Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 940

.882

CHANGSHA

Outside the city there is a very fine hospital, which was erected at a cost of $185,000 by a former Yale graduate for the use of the Hunan-Yale Medical College. The direction of the hospital is in the hands of a board, composed equally of repre- sentatives of the Hunan gentry and the Yale Mission. The Yale School and College buildings are in the immediate neighbourhood. These are all outside the north gate. Outside the south gate are the famed antimony works of the Huachang Company, which has branch offices in the Woolworth Building, New York. There are two

electric-lighting companies.

On the island are to be found the British Consulate and the residences of the indoor Customs and Post Office staffs and of the managers of the Standard Oil, Asiatic Petroleum, British-American Tobacco Companies, Butterfield & Swire and many other mercantile forins.

Motors run daily to Siangtan, a large town 30 miles to the south of Changsha. The two cities are also connected by telephone. The motor-road is being extended on the south-west towards Paoking, an important city situated almost in the centre of the province and itself the centre of important iron and coal fields. Paoking has water communication with the outside world, but only by means of a river proverbially difficult of navigation because of the innumerable rapids which obstruct its course. This new extension of the road has been commenced with a contribution of gold dollars 200,000 from the American Red Cross, in relief of the grievous famine which befel the province through the drought which was prolonged throughout the summer of 1921 and caused the death by starvation of thousands of the people of the districts to the west of Paoking. The new road will not only open up a district of immense importance in itself, but it will be a much-needed means of transporting grain to that part of the province which, being unable to support itself by its own crops is always most affected in seasons of scarcity.

The volume of trade passing through the Changsha Custom House for the year 1921 was Hk. Tls. 29,545,544, a decrease of Hk. Tls. 3,427,933 as compared with 1920. The decrease was entirely due to exports, which fell from Hk. Tls. 17,044,046 to Hk. Tls. 11,259,226. Foreign imports increased by Hk. Tls. 2,716,003.

The export of coal and coke is becoming an important feature in the trade of the district. The coke, which is said to be of excellent quality, is used almost exclusively by the Hanyang Iron Works; the coal is finding an extending market for bunker use. The colliery is under excellent management, and the supply is said to be almost limitless.

With its fertile plains, mountains seamed with mineral wealth and clothed with timber, there would seem to be a brilliant future before this province. Until, however, modern machinery is applied, railway communication extended, and capital intro- duced, no great expansion can be anticipated. The climate of Changsha is excellent ; there is no great heat, the summer is short, and there is no malaria, the mosquitó which propagates the malaria germ not existing here. When the railway is open the scenery traversed will make this journey the most popular in China.

;

In 1920, after the ejection of Chang Chin-yao, the province declared its inde- pendence of the Peking Government, and this fiction of independence has been kept up sufficiently to injure greatly the trade of the province. Amid much rejoicing, a new constitution was promulgated a little over a year ago. Most of its regulations are merely on paper and no attempt is made to carry them out. Under it, a new Provincial Assembly was elected last year. The suffrage was nominally universal, but the voting-papers were distributed in bundles of thousands amongst the responsible gentry of each sub-division of the counties. No one denies that from these gentry the successful candidates bought bundles filled in with lists of names at so much the thousand. The unsuccessful candidates were those who bought fewer bundles than the successful. As an example of manhood suffrage, the elec- tion was a farce. It is difficult to find one elector in a hundred who actually went to the poll, though all assert that no hindrances were placed in the way of any- body who wanted to go.

Page 940Page 941