CANTON
A421
parcels containing raw silk and silk piece goods, tea, medicinal substances, feathers, and jadestoneware were despatched abroad or to other Chinese ports during the first eight months of the year. Later in the year, however, owing to the restrictions imposed by the Japanese authorities on many articles (especially raw silk and silk piece goods), the number of parcels exported was much reduced.
The value of Canton's trade recorded for 1939 was as follows: direct im- ports from abroad, $3.9 million as against $56.9 million in 1938; direct exports for abroad, $5.3 million as against $106.7 million in 1938; imports from Chinese ports, $4.1 million as compared with $105.7 million in 1938; and exports to Chinese ports, $1.2 million as compared with $23 million in 1938.
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It has often been mentioned in Canton's trade reports that the Canton Customs trade returns were by no means a true guide to the actual volume of trade of the district, owing to its propinquity to the port of Hongkong. Equally misleading were the figures for the year under review on account of the sudden collapse of the standard dollar and the fact that more than one-half of the year's foreign imports were actually imported in 1938 but were included in the 1939 statistics, as a result partly of the belated payment of duty on a large quantity of petroleum oils and partly of the bringing to account of many outstanding deposit cases of 1938...
With all the former large Government plants still lying idle, the city had practically no industrial enterprises in operation. Regarding Whampoa Har- bour, information was unavailable except that many Japanese vessels (mostly military transports) were known to have called there. The Canton Telephone Administration had 2,900 working lines, in December 1939 as compared with some 300 lines at the end of 1938. The Canton Telegraph Office was closed in July, and since that time the telegraphic service has been operated by the Im- perial Japanese Telegraph Administration. A Sino-Japanese company sup- plied the city with a bus service in the spring, and later a few short-distance motor roads connecting Canton with several important inland centres were re- opened. Railway traffic was partially resumed on the Canton-Kowloon line and wholly restored on the Canton-Samshui line in August, only to be suspended in the last month of the year. A new short line was also reported to be operating between Canton and Whampoa. The Canton-Hankow Railway was out of service throughout the year.
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