. million dollars or approximately 11.7 per cent. in comparison with the figures for the country (excluding Manchuria) for 1932; that the export trade improved by 43 million dollars or approximately 7.6 per cent.; that the total foreign trade declined by 136 million dollars or approximately 6.5 per cent. and that the adverse balance of trade in merchandise declined by 222 million dollars or approximately 23.2 per cent. These findings are a great improvement on the 24 per cent. decrease in imports and the 38 per cent, decrease in exports recorded for the previous year's trade for the same part of the country.
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