who fled to Hongkong but has since dissppeared.
3.
Nevertheless, the Canton authorities are
100
persisting in their attempts to create an air flest and one
is led to speculate on the motives which lie behind this apparent weete of money at a time when the local adminis-
tration is badly in need of funds for recupetruction
sche:aes. There would appear to be no urgent militaTY
necessity for aeroplanes, and, in spite of r. vaughan-
Fowler's optimisa, it is difficult to believe that they
can be profitably use for ordinary commercial purposes.
The eminent Chinese scholar, Mr. in Snih, is reported to
have said that China was still in a rickshaw state of
civilization. He wae, of course, speaking figuratively.
But lf his words were taken literally they would be
The rickshaw is noduly flattering to his countrymen.
a comparatively rapid vehlole possible only in towns where
modern roads exist. The mass of the people are still
at the stage of the wheelbarrow, the junk and the human
carrier, cheep and leisurely modes of conveyance suited
to their pockets and temperaments. They are willing to
be overcrowded in railway trucke, steamers and Ford
motor busses, inventions of the foreign devil, when the
fare in within their means, but it has yet to be shown
that an expensive and exclusive mode of travel or con-
veyance for goods like an aeroplane can be made a paying proposition in China unless the circumstances are
altogether #sceptional.
4.. These exceptional circumstances do exist in the
case of one article of commerce, opiwa. Its high value
in comparison with its bulk and the desirability of
avoiding the attentions of Customs officers, soldiers
and brigands during transport might make ita carriage
by/
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