Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 407

CHINA

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A 11

trade interregnum could have been devised. To benefit to the utmost by the coming revival in international commerce, what this mainly agricultural country most needs is just such a system of arterial roads as is now being constructed to accelerate the transport of produce, to facilitate the movement of anti-bandit forces, and generally to open up and develop interior places. Some hint of the progress that is being made in road-building may be visualised more easily by considering, as a concrete illustration, the Hangchow-Nanking highway (208 miles) which was only completed in 1931; that during the year under review Shanghai was linked up by road with Hangchow and thus also with Nanking; that this highway is now almost completed as far as the great Anhwei market of Wuhu (63 miles); that there are already 2909 kilometres of motor roads open to traffic in Kiangsi, the next province west of Anhwei; that 2315 kilometres of modern roadway have been completed in the next province next of Kiangsi, Hunan; and so on, with only a few gaps remaining to be closed up in the initial inter-provincial highways scheme for the whole country. In the matter of railways, the financial difficulties are greater at a time like the present, but progress in this direction can also be recorded, as, according to the Ministry of Industry's "Chinese Economic Bulletin," the Government has been able to complete 346 kilometres of railroad between 1929 and 1932, while another 430 kilometres are under construction. The completed works includes several sections of the Lung-Hai Railway, part of the Hangchow-Kiangshan Railway, and a section of the Canton-Hankow Railway. Only some 270 miles of the last-named line remain uncompleted, and the work is now to be undertaken under a loan provided by the trustees of the remitted Boxer In- demnity funds. The closing of the gap between the northern and the southern sections of this railway means the linking up of Canton and Peiping by a line running through the great China market of Hankow; it will also made through-traffic possible between Canton and Europe; and may mean mean much in the matter of developing the Hunan and Kweichow provinces. An event of the year in connection with railway development was the launching in England of the first train-ferry for China, an all- steel vessel, 372 feet long, and designed to transport 21 passenger cars simultaneously. This ferry, the Changkiang, has been built to provide through connection and an ac- celerated train service between Shanghai and Tientsin via the Shanghai-Nanking and the Tientsin-Pukow railways, by conveying the trains across the Yangtsze between Nanking and Pukow. The Changkiang is to proceed to China under her own steam. Interest in the subject of airways continued unabated. Plans for many new routes have been under discussion, such as the Shanghai Berlin, Shanghai-Haiphong, Canton- Sian, Nanking-Sian and Shanghai-Tientsin air-lines. Actual development in airways traffic was seen in the establishment of a regular service, twice a week, between Hankow and Chungking, and in the inauguration in December of the new service on the Shanghai-Tacheng (Sinkiang) route.

In conclusion, Mr. H. G. MacEwan writes :-

An obvious, but, nevertheless, the distinguishing point about the current economic situation is the way in which international trade has been made to bear the brunt of the depression. Ever since the great war, but more markedly since the first onset of the present depression, there has been a variable scramble amongst the nations to devise means to restrict import and shelter their own industries. The result has been that domestic markets and prices have not felt the pressure to anything like the same extent as commerce consisting of an interchange of com- modities between countries. Accordingly, the nations most dependent on foreign markets for the sale of their export surpluses suffered in greatest measure, while the war-debtor nations so situated were subjected to such an undue drain on their gold resources that the financial crisis of 1931, and the consequent abandonment of the gold standard by so many countries, seemingly was as inevitable as the further deepening of the trade depression that has followed chiefly on account of these happenings during the year under review. So well and so early was the danger of an economic crisis recognised, that the World Economic Conferences of 1927 & 1933 were convened on purpose to study the whole question of trade restrictions, and, if possible, remove or modify them; but national differences in policy unfortunately prevented action being take regarding the necessity for freer trade under some form of international co-operation.

As one of the countries dependent for its economic well-being on the sale, principally, of her surplus agricultural produce, China has been saved from the worse effects of the shrinkage in international demand only by the fact that monetary exchange has been greatly in favour of her exports. Nevertheless, a very serious.