A466
MENGTSZ AND YUNNANFU
substances increased by nearly 40 per cent. In respect of cow hides, however, which depend mainly on the Japanese market, the war entailed much a heavy accumulation at Hongkong that a decrease of close on 60 per cent was recorded in total exports Tin slabs exported abroad, the value of which constituted more than 70 per cent of the total value of exports from the Mengtsz Customs district, amounted to 92,604 quintals as compared with 94,662 quintals during 1937; the decline in quantity, barely 2.17 per cent, was in itself negligible but for the important bearing of this article on the export trade of the port.
The Yunnan Tin Trading Company and its recent offshoot, the Yunuan Tin Corporation, possess the only modern plant which can turn out standardised products of over 99 per cent fineness. At present, however, they are handing only about one-fourth of the Kokiu tin, while the major portion of the tin industry still remained in the hands of the native smelters. The year was favoured with adequate rainfall in the mining areas, which facilitated the washing of tin ores, and, as far as could be ascertained, there was no reduction in output, though certain doubts were felt as to the possible furture effects of monpoly measures and exchange control. The London quotation, which had assumed a downward trend since November of the preceding year, continued to decline until the low ebb of £150 per ton was reached in June, and although a recovery was witnessed from September. the quotation, even at its highest, was some £30 below the average value of £242 for the year 1937.
While the advance in exports abroad was particularly gratifying, there was a considerable and not surprising slump in exports coastwise-tin slabs declining by over 60 per cent and leather by 28 per cent, while shipments of sheep's wool and zinc slabs, large quantities of which used to be sent to Shanghai, were conspicuous by their absence. The rice harvest in Yunnan province was exceptionally good, no foreign rice being imported, while the crop of beans, potatoes and maize was equally good.
In common with other ports the year was marked by heavy fluctuations in the local exchange for Hongkong dollars and Indo-China piastres-the two currencies most commonly used for foreign transactions in the district. For the first five months of the year the quotation on Hongkong remained fairly stable at an average rate of St. $115,50 = Hongkong $100. After June the rate went upward, with slight variations, until the end of the year, which closed with a quotation of St. $214.40 || Hongkong $100. The Indo-China piastre followed the trend of the Hong- kong dollar, reaching the highest peak of St. $226.10 in September as compared with an exchange of St. $118 Indo-China $100 at the beginning of the year. Such unfavourable rates of exchange reacted adversly upon the foreign import trade, while high remittance charges on transfers of standard dollars to occupied areas had likewise a retarding effect on domestic trade. At the beginning of the year the exchange rate between Yunnan paper dollars and standard dollars was Y..P. $930 St. $100. The quotation at the end of February was 990, remaining after the 24th, June until the close of the year at the official rate of Y. P. $1,000=St. $100. Generally speaking, at no time in its history have the finances of the province been in a more satisfactory state, and with the establishment of branches of the four national banks and the infusion of large numbers of legal tender notes, it is expected that legal tender notes will soon circulate throughout the province, replacing the Yunnan paper notes of the Futien Bank which have so long enjoyed predominance.
Projected railways include the Kunming-Hsufu line which, it is intended ultimately, shall be extended to Neikiang in Szechwan, there to connect with the proposed Chungking-Chengtu line-and the Yunnan-Burma Railway, 773 kilometres in length, with its terminus at Kunnung on the Salween River. Work on the Yunnan-Burma highway, running from Yunnanfu to Juili on the Burma border, was completed by the end of September. The Eurasia Aviation Corporation continued to give satisfactory service, connecting with Air France at Hanoi for Hongkong or France.