A14
CHINA
1
Owing to political difficulties in the North and in Sinkiang, progress of the Eurasia Aviation Corporation was confined to the development of domestic air lines. A regular air service between Europe and Asia remains, however, the aim of the Corporation, and from the technical point is possible of accomplishment, as has been proved, the flight from Shanghai to Berlin requiring only four to five days by way of North Sinkiang and from seven to eight days over the southern route via Canton, Calcutta Bagdad, and Athens. Although the planned international air line remains in suspense, the past few years have witnessed remarkable progres- in the development of Eurasia's domestic lines, with the exception of the Shanghais- Tchukuchak line, which since October 1933 has had to terminate at Lanchow owing to the passage through Sinkiang becoming impossible. In May 1934 the company inaugurated the Peiping-Canton line, in November of the same year the Lanchow- Paotow line was completed, and in September 1935 the Sian-Chengtu line was opened. Since July 1935 the Peiping-Canton line has been in operation only between Peiping and Chengchow. On the 1st April 1935 the Sian Chengtu line was extended to Kunming (Yunnanfu). The annual traffic figures show steady improvement, as shown in the following table :-
Kilometres
ན
Passenger Passengers Kilogrammes of
Flown. Kilometres Flown Carried
Mail Carried.
1932 1933
...
253,603
325,840
589
1,750
204
...
412,605
771,520
810
3,610
1934
603,282
945,290
1,476
6,461
1935
744,735
1,692,346
2,951
10,382
1936 (January to
November only)
911,315
3,123,063
5,115
26,961
Constant endeavours are being made to improve the Company's aerodromes, while, wireless equipment ensures the greatest safety and regularity in flying. Moreover four additional meteorlogical stations have been installed between Chengtu and Kunming, and Sian and Lanchow, The three-engined JU 52 planes are fitted with the most up-to-date radio direction-finders for swifter and safer aerial navigation, Moreover, free accident insurance is offered to all passengers travelling on Eurasia lines.
The air service maintained by the South-western Aviation Corporation between Canton and Lungchow was extended to Hanoi on the 10th July.
TELEGRAPHS AND TELEPHONES
The establishment, up to the end of November 1933, of 91 new telegraph offices, six new wireless telegraph offices, seven local telephone offices, and 94 long-distance telephone offices marked further progress under this section. Twenty-five new long distance telephone lines, with a total length of some 7,600 kilometres, were opened during the year,among which the more important are those from Nanchang to Changsha, Nanking to Hankow, Changsha to Kweiyang, and Hankow to Changsha. Wireless telephone communication between Canton and Shanghai was opened on the 5th December 1936. Work on the nine-province long-distance Telephone System designed to connect all the important cities it the provinces of Kiangsu, Chekiang, Anhuei, Kiangsi, Hupeh, Hunan, Honan, Shantung, and Hopeh was practically com- pleted at the close of the year.
THE SUMMING UP
In his summing up on the conditions of trade in 1936, Mr. Osborne writes :- It was fortunate that the decline of 17 per cent in the gold unit valuation of direct imports, largely ascribable to snuggling, was in some degree compensated for by the stabilisation of exchange, which permitted an increase of 2.4 per cent in the value of imports when converted into dollars. Even more fortunate was the increase of 22.6 per cent in the value of direct exports, which definitely pointed to a lifting of the depression from which China has been suffering since the year 1929. The total value of trade for the year, amounting to $1,647 million, represented an increase of $152 million over the figure for the previous year, while the adverse balance of trade was reduced from $343 million for 1935 to $235 million for the year under review, being the lowest adverse balance record since the year 1919. Provided no untoward events intrude and the crops for 1937 are on the same scale as those for 1936, there is