Directory_and_Chronicle_1933 — Page 904

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KIUKIANG

constructed, and thus a new residential and business district, close to but outside the city, is rapidly coming into being. During 1921 a system of drainage of approved foreign style was initiated. Pinhingchow now comprises either in or adjacent to it the following prominent buildings: the railway station and godowns, the electric-light power-house, the Yu Sung Match Factory, the Kiuhsing Spinning and Weaving Company's factory, a large four-storied hotel, and the Kiukiang Customs Lights Repair Yard.

TRADE IN 1931

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The idea which led to the opening of Kiukiang was, no doubt, its situation as regards communication by water with the districts where tea is produced. But the hopes entertained respecting the port have never been wholly realised Hankow having become the market for black teas. Kiukiang is the port whence the ware made at the far-famed porcelain factories at Kin-tê-chên is shipped. specimens sent to the Paris Exhibition in 1900 secured a silver medal in competition with European porcelain. Rice, beans and peas, lemp, indigo, paper, melon and sesamum seeds, tungsten ores, and tobacco leaf are also important exports.

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The communist menace and the flood were the two most immediately disturbing elements in the year's trading conditions Kiukiang; but of course the anti-Japanese movement, the low value of silver, and the reduced demand throughout the world for raw materials, were felt here as elsewhere in China. The flooding was of unpreced- ented proportions, the highest water-mark recorded on the river gauge being 45.5 feet, or 6 inches higher than any reading registered since the gauge was established in 1870. The area affected was in North Kiangsi. About 5,000 square miles of land bordering on the Yangtze and the west side of the Poyang Lake were completely flooded, while about 7,000 square miles more on the east and south borders of the lake were partially under water. Thus over one-fifth of the province was affected by the catastrophe, and the total damage attributable to the flood will probably never be fully appreciated or assessed. An important section of the province south of Nanchang was still in the hands of the communists at the beginning of the year, following upon the personal appearance on the scene of General Chiang Kai-shek, however, and as a result of the decisions come to during his visit to Nanchang in June, serious fighting with the communist forces commenced at once, and resulted in one of the most notorious "red" leaders being killed and in his army being practically annihilated, while many captured towns of strategical importance were retaken one after another by the 19th Route Army under General Chen Ming Chu. Unfortunately, however, further steps were delayed by the necessity of transferring Government troops to stein the invasion of Hunan by the Cantonese armies, and the communists gained breathing space to recover from their defeat, so that the end of the year found them still active and menacing the frontiers of the provinces of Fukien and Kwangtung. Traffic between Nanchang and Kian is now reasonably safe, but the routes between Kian and Kanchow are still insecure. For these reasons, and because of the flooding of the Polo Mine during the time it was occupied by communists, the output of the coal-fields during the year was much reduced, exportations of tungsten ore, also decreased by about 50 per cent., and no manganese ore whatsoever left the port. Although the Kingtehchen potteries were again visited by communist forces, a better output resulted from the year's work, and greater quantities of chinaware were exported. The paper and tea distrets were also invloved in communist troubles, and decreased quantities of these commodities were exported. The Keemun and Ningchow tea crops were respectively 15 and 50 per cent. less than in 1930. Inundation of the bean, cotton, and rice areas by the flood waters accounts for the decrease under these headings Altogether, chinaware (already mentioned) and ramie were the only important staples to show increases for the year, and the state of the export trade can be seen from the figures which show a decrease of 10.4 million tales from the figures for 1930.

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The value of the trade of the port for the year 1931 was Hk. Tls. 58,539,709 as compared with Hk. Tls. 54,967,330 în 1930 and Hk. Tls. 67,758,913 in 1929. -