Directory_and_Chronicle_1931 — Page 582

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CHINA

Eastern Railway reached a crisis, culminating in the closing of the frontiers and the complete stoppage of railway communication via Suifenho and Manchouli from the 10th July to the end of the year, an event which had far-reaching effects, not only on the trade of Manchuria but on the tea trade and other markets as well. Despite the persevering endeavours of the Governemt to rehabilitate the financial position of the country by summoning two Disbandment Conferences at the capital, political differences rendered nugatory the policy of fiscal retrenchment agreed upon, and the shadow of civil war and insurrection hovered incessantly over all but few provinces, dislocating main arteries of trade and engendering a feeling of unrest which has proved only too detrimental to trading activities. Even in those districts in which harvests were favoured by climatic conditions-and in many districts bumper crops were garnered-lack of transport precluded farmers from marketing their produce. In those regions where drought or floods ruined the harvests distress and famine followed in their wake, especially in Central China, where whole villages are on the point of starvation. Under such conditions it is not surprising that banditry and lawlessness have spread rapidly throughout the whole country, and it is un- fortunate that even in those districts where law and order prevailed, especially in Chckiang, the crops should have been attacked by the ravages of locusts and other insects. It is a tragic but fitting commentary on the distressful condition of the country that China, with her vast and fertile tracts of agricultural land, has had to import foodstuffs, in the form of cereals only, to the value of more than 143 million taels, representing some 11 per cent. of her total import trade, while, should in- portations of sugar-a commodity indigenous to the soil of China-be included in this category, a further sum of 98 million Haikwan taels must be added to this vast total. In the realm of finance, the slump in the world price of silver and the rise in sterling exchange to unprecedented levels have had a crushing and paralysing effect on commerce and, at the same time, have given to trade statistics an inflated and fictitious value out of all proportion to the volume of goods actually in circulation. The heavy increase in duties levied with the introduction of the new Inport Tariff from the 1st February, which consolidated in the duties levied by the Customs those surtaxes which had hitherto been collected in most ports by independent bureaux of the Government, has undoubtedly had some effect on trading conditions, by the effect has been small when compared with the disastrous results arising from extortionate and illicit taxes collected in practically all parts of the interior by unofficial organs despite the energetic efforts of the Nationalist Government to suppress them. While these tax offices continue to function there is little hope of trade recovering itself. In this connection it is interesting to place on record that the Nationalist Government in August experimentally placed under the control of the Inspector General of Customs the extra-50-li radius Native Custom Houses in the Wuhu district and the important stations of Yangyu, in Kiangsu, and Fenyang, in the province of Anhwei. A matter of equally, if not still more, serious moment is the recrudescence of smuggling on a large scale, especially along the south-eastern littoral and in the coastal areas adjacent to the territories of Hongkong, Macao, and Kwang- chowwan. It is not too much to say that it is a matter of common knowledge in commercial and other circles that a considerable number of vessels, mainly motor- boats under foreign flags, are engaged solely in the frequent and illicit running of valuable cargoes to isolated points on the coast of China, and it is no exaggeration to say that China's Customs revenues are suffering severely as the result of the wholesale smuggling indulged in by these vessels. But a more optimistic outlook may be envisaged in connection with various modifications in Customs procedure which have been introduced with a view to facilitating trade. The concession provisionally granted, whereby Chinese cargo shipped from one treaty port and transhipped at a foreign port no longer loses its native status on re-entering China, if maintained, is bound to have far-reaching effects, not only on the revenue but also on the statistics of many articles of trade, and movements of foreign goods, especially between Hongkong and China, are likely to show a large decrease in the future. Again, through the recognition by South Manchurian ports of Harbin duty-paid certificates, the isolation of the Harbin District from other Customs stations to the southward has been finally broken, with the result that native cargocs arriving from the Sungari will hereafter be able to proceed via Suifenho or South Manchurian ports on payment of identical amounts of duty, a departure from Customs procedure which cannot but be increasingly beneficial to North Manchurian trade."