No. 176.
1OCT1941
129
132/53033/40
لمسه
My Lord,
GOVERNMENT HOUSE,
HỒNG XONG.
7th August, 1941.
With reference to the fourth paragraph of my despatch No.89 of 21st April, 1941, regarding the policy of this Government in relation to firewood supplies, I have the honour to inform Your Lordship that, following an extensive investigation of the local firewood situation undertaken by Mr. W. J. Anderson, Controller of Stores, Lieutenant-General Norton instructed Dr. G.A.C. Herklots of the University of Hong Kong, whose services had been requisitioned by this Government in order that he might undertake duties in connection with the control of firewood, to visit Borneo and Malaya at the end of 1940 and there to examine, in consultation with the local authorities, the possibility of relieving the acute firewood shortage in this Colony by means of supplementary supplies from those countries.
2. The average annual imports of firewood from all sources for the five years preceding the Sino-Japanese war amounted to nearly 2 piculs (333.3 lbs) per head of the estimated population. Three quarters of the above imports were from the mainland of China, the most important source of supplies being the West River district of Kwangtung.
3. Supplies of firewood from the West River district were cut off following the Japanese occupation of Canton in October, 1938, and the subsequent closing of the Pearl River, but the local firewood dealers maintained their imports at approximately the pre-war figure by drawing supplies from Malaya and Borneo, imports from these sources rising from 630,791 piculs in 1937 to 1,721,709 piculs in 1939 and 1,186,837 piculs for the first six months of 1940. These supplies were quite inadequate to provide for the great increase of population, which had been swelled by the influx of refugees numbering up to half a million, and the price of firewood consequently rose from 120 catties for the dollar (the normal pre-war figure) to less than 20 catties in the early part of 1941. The failure of the firewood dealers to increase their importations may have been in some part due to fears that a sudden decrease in the Colony's population, or a Japanese decision to reopen the Pearl River, would force them to sell at a heavy loss, but reliable evidence from Sandakan showed that large stocks available there were being deliberately withheld from shipment with the intention of creating an artificial shortage.
4. Experience of the control of food prices having shown that the Chinese business community does not take kindly to the idea of Government price control, it was decided that before a control of firewood prices could be successfully imposed this Government must be in a position to sell firewood itself at the price decided. The attitude of the "ring" of firewood dealers
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
LORD MOYNE OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS, D.S.O.,
&C.,
&C.,
&C.
rendered