1935-02-02 — Page 2

Page

MAIL NEWS FROM CHINA

Railways, Mining, And Road Building

POWER PLANT IN NANCHANG

Nanchang.

Detalled plans for the construc- tion of the electric power plant and water works in Nanchang have been completed, according to a message from Mr. T. L. Soong, General Manager of the China Development Finance tion.

Согрота-

be

The estimates, which have been approved by the Kiangsi Provin- clal Government, cail for an out- lay of no less than $3,185,000, of which $1,785,000 wil! expended on the electric power plant and $1,400,000 on the water works including the installation of pipes and other equipment. The power plant is expected to be completed in two years and the waterworks in one year.

The planning of the construc-. tion has been carried out under the auspices of the China Develop- ment Finance Corporation, after Mr. T. L Boong, accompanied by engineers, had visited Nanchang and made the necessary surveys.

The total capital for the two public utilities is fixed at $3,200,- 000. The Klangsi Provincial Gov- ernment will subscribe $500,000; and the balance will be provided by the China Development Fin- ance Corporation.- Kuo Min.

Nanchang. Construction work on the Yung- sin-Lenhwa Highway, along the western border of Klangsi, has been completed and omnibus ser- vice will be operated shortly. It is learnt at the Provincial Highway Bureau.

As the farmers are idle at this time of the year, the Highway Bureau has decided to employ them for paving the various high- ways in the province with stone.. Kuo Min.

Wuhu,

Train service on the section of the

Nanking-Wuhu projected (Nanking-Shaoan) Raliway be tween Wuhu and Tangtu (Tal- pingful, in eastern Anhwei," was opened to traffic to-day.

Special efforts are being made by the Railway authorities to complete the steel bridges across the Tangtu River. It is expected that train service to the Capital from Wuhu will be in operation by the end of March, Kun Min.

CONSERVANCY WORK

Nanking.

The National Water Conser- vancy Commission continued its meeting yesterday and discussed. various phases of work relating to the improvement of river conser- vancy in the country.

Among the important proposals brought up were the following:

1. Unification of the conser- vancy administration throughout

the country.

"2 Development of domestic shipping routes.

3. Standardizing the names of rivers, determination of the re- laws governing gulations and water conservancy.

4. Unification of the account- Ing system among the various conservancy organs and revision of the regulations governing their organisation.

5. Early dredging of the Yellow River delta.

6. Fixing the expenses of the conservancy organs and complie- tion of a table showing the work done during the past year (1934). Euo Min

Chungking,

Surveys on the projected rail- way between Tengtsingkwan and Tsellutsing, southeastern Bse- chuan, have been completed. The Une covers a distance of 80 11 (about 27 miles) and the estimat- ed cost is $1,500,000. The railway. is intended chiefly to facilitate the transportation of salt in that part of the province.- Kuo Min.

¿

Nanking,

Due to the Increased volume of trame on the Taokow-Chinghua Rafway, in northern Honan, last year, a

sum of $200,000 is now available towards the amortiza- "tion of its loan obligations. In a telegram to the Ministry of Rail- ways, the Railway Administration states that a notification to this effect has been sent to its credi Lors, the Joint Office of the Chung Yuan Mining Corporation and the Pekin Syndicate. Kuo Min.

Kaifeng,

Surveys on the projected high- way between Kälteak, provincial capital of Honan, and Chengchow, important city in northern Ho- nan, including, the road-beds and bridges, have been completed.- Kuo Min.

WORLD'S EIGHTH

WONDER

Mesopotamia-Mediterranean

Joined By Pipeline

London, Jan. 14. The pipeline Joining Mesopota- mia with the Mediterranean will formally be opened to-day by the King of Iraq. The pipeline was constructed by the Interna tional Iraq Petroleum Company. containing British, French, Ame- rican and Dutch interests. There are 1,200 miles of pipès, costing £10,000,000 mostly across the waterless desert.

The pipe took nearly three years to build across six countries and a desert, and will take its place as the eighth wonder of the world. "Its opening is being celebrated by a 12-day ceremony.

Behind this immense achieve- -ment of modern industry is the a famous British personality" of engineering and oil magnate-- Sir John Cadman, G.CM,G., D.So, Now, after years of intricate negotiation, survey and building under the most trying circum

reds of miles, inland. It travels across desert, river and mountain.

and

Romance Behind The Feat

MC

The labours of thousands of men have been involved in this wonder of engineering. For years" they have toiled under the blaz- ing sun, but no edifice stands as an eternal memorial of their achievement.

"

Their work is "just a pipe-line," some of it. buried in the sand of the desert, the rest only discer- nible by a faint ridge which time wil rapidly efface.

On

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1935.

ENGINEERING

AND

Building

CHINA'S ENGINEERING PROGRAMME

A Survey Of Progress And Projected.

Sir Arthur Salter in his report the economic condition of China laid great emphasis on the necessity for the development of railways as the most satisfactory way of providing the people of this country with cheap munications.

com- who Engineers some twenty or thirty years first took part in railway ago

noble dreamed construction dreams of the possibilities of the they were enterprise to which privileged to give their services. Yet to-day those dreams are still unfulfilled. The total mileage of China's railways, excluding Man- churia, is now only about 6,000 miles.

of This gives one mile railway to 70,000 people and 300 square miles of territory and

unfavourably "compares

with

India where there is a mile of railway to 8,245 people and 44 square miles, or Soviet Russia, where the figures are 3,362 and 171 square miles, or Australia. 238 and 108 square miles, or New Zealand, 441 and 30 square miles. The reason for the slowness in developing railway communica- tions may best be described as political Railways were regarded as a foreign device forced upon. a reluctant people. Local pro vincial enterprises. came Inte existence, but proved unsatisfac- tory. It is interesting to remem- ber that the Imperial Edict of 1911 ordering the resumption "of all trunk lines by the state was a contributory cause of the Re- volution of 1011; but the Republic which replaced the Manchu Em- pire actually had to confirm its predecessor's policy and establish, the state control of trunk lines in '1913-14.

was

Programme Hindered

In the early days of the Re- financial assis- public foreign:

was invited for railway tance constructionL The programme hindered by aivil war, although good progress was made' in unification of accountancy and. standardization of construction and equipment. The European " War dried up the sources of financial assistance from abroad, and after the War progressive deterioration in the credit of money Chinese rallways in the markets of the world, owing to the failure of the Government to meet obligations for the loans of existing lines, precluded foreign inancial assistance in extension of construction, The collapse in the financial stability of the rail- ways began in 1924 and 1925 and, curiously enough, the Chinese people and the Government be- gan then to take direct persona interest in the rallways and have shown in recent years

extend strong determination to the system. By definite, although rather halting steps towards meeting loan obligations, the Government have to some extent improved the credit of the rail- ways.

On

Lung-bat Ballway

B

the Lung-hal Railway active progress has been made on the extension of the line east- was to the coast and westwards' to Sianfu. The extension beyond Blantu is only proposed at pre sent to cover about 30 miles. To the west the line has been cpin pleted from Tungkwan to Stanfu a distance of 132 kilometres, and eastwards to the coast at Hal chow Bay, where considerable

progress has been made in the harbour works, while an exten- It was only the foresight, in- itiative and patience of Str Johaston of the main line from Tapu Cadman, which made the task. possible.

to Laoyan, 28 kilometres, has been constructed. In addition, a branch line of 31 kilometres bas

In 1931 Bir John negotiated with the Iraq Government the con-

been built from Chaoteng to vention which constitutes the Talerchuang, joining the branch company's charter, and establish-line of the Tientsin-Fukow Rall ed the conventions with the GoT-

way to the latter place, from Lin. cheng ernments of Palestine. Trang-

stances, the dream has come true.jordan, the Lebanese Republic and

It is without doubt the greatest work of its kind in the world, and to honour the triumph 225,000 is to be spent on the events to mark the opening.

Syria.

A good deal of survey and ex- ploration work had preceded, this convention, but in 1931 began the task incredibly difficult of ac-: quiring the land needed,

Through this oil pipe which

Early in 1932 the real work of runs from the heart of Iraq to

construction started and by the the Mediterranean, 4,000,000 tons of oil will travel every year to end of August there were nearly

5,000 men, including 182 Euro Halfe and Tripoll on the const from the wells at Kirkuk, hund-peans, at work.

་**

Construction

way, Puchow being on the Shensi border but with the province of Shansi, Much progress has been made on this metre-gauge ne and rails have been laid for 350" kilometres. About 150 kilometres have been.

constructed from Tatung southwards via Talyoh and, Kwabsten to Yuan Plog, 117 kilometres north of Talyuan and about: 200 kilometres from Tai- yuan southwards via Klhsien, Klenslu and Howhslen towards Linfeng. A “light railway" stan- dard of construction has adopted and the line is said to be unballasted.

been

The Yutse Tälku Railway was originally intended to be a. por- tion of the Taturg-Tungkwan - standard gauge line, 35 kilome tres in length. When however, it was found that the Shansi Pro- vincial Government were con-

the structing

Tatung-Puchow metre-gauge line on a parallel location, the standard gauge con- struction was suspended, and the Yutse-Taiku section was altered to metre-gauge and will form a portion of the Tatung-Puchow metre-gauge line,

about

The Huainan Railway, 150 kilometres from Loho on the Fual River, passing through Hofel and the Tatung and Eualnan coalfields to Yuchikou, on the north bank of the Yangtze opposite Wuhu, is reported to be completed. This line will presumably contect at its north ern end with the Tientsin-Pukow Railway at Pengpu

is

South of the Yangtze

South of the Yangize. there

Chen-kung the

standard- gauge railway from Hangchow to Kinngshan and Yusban, in "

This Kiangs, 344 kilometres.

been completed enterprise has under the

of the auspices Cheklang Provincial Government, and full details were recently The published in this journal, line is being carried on from Yushan to Nanchang, about 300 kilometres in length.

The Nanking Chao-an Railway is being constructed by the Kiang- nan Railway Co., which, has also taken over the Wabu-Chapoo Eight Railway The projected line is to run from Nanking through Wuhu, Sunchlapu (Anhwei), Klangshan (Cheklang) and Yen- ping (Fuklen) to Chao-an, about 1,200 kilometres, and will later be Extended from Chao-an to Can- ton. Some

progress has been made on. the Wuhu-Nanking Section and 80 kilometres of line has been constructed from Wuhu to Sunchlapu.

Although no construction has been actually started on the com- pletion of the gap in the Shang- hal-Hahgchow-Ningpo Railway,, between the Tsango River, 771 mlies from Ningpo; and the Chien Tang River, at Zankon, near Hangchow, an agreement for a loan for the completion of the Hine was executed in November. When the loan has been issued work will be commenced and it is hoped that that event will not be much longer delayed.

has Preliminary work" been started on the combined road and rall bridge over the Chien Tang River, which, with the con- struction of the 781 kilometres length of line between the river and the present terminus from Ningpo, will provide through rail- way connection between Shang- hal Hanchow, Shaohsing and Ningpo.

The Chien Tang Bridge is of 16 spans of 220 feet, and the road-way is to be carried on the upper booms of the steel trusses, which carry a single line of rail- way below, as through spans The founding of the piers will Probably present difficulties owing to the material of the river bed. The steel spans may be erected on shore and floated out on pontoons to position on the completed plers.

Canton-Hankow Line

Ca

The North to South Railway, from Tatung was projected as a standard gauge line of over 700 kilometres in length. It would have. joined the Peking-Sulyuan line at Tatung and passed The most important of China's. through Taiyuan, the capital of trunk lines, economically and Shansi. However the Shansi politically is, however, the Can- Provincial Government began to ton-Hankow Railway, the pro- build a metre-gauge railway on

towards com Kress which is of special interent at the this is the same location, called the Tatung-Fuchow Rall moment in view of the issue of

the Sterling Indemnity Loan. By that loan capital has been made available for the completion of the railway upon the scurity of the British Boxer Indemnity and The accumulated instalments. Ministry of Railways had pre- viously been pushing forward that construction from Shulchow, the terminus of the southern Canton section started from

undertaking. provincial The section from Shuichow to Lochang. 51 kilometres. was com- pleted in October, 1933, and work then was being pushed forward through the difficult section from Lochang to the Hunan-Kuang- tung frontier,

23

а

The work of construction on Hupel-Hunan section of the

Railway the Canton-Hankow reached Changsha, the capital of Hunan, during the War, and it was impossible to issue a supple- mentary loan to complete the line. At Changsha the new line connected with the provincially constructed section from Chang- sha to Chuchow, where a line bullt from had already been P'inghsiang to Chuchow to tran- sport coal from the Pinghsiang Cailleries to the Slang River. The

between gap thus left Chuchow and Shulchow, the ter- minus of the line from Canton, was about 280 miles, or 450 kilo- metres, and of this nearly. 100 kilometres from Lokow north- wards, have been completed and work is now in hand in all the construction divisions; The line is expected to be completed be- fore the end of 1938.

From Chuchow, to Ichang, on the Hunan-Kwantung border, the country is not exceptionally diffi- cult. The location follows ap-. proximately the valley of the Hsiang River as far as Hengchow. where the Lei River, a branch of the Hsiang, is crossed, and thence the line runs up the Lel River valley to Chenchow on the upper Lei River. From Chenchow to Iehang the line is located 1 beautiful "Highland" country, which is fairly easy, but from Ichang southwards across the provincial border, and on to "Lochang. the country is quite difficult, as there is no defined watershed OF natural "divide" between the provinces, but an inchoate jumble of hills of lime- stone formation. The location reaches the Wushul River, branch of the North River, not far south of Pingshek, and thence follows the river side to Lochang on the North River.

There are three important bridges on the Chuchow-Lochang Section over the Lu-281-and-Lei Rivers, all branches of the Siang River.

In the difficult country across the Hunan-Kuangtung border, à location has been obtained.

line

Difficult Construction

...On the section of the which closely follows the North River, between Taishekmen and Lochang, in Kuangtung, a sharp curvature has been adopted so as to follow closely the contour of the river, and, while avoiding much tunnelling, has involved heavy work in retaining walls, rock cut- There tings and river defence. are five or six tunnels on this

section, the longest of which is only 750 feet.

It is estimated that some 1,180 kilometres of new lines have been constructed during the fast two years. It is, however, evident that, although some progress can be recorded, what has been

effected is an Insignificant por- tion of the railway programme which is requisite for the econo- mic development of this vast Continent

It does not appear that the in- ternal nancial resources of China can be equal to the required aim and it seems essential that the assistance of foreign finance should be forthcoming if an adequate programme of railway construction is to be carried out In a reasonable period of time."

In this

of vast dis tances the outstanding need for In her aim for economic develo standard

SINO - ITALIAN RADIO

Inauguration Of

Direct Service ›

on

Nanking, Jan. 23. Marking a further step in the development of International - - communications, direct radio ser- vice between China and Italy was officially inaugurated Monday under the direction of the Bureau of International Tele- graphs, in accordance with the plans of the Ministry of Commu- nications.

Radio messages between the two countries will now be direct- ly transmitted by the Inter- national Radio Station at Cheng-

Italian" Ju. Shanghai, and the Government Radio Station In

Rome.

Dispatches for and from cities other than Shanghai and Rome countries will be in the two relayed by the two radio sta- tions.

Apart from official messages, which are still under negotiation between the two Governments, the rate for ordinary traffic on the

new direct service will be the same as the indirect service, heretofore maintained between the countries, that is, $3.45 per word.

Preparations for direct service

were

started in February last year. During the period of one year several tests were conduct- ed.

Prior to inauguration of the direct service, messages between the two countries were relayed through the Geneva Radio Sta- tion of the League of Nations.- Kuo Min.

facility for transport of agri- cultural produce throughout the country.

China and as

and produces coal

not oil, it is surely impossible. that low grade agricultural products can bear the cost of motor transport by road, so that, where water- ways are lacking, trunk railways are essential for the purpose.

ENGLAND AS A UTOPIA

Architect's Dream

Of The Future

Schoolboys and schoolgirls were given a glimpse of the England they will one day inhabit when they listened to a talk by the Hon. Humphrey Pakington," at British Royal Institute of the Architects, yesterday.

The new England, said Mr. Pakington, would spell death to the big industrial over-crowded. cities. No town would have more than 10,000 inhabitants. Where industry demanded more, a number of towns would be grouped together but separated by wide stretches of countryside. for Villages would be needed those who worked on the land...

Chasm-Streets

Everything would be floodlit. The view of town at night would not be that of twinkling street lamps, but of wide floodlit patches on the dark background of the cultivated land

41.

There would be no need for dazzling head-lamps on cars-All- road surfaces would be flood- lit.

Houses would be of three, or not more than four, storeys. To-day, with new blocks of flats, Londen streets were getting higher and like chasms in appearance. The. low sky-line and sunny aspect of the London so much admired by foreigners was being lost.

Nanking,

In view of the fact that the new highway between Sian and Lan- c how, provincial capitals of Shen- si and Kansu, is nearing comple- tlon, the Ministry of Communica- tions has instructed the Director- ate-Gèneral of Posts to negotiate with the Highway Administration governing the transport of mail on the new road in order to speed ap the postal service.

Kuo Min.

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LICOS

1.