A406
CHANGSHA
from $6.80 at the beginning of the year to $8.10 per unit of 10 American. gallons at the close. Sugar, another important iten, remained fairly steady at 59,100 quintals as against 60,700 quintals. Japanese cotton goods and sea. products, which had practically disappeared from the import list since 1931, began to arrive in increasing quantities during the second half of the year after the local Anti-Japanese Boycott Association and the National Salvation. Association had been closed down. The chief export staples are ores (of which only the antimony, tungsten, manganese, and zinc ores are of great importance at present to the foreign trade of the country) and rice, followed by fire-crackers, bristles, and wood oil. Foreign demand and prices for antimony and tungsten ore were exceedingly good, and the quantities shipped were as follows: crude antimony, 18,893 quintals as against 16,364 quintals in the previous year; antimony regulus, 139,415 quintals as against 16,364. quintals in the previous year; antimony regulus, 139,415 quintals as against 109,252 quintals; and tungsten ore, 8,892 quintals as against 2,235 quintals. Manganese ore also did well, registering an increase of 4,355 quintals; but exports of zinc ore, owing to lack of the former demand from Germany, declined by 31,592 quintais. For further particulars see the article "Ores, Metals and Metallic Products" amongst the general reviews for export com- modities in this report. In many of the southern districts the rice crops were a failure owing to the drought, but in the Tungting Lake districts. harvests were good, so that, besides the large quantities leaving by junk and railway, 659,000 quintals were exported under Customs cognizance as against only 371,000 quintals in 1933 when demand was not so good. Prices ranged from $6.40 per Shih at the beginning of the year to $10.40 at the close. The planting of wood-oil trees in the southern part of the province is being encouraged by the Hunan Reconstruction Bureau, and an increasing export trade in this commodity has commenced. In spite of communist raids and financial difficulties the Hunan Provincial Government pressed on with their reconstruction programme, concentrating on industrial improvements. Technical schools of various kinds have been established and skilled workmen engaged from other provinces to improve the quality of the output from local factories. Road-building has not been neglected, and, with the aid of subsidies from the National Government, some 400 kilometres of new high- ways were opened to traffic during the year. With the completion of the road section from Ichang (on the southern boundary of the province) to Hsaotang, through motor traffic from Changsha (or Shanghai for that matter) to Can- ton was established; and the opening of the Liuyang-Wantsai section made through traffic possible from Changsha, the capital of Hunan, to Nanchang,. the capital of Kiangsi. Ferries for the transport of motor-cars across rivers have been built at Liuyang, Tungtun, Siangtan, Packing and Hengyang. In May an air service between Peiping and Canton, with stops at Hankow and Changsha, was successfully inaugurated. There are two planes a week each way, running regularly to schedule. It is now possible to leave Changsha at 1 p.m. and reach Hongkong the same evening. Four aerodromes (at Heng- yang, Chenhsien, Paoking and Changsha) were completed during the year, and two more are under construction (at Hungkiang and Chengchow).