Directory_and_Chronicle_1934 — Page 573

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SHANGHAI

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ies destroyed and put out of business. In the district of Hongkew a certain amount of guerilla warfare took place, but the orderliness maintained elsewhere in the Intern- ational Settlement and the French Concession was in strange contrast to the havoc wrought simultaneously in the surrounding areas. Curfew restrictions were imposed during February and March, while the state of emergency declared at the outbreak of hostilities did not end until June, and, considering the innumerable refugees that flocked into the settlements, the tendency to panic that prevailed amongst large sections of the population, the measures that had to be taken against the spread of disease, and to provide shelter for the shelterless, great credit is due to the Municipal authorities, to the police, and to the volunteer and military forces that no disturbance of importance occurred, and that so little friction arose with the contesting parties.

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Business inevitably suffered, however, and direct imports from abroad declined from a gross value of 833.6 million Haikwan taels in 1931 to 510.4 million taels in the year under review, while exports to foreign countries declined from a value of 277.5 million to 158.3 million taels. The decline in Shanghai's imports, therefore, was appro- ximately 39 per cent., and the decline in exports no less than 43 per cent to which, of course, other factors besides those described here contributed. Shanghai need hardly be discouraged, however, for even in such circumstances its bankers and merchants can handle over 500 million Haikwan taels worth of imports during the course of a year. This is practically five times the amount imported through the port's nearest coinpeti- tion, Tientsin and represents 45.45 per cent. of the total imports into China. Behind such an achievement lies a degree of courage and enterprise of which any city might be proud. In addition, besides an immense interport trade, Shanghai handled a quarter of the country's exports to abroad, being untouched in this respect also by any other port if Dairen's 27.26 per cent. for the part of the year during which that port was under Customs control be discounted. It may be of interest to note here that Hongkong, the distributing centre (though non-Chinese) for South China, imported goods from abroad, excluding China, to a value of 454 million Hongkong dollars during 1932. This sum, at the average exchange of the year, equals approximately 313 Million Haikwan taels as compared with Shanghai's 510 million taels' worth of imports from abroad.

Importers in many lines of goods had to face heavy losses, and this was particularly the case in such commodities as cotton yarn, because of the embarrassment caused to many factories that had given out orders for supplies to arrive in the spring. Thie local consumption of many other classes of imports was, of course, much curtailed, such as materials for construction work, for small engineering shops, and for all kinds of industries in the Hongkew and Chapei districts.

The two railways that serve Shanghai, the Shanghai-Nanking and the Shanghai- Hangchow-Ningpo lines, suffered severe losses as a direct consequence of the Japanese invasion. On the former railway, the main line traffic had to be suspended from the 29th January to the 5th May, and the Woosung branch line from the 1st Febrruary to the 3rd June. During this period the decline in receipts amounted to $4,650,000; but far more serious losses were sustained through the destruction of property and equipment, the estimated replacement cost of which has been placed at some 15 or 16 million dollars. The Shanghai-Hangchow-Ningpo Railway the terminus of which is just outside the scene of actual hostilities, was much more favourably situated, but this railway also lost heavily in revenue.

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An event of the year was the opening to traffic of the motor highway to Hangchow; and from Hangchow it is now possible, of course, to continue by road to Nanking and beyond.

The number of vessels entering and clearing under General Regulations at the port of Shanghai was 19,903, of an aggregate tonnage of 34 millions. Entrances under these regulations aggregated 17 million tons, and entrances under Inland Waters Navi- gation Regulations (consisting to a large extent of ocean-going steamers plying on the coast) amounted to 1.9 million tons, so that total tonnage entering the harbour during the year, excluding the enormous junk traffic, was 18.9 million tons, a decrease as compared with 1931 of nearly 2 million tons. Considering the heavy decline in trade referred to above, some decrease in shipping tonnage was to be expected; besides which, the hostilities in the Shangliai area diverted a certain amount of shipping to northerh ports and, in particular, interfered considerably with Yangtsze traffic. Japanese river-steamers ceased to ply altogether for a time, and ocean-going vessels of that flag also found it expedient in many cases to omit Shanghai from their itinerary.

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