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has been the Yokohama Specie Bank. But during the great loan period 1917-18, it was the Bank of Chosen (Korea), in conjunction with the Industrial Bank and the Bank of Taiwan (Formosa), which found the funds (see Appendices VIII and IX). Since 1918 Japan has stopped her independent loan policy towards China.
Japan: Trade.
Helped by many advantages, natural and artificial, the percentage of Japan's share in the China trade shows-until 1919-a remarkable upward curve :—
Percentage..
1896.'
1903.
1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. 1918. 1919. 1920.*
84 147
19.7
21.1
28-4 28.3
40.9 33-4
37.1
31.0
.
* Japanese trade with Chins in 1920 amounted to 239,440,000 taels imports into China, and 160,260,000 taels exporta: total, 404,700,000 taels. Of this tutal, 160,880,000 teels, or 39-7 per cent., was trade with South Manchuria. The total foreign trade figures for South Manchuria and the Japanese- Manchuria trade figures for 1920 were as follows:-
Total foreign trade
Including
Trade with Japan
Importa. Taels 122,254,000
43,800,000
Exports. Taels.
131,371,000
77,490,000
Total. Taels. 253,625,000
160,880,000
(or 68.2 per cent.) (or 58-9 per cent.) (or 634 per cent.)
The principal import into South Manchuria is cotton piece goods, and the principal exports are beans and bean products. Practically all transport and banking facilities in South Manchuria are in Japanese hands.
As compared with the rest of China, it should be observed that in 1920 each inhabitant of South Manchuria apent on the average 8 taels on the purchase of foreign goods and sold produce to foreign countries to the value of 8.75 taels, whereas in the rest of China only 170 tael per head was spent on foreign goods purchased, and only 1·10 tael per head was sold to foreign countries.
The comparative value of Japan's special aphere of influence becomes apparent.
Japanese shipping in the Chinese carrying-trade shows the following increase in percentage of the total tonnage:
Percentage
1903. 1913. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. 1918. 1910. 1920.
12.2
25'1
24.5. 26-3
27+5
!
28.2
31.2
28'4
27.0
In 1919 the whole of the iron ore exported from China went to Japan, and most of the output of pig-iron. The only important iron and steel works in China, the Hanyang works at Hankow and those near Dairen in South Manchuria, are under Japanese control. Coal exported from China during 1920 almost all went to Japan; and of a total production of 12.700,000 tons in 1920, the Manchurian mines under Japanese management were responsible for 3,460.000 tons, and Japanese mines in Shantung for 600.000 tons. Important coal and iron concessions in nine places in Manchuria were secured under the 1915 treaty with China.
Of Chinese exports, next to silk, the most valuable are beancake and raw cotton: both of these are almost entirely taken up by Japan. Japan also took in 1919 about one-third of the export of flour and one-half of the export of wheat. Japan has, therefore, become the principal purchaser of Chinese produce.
The principal imports into China are cotton goods and cotton yarns.
Of yarns, Japan provided over a third in 1919. The exact import of Japanese cotton goods into China is difficult to estimate, but out of a total cotton import (including yarns) of 210,000,000 taels during 1919, the Japanese share cannot be less than one-third. Japan in 1919 was the principal provider of foreign imports.†
The boycott of 1919, according to the figures given by the Imperial Maritime Customs, did not have nearly so serious an effect on Japanese trade as had been expected. China is too dependent on Japan to boycott her goods effectively: and too many Chinese ports are in Japanese hands. Appendix XV shows the steady increase of the trade of those ports which chiefly handle Japanese goods, viz. Dairen, Antung and Kiaochow (Tsingtao).
+ During 1920, owing to the alump, Japanese trade received a set-back, grester perhaps in proportion to that suffered by British trade; but Japanese preponderance must still be considerable.
Japan: Railways.
The railways in Japanese control are principally to be found in the "special spheres of South Manchuria and Shantung. In South Manchuria Japan has some 850 miles in operation, some 580 miles under construction, and some 900 miles projected under concession. In Shantung Japan has the Tsingtao-Tsinan railway (310 miles), with concessions for 430 miles more. The Japanese also have a financial hold over the Kinkiang-Nanchang railway (86 miles) in the Yangtsze valley, with a promise of the support of Great Britain in obtaining a continuation of the line to Foochow; and a Japanese loan has been advanced to the Peking Suiyuan railway (266 miles), which for many years had been China's pride as her one purely national railway.
Japan: Propaganda.
In the Twenty-one Demands, an attempt was made to secure for Japanese Buddhist missionaries a footing in China like that allowed to Christian missions; this demand, however, was sheived. Mr. Carl Crow's Memorandum (see Confidential Print 151232 of the 12th November, 1919) shows how persistent and widespread is Japanese newspaper propaganda in China. These Japanese-controlled newspapers have at times been vituperously anti-British. A Japanese propaganda society runs a school at Shanghai with branches at Hankow and Tientsin for teaching Chinese language and customs to Japanese, and for teaching Japanese to Chinese students. Another propaganda society runs a number of Japanese hospitals in China. There are at present about 3,000 Chinese students in Japan.
Japan: Industries—Manchuria,
Japan's industrial interests in China are centred chiefly at Dairen, Mukden, Tsingtao and Shanghai. At Dairen there is the Kawasaki dockyard and four iron- works, six bean-oil and cake mills, factories for sulphuric acid and dye stuffs, seven brick works, one cement works, one rice mill, one bone-dust mill. three soap (bean-oil) works, two salt works, one tile factory, one ice factory, one cold storage works, &c., all in Japanese hands. At Mukden there are two woollen-yarn and weaving mills, oil mills, saw mills and rice mills, a sugar refinery, chemical works, glass factories, match factories and candle factories, under Japanese or under joint Sino-Japanese control. There are two tobacco factories of the To-A Tobacco Company at Mukder and at Newchwang At Harbin, in the Russian sphere of North Manchuria, there is at least one Japanese flour mill, and the Japanese Government have installed a commercial museum as general headquarters for their commercial offensive. There are electric light works, Japanese and Sino-Japanese, throughout South Manchuria, which is certainly the province of China best equipped with modern conveniences. There is the important Penhsifu coalfield and ironworks, a Sino-Japanese concern but managed by Okura and Co., and there are the numerous undertakings of the South Manchurian Railway, which include the Fushun and Yentai coal mines, the Anshantien iron mines and foundry, harbour, gas, electricity works, glass works, tile factory, hotels, schools, hospitals, &c. Important companies have been recently floated in Japan (1) to develop cattle-raising in Manchuria and Mongolia, (2) for rice cultivation in Manchuria. A Japanese authority values Japanese interests in South Manchuria at £30,000,000 (see also note to table on p. 10).
Japan: Industries-Shantung
At Tsingtao the Japanese have taken over from the Germans their brewery, railway repair shop, shipyard, cotton-spinning mill, silk filature, flour mill, and salt works (this salt industry is expanding rapidly, and the Japanese set great store by it). They also have two match factories, tanneries, four oil refineries, two albumen factories, two canneries, an ice factory, a glass factory, a lumber mill, brick and tile factories, a cement and coke works, a glycerine factory, two soap factories, a rice mill and smelting works. According to the United States of America Commercial Handbook, 1919. Japanese capitalists seem to be inaugurating a vigorous develop- ment of the manufacturing possibilities in Tsingtao, chiefly along the lines indicated above, raw materials for such enterprises being obtainable both cheaply and abundantly in the hinterland of the leased territory." No less than five new cotton- spinning mills, with 155,000 spindles, have been projected by Japanese companies In order to make Tsingtao one of the centres of this great new industry of China.* *In the whole of China, Japanese are credited with having in operation at the present time sixteen cotton mills with 469,000 spindles.
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