A374
WUHU
against 25.5 million in 1933. It will be seen that both the inward and the outward sections of the direct foreign trade showed signs of substantial improvement. The value of imports was augmented importantly hy the trade in foreign sugar, arrivals increasing from 74,000 to 92.000 quintals, of which 49,000 quintals came from Hong kong, 42,000 quintals from Java, and the small remainder from other countries. The apparent growth in this trade is not due ŝo much to an improvement in consumption, however, as to the fact that dealers elected to pay duty at Wuhu instead of at Shang- hai. The other important items contributing to the increase were Oregon pine sleepers and steel rails, the large imports of which were required for the railway lines now in process of construction (vide infra). The direct exportations to foreign coun- tries consisted of iron ore shipped from the mines at Manganshan, Tichiang, and Chenchiayu to Japan. The increase in the quantity shipped, 4.8 million quintals as against only, 3 million quintals, entirely accounted for the higher value recorded for this section of trade. The number of steamers (chiefly Japanese flag) specially chartered to transport this ore to Japan rose from 77 in 1933 to 133 in the year under review, while the foreign trade of the port, therefore, continued to advance, the statistics quoted above show only too clearly how adversely the coastwise trade was affected by local conditions, the combined value of the inward and outward move- ments of interport cargo declining by 15.4 million dollars. It was very unfortunate that just when Wuhu was beginning to show signs of recovery from the effects of the great flood in 1931, the rice belt in Southern Anhwei should have suffered the full consequences of the disastrous drought, already referred to in the introduction to this. report, during the year under review. The long spell of dry whether, coinciding with the hottest season of the year, almost entirely ruined the rice crops in the most pro- ductive regions of the province. As the province is one of the greatest rice-growing centres and Wuhu is the greatest of all points of export in the country for this com- modity, any untoward occurrence affecting the crops of this cereal becomes a disaster of the first magnitude. This may be gathered from the Wuhu statistics for the pre- vious year, which show that exports of rice took place from this port to a value of 20 million dollars, a sum equal to the value of the whole export trade of the port for the year under review (which actually included 1.2 million quintals ef rice shipped before the onset of the drought) plus nearly 50 per cent. more. As regards exports other than rice, there were extra good harvests of wheat and rape seed, so that 70 per cent. more of the former and more than double the usual quantity of the latter were avail- able for shipment. Most of the rape seed goes to Japan via Shanghai. Exports of coal also improved, advancing from 3,000 metric tons in 1933 to nearly 14,000 metric tons during the year under review. Mention has been made above of the railway lines now under construction in this district. The one originally_designated the Wuhu- Chapu Railway is now to be extended to Chaoan in Fukien. The section of this line running from Wuhu to Sunehiapu was completed during the year, and the line from Nanking to Wuhu, which will be styled the First Section of the Nanking-Chaoan Railway, is expected to be opened to traffic early in 1935. Still another railway, 230 kilometres long, leading from the Huai-nan Coal Mines to a point on the Yangtze just opposite the port of Wuhu, is also being built at the present time. In addition to these railway developments, rapid expansion is taking place in the matter of motor highways, and nearly all the cities in the southern part of the province are already linked up by a network of roads. There are now 768 kilometres of surfaced roads and 3,349 kilometres of mud roads available for motor traffic in this province of Anhwei